READING, England — On December 31, 1997, the number of languages having at least a Portion of the Bible reached 2,197 according to the United Bible Societies’ (UBS) 1997 Scripture Language Report. Compared with 1996, 30 more languages now have translations of either a New Testament or a Portion – a Portion is at least one book of the Bible – and there are eight more languages that now have the entire Bible.

If this seems slow progress, when compared with the 1993 figures – the year when the number of languages with one or more books of the Bible reached 2,000 – almost 200 more language groups can now read at least a part of the Bible in their mother tongue, and that in a mere four years.

Such speed in translation work has been achievable through the help of computers, allowing manuscripts to be altered quickly, multiple changes to be made at the touch of a key, and programs written to make the translation of related languages easier. But it is also a credit to the many organisations and translation teams working around the world to make the Bible available to people who can currently only read it in a second language.

As well as eight new Bibles, the 1997 Scripture Language Report lists 31 new New Testaments, three of which are the first Scripture to appear in those languages. Forty-one Portions were recorded during 1997 for languages that do not yet have a New Testament or Bible, and 27 of these are in languages not previously recorded as having any translated Scriptures.

The people of the Netherlands Antilles whose main language is Papiamentu, the Guaraní of Paraguay, the Aceh-speakers of Indonesia, and the Swati people of Swaziland celebrated the arrival of their new Bibles in 1997, and can look forward to a deeper understanding of their Christian faith.

As the Rev Donald Tolmie, then General Secretary of the Bible Society of South Africa, put it: “This most precious moment occurs only once in the history of any language. It happened for English-speaking people hundreds of years ago; for Afrikaans-speakers in 1933. Now it is the turn of the Swati-speaking people.”

Other first Bibles appeared in these languages: Baatonum (Bénin), Hmong Daw (Laos), Kom Rem (India) and maShi (Dem. Rep. Congo). Among the first-time New Testaments to be published, the Gondi New Testament (for the Gond people of Betul, India) was finally published, a lasting tribute to its dedicated translator, Dr Clement Moss, who died before a copy reached him.

The Mapudungun are Chile’s largest indigenous population, and they gathered for two days to celebrate the first Mapuche New Testament in March last year. Cameroon saw the publication of two first New Testaments, in Giziga and in Bafia, while Papua New Guinea saw no fewer than six first New Testaments published.

New Portions have appeared in 62 languages and four of these have been translations of the deuterocanon, made available for the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Scripture Language Report provides a statistical summary of Scripture publication in languages of the world based on copies of printed texts received at the American Bible Society or at the British and Foreign Bible Society libraries by the end of 1997.

Scriptures translated and published by other Scripture organisations are also included, and while most of the newly-registered Scriptures (81 per cent) first appeared in the last two years, some were produced as far back as 1988. Some Scriptures are in languages spoken by very few people in isolated settings.

The UBS is currently involved in more than 680 translation projects, from the Inuit (Eskimo) languages in Canada to trade languages in Africa (Hausa, Fulfulde) and produces Scriptures in Braille, on audio cassettes and in other formats.