Numbers which will shock you... 

Is the need for Bible translation really so great?

   (September 2010, source - Wycliffe International)

On our planet there are roughly 6.9 billion people who speak almost 6900 languages.
Of these languages only 2508 possess a full or partial translation of the Bible.

In 457 languages – Full Bible

In 1211 languages – New Testament

In 897 languages – parts of the Bible

In 2078 languages – A bible translation has not yet been started

About 340 million people have never had the opportunity to read God’s Word in their own language.

Since 1942 Wycliffe workers have taken part in the translation of 745 New Testaments and 27 full Bibles. Around 114 million people have been given access to the Word of God in their mother tongue.

During this time, with the help of Wycliffe, the JESUS film has been released in 225 languages, the gospel of Luke in 237 languages and Genesis in 86 languages. Through the work of ‘Faith comes by hearing’ in partnership with Wycliffe, audio New Testaments have been released in 22 languages. Wycliffe personnel have also helped produce thousands of resources for literacy, education, health and other development-related goals.

Today, Wycliffe workers are active in Bible translation projects in 1525 languages spoken by 2.6 billion people.

Between October 2009 and June 2010 1 Bible, 8 New Testaments and 2 New Testament revisions were reported for newly published written Scriptures with Wycliffe staff involvement (Due to changes in the database systems for recording published products no reporting was able to take place from June 23 to September 30, 2010). Wycliffe staff also helped create new versions of the Jesus Film (7), the Luke Video (1) and the Genesis Video (1). How many new translations will there be this year, and next? That depends on all of us.