“The day is getting closer when everyone has access to God’s word in their own language, thanks to the amazing momentum in the work of Bible translation that has continued in the past 12 months,” Wycliffe Bible Translators has said.
The complete Bible is now available in more than 800 languages worldwide after another year of rapid progress in Bible translation, according to new figures from the Bible translation ministry.
Twenty-eight complete Bibles were launched over the past year - equalling the highest number recorded in a single year - while 70 New Testaments were also completed.
Together, the 98 launches amount to more than one new Bible or New Testament every four days.
The figures are contained in Wycliffe Bible Translators’ latest State of the Bible report, released to coincide with United Nations’ International Translation Day on September 30.
One of this year’s launches took the number of languages with a complete Bible past the 800 mark.
The total now stands at 807, giving around 6.2 billion people access to the whole Bible in their own language.
Wycliffe said around 101 million people were now able to access an entire Bible in their language for the first time, and 29 million a New Testament.
Another 87 language communities received Scripture portions or Bible stories where none had previously been available.
Despite the progress, 20 per cent of people worldwide still do not have the complete Bible in their native language, and Wycliffe said it is “chasing zero”.
The number of languages where translation is considered necessary but work has yet to begin has fallen to 543, excluding languages deemed to have insufficient vitality to support translation. Five years ago, that figure stood close to 1,900.
Translation work is now under way in 4,414 languages, representing around 60 per cent of the world’s approximately 7,400 languages.
In addition to the 807 languages with a complete Bible, 1,844 have a New Testament and 1,519 have portions of Scripture.
The executive director of Wycliffe Bible Translators, James Poole, welcomed the pace of progress but said completing translations was not an end in itself.
“It is so wonderful to see the progress in Bible translation continue,” he said. “That means that more people now have God’s word in the language that speaks to them best.
“But the numbers aren’t the goal. What matters is that more people can know Jesus through the Bible - and because of that lives, churches and communities are transformed.”
Among the Bible translations completed this year was the Marakwet Bible in Kenya, launched on August 1.
The community had received the Marakwet New Testament in 2012, when half a beehive was reportedly held up during celebrations to symbolise that only part of the Bible had been translated. Fourteen years later, a complete beehive was carried into the launch of the full Bible.
The project traced its origins back decades to Edwyn Kiptinness, who in 1962 struggled to understand Scripture in the Nandi language and hoped that the Marakwet people would eventually be able to read it in the language they understood best.
New Testaments were also launched in several other communities this past year, including Bamunka and Mmen in Cameroon, Tagakaulo in the Philippines and Saafi-Saafi speakers in Senegal.
Wycliffe's report also highlights the continuing disparity in Bible access among deaf communities, with Bible translation remaining far more limited among sign languages: there are 383 known sign languages worldwide, but American Sign Language remains the only one with a complete Bible. Some Scripture has been translated into 106 others, and translation work is under way in 249 sign languages, including British Sign Language.
In Ethiopia, where the report says there are around five million deaf or hard-of-hearing people, the deaf community marked the completion of 239 Bible stories in Ethiopian Sign Language in July.
Tegesen, one of those featured in the report, commented: “I would not be a believer if God’s word wasn’t available in a language I understand.”
Wycliffe is also supporting efforts to bring Scripture to more language communities in Nigeria, where more than 500 languages are spoken.
Its Mark Road initiative aims to make sections of Scripture available in 40 languages, although work is currently active in less than 10.
One of the first communities reached through the initiative was the Zhire people.
On June 14, St Peter’s Church in Kenyi, Nigeria, held what Wycliffe described as its first service conducted entirely in Zhire.
Church leader Friday Saidu said that using the local language enabled people to “hear the Word of God and Him better than in Hausa or English”.
However, the report warns that reaching the remaining languages is likely to become increasingly challenging as many are spoken in isolated regions or places affected by conflict, persecution and insecurity.
Wycliffe said about 70 per cent of UK and Ireland-backed translation work is operating “in sensitive places”.
In one case highlighted by the charity, a translator received death threats after being identified in a TikTok video. He and his family were forced to seek refuge elsewhere, but he has continued working on the translation.
Other challenges arise in communities where languages have no established written form or where there are no known Christians who can participate in translation.
Wycliffe attributes the broader acceleration in translation to factors including the training of more local translators, advances in technology and increased support from churches and donors.
Poole said the remaining scale of the task meant the latest figures should encourage continued efforts rather than complacency.
“We are living through a remarkable moment in Bible translation,” he said. “But the task is not finished … This is a time not to slow down, but to press on - together, with urgency and in dependence on God until God’s word is unlocked for every heart.”
