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Scripture Apps

The Word at Our Fingertips

  • by Joshy K

The Bible has the distinction of being translated and read in the largest number of languages across the world. Technology has come to the aid to present the Word to all people groups speaking diverse languages. The divine plan of God behind such developments can be understood when we examine the recent historical account. The technological advancements are making major contributions to the fulfillment of the last command and associated Bible translation activities. The relevance of technology in mission activities in the 21st century is highly significant. In order to share the gospel as well as for church activities, most churches and mission organizations are extensively using digital technology. In today’s digital world, social media serves as a powerful communication channel to reach out across the world with great speed. To present the Word to a larger group, digital media takes precedence in the present time. The emergence of the Apple store on 10 July 2008 and the Android market (Google Play store) on 22 October 2008 marked a paradigm shift in receiving the Word at our fingertips. Read More »The Word at Our Fingertips

Planting “Gospel Seeds” Through Business Cards

Over the last year or two, during my infrequent visits to southern California, I began to notice a change in the ethnic mix of the men that gather early each morning in the parking lot of the Home Depot near our mission agency’s home office hoping to get work for the day. Typically the men had all been Mexicans, but I noticed newcomers that I suspected were Haitians. 

Five years ago I tracked down the available Scripture resources in Haitian Creole and loaded them onto some “BibleBox” WiFi hotspot units for some Mexican believers reaching out among thousands of Haitians that ended up “stuck” in Tijuana, Mexico on their trek north. Now, for those with smartphones, directing Creole speakers to the Haitian Creole page* within the www.ScriptureEarth.org website seems to me to be the best option. They can have free access to 6 full-length Scripture movies**, the text of multiple translations of the New Testament, audio recordings of the NT in 3 different Creole translations, and a variety of audio recordings produced by the Global Recordings Network.

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Which kind of translations make more impact? 

  (photo credit: esperanzatolentino.wordpress.com)

Which kind of translations make more impact?

This is a good question.  It is also a complex issue and more than one set of parameters comes into play. That is, there’s more going on here than “literal vs meaning-based.” Long ago David Landin did research in Bolivia to see which indigenous Bibles were being used there 10 years after completion. Answer: the ones with the hymns in the back. And in those, it was the hymns that were being used, not the translations themselves.

One key factor that has proven true over the years is whether or not the local church leaders (pastors, evangelists, teachers) choose to use a new translation or not. If the local and regional church leaders do not show support for a translation, it will likely fade into obscurity. This is why nowadays many projects begin by contacting local and regional, even national church and denominational leadership in order to hear from them what kind of translation is most desired by them for their people. And continued conversation with these leaders is fostered all along the life of the translation project.

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Open Bible

  • by Biblica

In the Open.Bible initiative, Biblica is publishing Bible texts with a Creative Commons (Attribution-ShareAlike) Licence. This means that you are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. You can adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. You must attribute the original work to Biblica, and if you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
“By releasing complete Biblical texts for free under Creative Commons licensing, the traditional Bible licensing, publishing, and distribution pipeline can be completely replaced with a much faster, more efficient vehicle.”

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YouVersion scripture in over 1660 languages

Scripture in 1660 languages on YouVersion: tell someone!

Six months ago YouVersion hit a milestone of scripture in 1500 languages via Bible.com and the YouVersion apps for Android, iOS, Amazon Echo. Since then they have added over 200 versions in over 160 languages.

The answer to “And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”, isn’t that they can Google.

Romans 10:15 doesn’t say, ““How beautiful are the phones of those who bring good news!”

Technology is a huge asset but for most people engagement with scripture still involves someone telling them about it. Who will you tell?Read More »Scripture in 1660 languages on YouVersion: tell someone!

Global Bible Apps

  • by Joshy K

God is limitless. Access to His Word, the Bible, should be too! The mission of Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) is to provide people everywhere with free access to God’s Word through Audio Bibles in every translated language.

The Global Bible App initiative makes the Word of God available to the worldwide community of Android smartphone users. The major focus is on people who are not connected to the internet. Global Bible Apps are designed and built by Faith Comes By Hearing using SIL’s Scripture App Builder tool for Android devices and contain the Bible text and audio in the language of preference. These standalone Bible Apps synchronize the text and audio in a “karaoke” style, enhancing the user experience.

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