More Bible translations have been completed in Africa and Asia than on any other continent. The complete Bible has already been translated and published into 182 of Africa's approximately 2 000 languages and in 186 of the languages spoken in Asia, including Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
Worldwide, the Bible is available in only 475 of the approximately 6 600 languages spoken across the globe.
Last year six languages worldwide received the complete Bible for the first time. Four of these were African languages: Dogon, a language spoken in Mali, received a Bible for the first time, as did the Ethiopian language Gurage, the Liberian language Klao and Tagbana: Senoufo of the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire). The Kashmiri speakers of India also received the Bible for the first time and in Ecuador, the Bible was published in Quichua canar for the first time ever.
New Testaments are now available in 1 240 languages and at least one Bible book has been translated in a further 823 languages. This means that one book of the Bible is now available in 2 538 languages.
The Bible is available in the world's most widely-spoken languages like Chinese, English, Spanish, French and Arabic, presenting the opportunity to more than half of the global population to access the Bible in a language they understand. However, about 350 million people do not even have one Bible book in their heart language. Some 97% of the languages which still have no Scriptures available are in Latin America, Africa and South East Asia.
"Bible translation is the heart of Bible work. Trusted Bible translations are undertaken worldwide because a Bible for everyone in the language of their choice is the vision of the 146 Bible Societies which work in more than 200 countries and territories," says Rev Gerrit Kritzinger, the Chief Executive Officer of the Bible Society of South Africa.
In South Africa, the translation of the Bible into isiNdebele (Southern Ndebele), the final official language in which there is not yet a complete Bible available, was finished at the end of last year. This Bible will be published by November 2012.
~ 3 April 2012 ~