Bibles and resources – UPDATED

Updated Aug 8, 2024

Do you know where to find Bibles in all the languages spoken by people attending your church (live or online), and the people living in your community?

This is an update of a post from 2021 since when several hundred translations of the Bible have been made available online.  As of Aug 2024 YouVersion’s Bible app (also available at Bible.com) provided 3,184 versions in 2,100 languages. (up from 1500 in 2021!)

Many versions can be downloaded for offline use and easily switched between using the compare function. The interface is also available in over 60 languages.

The site and app includes reading plans, tools for creating verse images, or sharing notes and variety of other resources. There is also a Bible app for kids in over 60 languages.

faithcomesbyhearing.com also has Audio Scripture recordings available in over 2,100 languages. (also up from about 1500!). Increasingly these are also being made available as videos of at least one of the gospels, and they also have many additional versions in text only.  The Bible.is website and app includes these plus the Jesus Film Lumo gospel videos.

An older favourite, biblegateway.com, has about 200 versions of the Bible in over 70 languages (including about 70 English Versions)

Should you be looking for a Bible in another language not already on one of the sites above, scriptureearth.org provides (or links to) Bibles, New Testaments, Portions and other materials (including Jesus Film) from over 3,100 languages and dialects in a wide variety of formats for downloading or using online. 

Find.Bible provides a similar service and has some material not on Scripture Earth.

New-neighbour-bible.org is another site with a growing list of links and resources for European churches reaching out to newcomers in their communities.

With so many versions in so many languages, it often come as a surprise that the complete Bible is available in ‘only’ 754 of the of the world’s 7,000 or so languages.

Fortunately continuing translation and Scripture Engagement work is known to be happening in over 2,400 languages in which something has already been published and another 1,480 where work is starting.

See Wycliffe UK , Wycliffe Canada , Wycliffe USA and other Wycliffe sites for various stories.

Other key partners in Bible Translation include United Bible Societies , SIL International, Deaf Bible Society, and many others within the Forum of Bible Agencies, as well as individual churches and language communities.

Some of these sites also have pages on how to find Bibles.

wycliffe.org.uk/stories/where-can-i-find-a-bible-in-my-language 

wycliffe.net/resources/how-to-find-bibles-and-scripture-resources

And yet with all of these possibilities there are people who still don’t know where to find Bibles, especially in ‘non-majority’ languages. Wouldn’t it be great if every church linked to online Bibles in all the languages spoken by the people living in their communities? Perhaps you can suggest it to your church along with some other thoughts on how to be a more multilingual church or discuss how and why people read the Bible.