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1957-09-001-Price.Pdf 2. States, Germany, England and Wales, South Africa, Brazil.2 However, it must be pointed out that this is a report of only Bible society or agency circulation fig­ ures; it does not include Bibles or Testaments printed or sold by other publishing houses and their branches. llIt is impossible in most countries other than English­ speaking countries to purchase a Protestant Bible in a regular book store unless it has been published by one of the Bible societies~ I can think of no Protestant edi­ tions, aside from English, that are commercially published."3 The American Bible Society in 1956 distributed at home and abroad: 1,007,560 Bibles; 1,681,115 Testaments; and 12,481,383 portions; a total of 15,170,058~ Theso Scriptures were in 193 languages, and sold in more than 60 countries. Manuscripts for translations into 72 languages (of fourteen countries) were examined, and five important revisions were issued.4 The British and Foreign Bible Society in 1956 circulated 1,556,134 Bibles; 1,206,272 New Testaments; and 7,194,666 portions; a total of 9,957,052. These fig­ ures do not include the Society's share of circulation in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Indo~esiao Current translations and revisions associated 1Jith the Society num­ ber 232 0 ' The Bible cont:Lnues to be published, circulated, and studied in lands under Communist rule. For example, in China today--IIThe activity and scope of the work of the China Bible House in Shanghai in the years since 1949 has been most gratifying and encouraging. The follOWing Scriptures have been distributed in ~ainland China since 1949: 171 3 278 full Bibles; 170,493 New Testaments, and 3,199,282 portions•••• In order to maintain supplies of Scriptures to carry out this circulation there have been printed in China forty.•three editions (from old plates already in the country) &e.~Seven Bible Houses are ~~intained - at Shanghai, Kunming, Mukden, Hankow, Peking, Chungking, and Canton, while there are, in addition, six agencies. 1I 6 And, yet, the production of Scriptures in the languages of mankind is Still far from adequate. IIIn a recent study made by Dr~ Eric North, it is shown that the Bible societies of the world still distribute fewer Scriptures in the lands where they are almost exclusively responsible for Scripture distribution than in the lands where, along with their work, there are great Scripture publishing houses and many thousands of Christian churches and agencies at ~lork••••In the areas of greatest missionary need, the Bible societies distribute annually only one item of Scripture for every 154 people, but in lands of large Christian populations, the societies is­ sue one for every 28 peopleo"7 We have selected only a few items of news from current reports on Bible translation and distribution; they are not mere cold statistics but living and in­ spiring facts. The purpose of this Bulletin is to list important sources of infor­ mation in this area of Christian work and interest and to provide a bibliography of references available at the Missionary Research Library. 2. The Romance of Bible Translation Today the Bible has becoffie a truly universal book in a world that still poss­ esses a Babel of tongues. In all the major languages and in aundreds .bi regional and tribal dialects the \vord of God speaks to God's worId, The Bible is called lithe silent missionary,1I llthe nnfettered missionary,1I lithe book of a thousand tongues." It crosses political, cyltural, and linguistic barriers~ It is a bond of union be­ tween Christians under widely different governments and in sharply contrasting civilizations. But this has not always been true. On the eve of European printing 3. in the m1ddl&~ the fifteenth century the Bible had been tran~late~ into only 33 languages. By 1800 less than on~ hundre~ languages - 71 languages and dialects, to be exaot - had some portion of the Holy Scriptures. The great advance in Vlorltl­ wide translation has taken place largely within the modern missionary era. The history of Bible translation is full of absorbing interest. It reaches back to the translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek - the Septuagint version - in the second century before Christ. From this version the New Testament writers frequently quoted. After the establishment of the Christian Church there came a translation of both Testaments into Syriac (2nd century), Jerome's Vul~e Latin translation (4th and 5th centuries), Ulfilas' Gothic Bible(4th century), the Slavonic translation (9th century). Not until the 12th century were there versions in modern European languages. The first printed Bible was the llGutenbl,lrg Biblell (Latin), about 1456; the first printed Bible in a modern language was the German Bible in 1466; the first translation in a far, eastenn language was made by Ziegen.. balg in 1714 (Tamil language of