The Bible in Many Tongues
How the Scriptures Are Being Sent to Distant Lands
THE annual report of the British and Foreign Bible Society is an extraordinary record of world-wide work well done. The year 1904-05 was the opening year of the second century of its history, and the issues of the Scriptures in many tongues rose to a total only once before surpassed. Some idea of the scope of the organization is conveyed by the single sentence that since it came into existence, the total issues of the society amount to 192,537,746 copies of the Holy Scriptures, complete or in parts, of which not more than 77,000,000 were in English. Last year's output as compared with that of 1903-04 is tabulated as follows:— |
1904-05 |
1903-04 |
|---|
| Bibles |
942,024 |
1,057,154 |
| New Testaments |
1,366,674 |
1,449,808 |
| Portions |
3,548,947 |
3,190,399 |
|
5,857,645 |
5,697,361 |
One of the features of the report is that twelve new languages were added to the list of versions during the year, bringing the number up to three hundred and ninety. Of the new tongues thus added to the list six belong to Africa, three to Oceania, two to Asia, and one to Central America. The Gospel of St. John will soon be in circulation in Susieh, the13speech of a Berber tribe in South Morocco, and in the colloquial Arabic of Algeria. St. Matthew has been printed in Se-kalana, the language of a people living west of Matabeleland, South Africa; while the language of the fierce Masai of East Africa has been made to express St. Mark. The same Gospel has been printed in Gang for an Acholi tribe north of Uganda, and that of St. Luke for the naked Dinka, who inhabits the region round Fashoda. The other six new languages are Mukawa for New Guinea; Santo Bay and Tafasao for the New Hebrides; Balti for Kashmir; Brahui for Baluchistan; and Mosquito, which is spoken on the eastern coast of Nicaragua. The society's circulation in China alone exceeded a million, and 350,000 books were given away among the soldiers and sailors of Russia and Japan. During the year there were 950 colporteurs employed, at a cost of £45,000 and they sold over 2,250,000 copies of the Scriptures.—Washington Post.