The number of available languages has grown steadily throughout the last decade. In 2012, the 100-language threshold was reached. By 2014, the number had risen to 500 and by 2016 to 1000. Last month, the 1500 milestone was achieved.
YouVersion and Wycliffe, who work together on the project, welcomed the achievement and said this represents a huge step towards making the Bible available for everyone.
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James Poole, executive director of Wycliffe believes that having God’s word in digital form or online is “crucial” in order to reach as many people as possible.
“We hear many reports of people coming to faith in Jesus as they read or listen to the Scriptures online or on their phones in their own language, and we make translations widely available to enable this.”
When added together with other platforms such as ‘Faith Comes by Hearing’ or ‘Global.bible’, the total number of available languages increases to more than 1,900.
However, YouVersion represents just 20 per cent of all languages in the world, a figure which slightly increases to 27% when you include languages available on other platforms.
“These are very encouraging figures and the work of Bible translation is accelerating. However, Wycliffe continues to press on for the one in five who currently do not have the Bible in the language that they understand best,” James Poole added.
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