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Bible society

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A Bible society is a non-profit organization (usually ecumenical Protestant in makeup) devoted to translating, publishing and distributing the Bible for free or at subsidized low cost. Traditionally Bible society editions contain only the Protestant canon of Scripture, without any notes or commentary; but in recent decades this principle has been relaxed somewhat, and such editions typically have at least some notes on alternate translations of words, or variations in the different available manuscripts. Most or all Protestants have in common the principle of sola scriptura, and many believe that distributing free copies of the Bible is an effective form of evangelism; this makes Bible societies an attractive form of common action for Protestants of different denominations.

History

The Bible has engaged the attention of the leaders of Christendom from early times. In an extant letter, dated 331, Emperor Constantine requested Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, to provide him with fifty copies of the Old and New Testaments for use in the principal churches in Constantinople. In 797, Charlemagne commissioned Alcuin to prepare an emended text of the Vulgate; multiple copies of this text were created, not always accurately, in the famous writing schools at Tours.

The first book printed in Europe was the Latin Bible, and Copinger estimates that 124 editions of the Vulgate had been issued by the end of the 15th century. The Italian Bible was printed a dozen times before 1500, and eighteen editions of the German Bible had already been published before Martin Luther's version appeared. Accompanying the Protestant Reformation, there was a marked increase in interest in the scriptures. Notwithstanding the oppositional attitude adopted by the Roman Catholic Church at and after the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the translation and circulation of the Bible were undertaken with greater zeal, and in a more systematic fashion.

Catholicism

Catholics believe that the Bible cannot be reliably interpreted without the aid of tradition and Catholic Church teachings, and that evangelism requires more personal contact than simply giving away the text of the Bible. Until the development of ecumenical Bible translations (by joint committees of Catholic and Protestant translators) in recent decades, Catholics were suspicious of Protestant Bible translations, which they saw as biased and inaccurate compared with Church-approved translations by Catholic scholars. Historically, opposition by Catholic bishops to Protestant Bible societies has been particularly strong in Latin America,Ireland,Philipines,Austria and in Quebec. These reasons led Pope Leo XII to condemn the work of Protestant Bible societies in Ubi Primum (1824). Pope Pius IX in Qui Pluribus (1846) repeated and expanded on his predecessors reasoning. The Societa di San Geronimo was a Catholic Bible society which distributed Catholic translations of the Gospels in Italian.

Since the development of ecumenical translations, there has been an increase in cooperation between Catholics and Protestants with respect to Bible societies; some Bible societies (especially in Latin America) include approved Catholic translations (with the entire Catholic canon) among the versions of the Bible they distribute.

Current Bible societies

The United Bible Societies (UBS) is a worldwide association of Bible societies. As of January 2006, the UBS has 141 member societies, working in more than 200 countries and territories.

Notable Bible societies include:

References

  • Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  • Truth Versus Dogma JC McAulay. Moody Press. 1946. Chicago.USA.
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