India). For an excellent brief summary of Bible translation in Church history the student may consult the article, IlBible Versions fl by Professor Bruce M. Metzger of Princeton Theological Seminary in ~he Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (The NeVI Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia), Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1955. An older but still useful book is The Bible Among ~ Nations J -by John Walter Beardslee (N. Y., Revell, 1899), which contains some fascinating stories in connection with the older translations. For the history of Scripture translations \li t hi n the past tNl0 centuries, the student will find no better source than books by the secretaries of The British and Foreign Bible Society and the American Bible Society. Early in the 20th century T.H. Dar-Lou and H.F. Maule published a scholarly and accurate Historical Catalogue of 'the BriIlted Editions B! ~ SOll!t.ptm-e 1£ the Library of The British and Foreign Bible Society (London, The Bible House, 1903­ 1911). The book is now out of print; 500 copies were published of which the Mis~ sionary Research Library possesses Number 102. The B F B S Library contains spec~ mens of printed Scripture in more than one fuhodsartd languages, including those pub­ lished by other Bible societies and organizations, missionary societies~ university and private printers. The same Bible Society published The Gospel i!! ~ ~~, by R. Kilgour, in 1929; this book lists 886 translations in chronological order. In 1933 the Soc­ aet,y first published ~ Gospel in Many Tongues; a revised edition was issued in 1954, and is available from the American Bible Society as well as in London. This attractive volume furnishes specimens of John 3:16 in 826 languages, alphabetically arranged. Included also is a list of various characters or writing forms used in Bib1t..e translation over the world. An index of the rrany words used for "Godll covers nine pages. Two surveys of Scripture translations in current use were prepared abo-rt the same time by scholars in the British and American Bible Societies. The Bible Throughout th~ World, by R. Kilgour, was issued by 'Lvorld Dominion Press, London,-in 1939. Dr. Kilgour was a translator of the Old Testament into Nepali, for thirty­ three years Secretary for Translations in the British and Foreign Bible Society, and for a long time in charge in the Bible House Library. His arrangement and de­ scription of Bible versions is by geographical areas. Some interesting comparisons are included. Africa, which was late in receiving~ now outstripped all other con­ tinents in the number of languages possessing portions of Scripture. In 1804 there 4. were only four African translations in existence; in 1938 the number vms 276. What devoted and sacrificial labors lay between these dates cannot be adequately pictured. It is significant to note that No~th Africa, once strongly Christian, and later lost to Islam, had no Bible in the vernacular until the nineteenth century. The author closes with a brief appraisal of past accomplishments and a suggestion of what re­ ~ains to be done. The Book of ~ Thousand Tongues,8edited by Dr. Eric M. North of the American Bible Society (N. Y., Harper and Bros., 1938), is an outstanding volume of 368 pages, beautifully printed and illustrated. The story of both ancient and modern trans­ lations is attractively told. Specimens of Scripture passages in 1,018 languages and dialects are vividly reproduced; for only thirty languages were specimens UD­ available. Samples of editions for the blind, first published in 1833, are in­ cluded. Along with illustrations from the major languages is informative material about the various translations and translators. The arrangement of languages is alphabetical; chronological and geographic indexes are added. Dr. North has some excellent special articles on the relation of Scripture translation to the mission­ ary movement, the story of the Bible societies, and the difficulties involved in mastering new languages and translating Biblical truths into vernacular speech. He estimates that translations now exist for nine-tenths of the world's population; most major languages have the whole Bible. Yet revisions must constantly be made as languages change and grow, and hundreds of smaller dialects need translations of the complete Bible or of portions. An interesting section of the book lists the Bibles in which two or more translations are printed together, polyglot Bibles: there are 138 diglot editions and 33 editions in which three or more parallel trans­ lations are found - up to twelve. Dr. North~s book should be in the library of every minister and missionary and every student of world Christianity. It gives fresh meaning to Charles Wesley's great hYmn, printed on the first page of the book, "0 for a thousand tongues to sing, rw great Redeemer~s praise." 3.
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