UBS Translation Work

See UBS Translation Report 2007 (MS Word document)

What if this was your only translation?

Isn’t it wonderful that many of us have a Bible we can easily read and understand? Some of us take that for granted, but for millions of people around the world such a Bible is only a dream. Of those who can read, many have to read God’s Word in a “foreign” language and not their mother tongue. Through sponsorship of translations and assistance to translators, the UBS makes the Scriptures more accessible to people of different nations and cultures. (Click to read translation criteria)

Currently UBS is involved in 546 translation projects worldwide – covering some 500 languages which are receiving technical help and advice from the UBS’s highly-qualified team of translation consultants. Many of these projects also receive direct financial support from the UBS, which spends some US $11m a year on translation. (Click for statistical table of projects)

In some 320 languages some part of the Bible is being translated for the first time. In many of the rest, where older Bible versions already exist, new translations are being prepared in clear, modern language that is easily understandable to today’s readers. Over the last two hundred years, there has been an incredible growth in the number of languages in which Scriptures are available. 

Scriptures of the World

The United Bible Societies has also published Scriptures of the World, which contains details of some 2,000+ languages into which some part of the Bible has been translated. For further information concerning translation issues, please also visit the UBS Translations Services website in Kitchener, Canada.