Digital .BIBLE Project

Do you know how this global partnership will reach all languages?

The work for making the Bible available in all the different languages of all the people around the world takes a tremendous team effort. The amount of work exceeds the capacity and capability of any one organization or even a few organizations can achieve.

Through a partnership between American Bible Society and United Bible Societies, this Bible translation availability project called “Digital .BIBLE Project” is working towards the goal of making the Bible available online for every language.

Bible Societies want to give minority language speakers a trusted Bible resource online. The Digital .BIBLE Project makes it possible for for Bible Societies to serve people better through clear and memorable web addresses for the Bible in their own language.

One part of accomplishing that goal is getting the Bible translated into all of the languages that people speak; there are 7,350 languages in all. Did you know that 3,988 languages do not yet have any Bible verses translated for them?

Another part of accomplishing that goal is distributing the Bible, that is, making it possible for people to read the Bible in their own heart language.

Complete Bible translations currently exist in 672 languages. However, the approximately 6 billion people who speak those languages often cannot access Bibles due to the restrictive costs and complications of printing and distributing Bibles.

The Internet opens up a big solution to reach many more people than print alone. Even in the remotest reaches of the globe, people have access to the Internet over shared satellite phones. Yet, 1.2 billion people not having online access to the Bible in their own language.1

When you need information, odds are you’re not digging out your encyclopedias or calling up your pastor. You turn to Google. You aren’t alone. Global Internet searches are happening at an unprecedented rate of over 40,000 searches per second.² Although it’s easy to find Scriptures and Bible study resources in English online, it’s not so easy to find Bible content when you speak a different language like Soga (Uganda) or Lisu (China).

Since the .BIBLE top-level domain was launched by American Bible Society in 2015, this new digital neighborhood on the internet has provided a trusted online source for all things Bible. The mission of .BIBLE is to help Bible-inspired websites bring clarity to their brand and empower Scripture engagement, translation, innovation, and global partnerships so that all people may experience the life-changing message of the Bible.

The UBS .BIBLE global partnership is in the process of establishing domain names that correspond to each and every language spoken within reach of each member society of the United Bible Societies. These language .BIBLE domain names leverage technological advances to spread God’s Word further faster by clearly directing people to the Bible resources in their own language.

The Digital .BIBLE Project partnership demonstrates a perfect example of accomplishing all four aspects of the .BIBLE mission, that is, Scripture engagement, translation, innovation, and a global partnership.

“Our partnership with .BIBLE and American Bible Society is creating new e-commerce solutions for forty Bible Societies. For the first time, less-resourced Bible Societies can generate revenues online, and in just three short years,the Digital .BIBLE Project will have accomplished something that took twenty-two years to do.”
SAM WANYOIKE, United Bible Societies

“In this time, people are very eager to know about the Bible, about Christianity, about our beliefs. People cannot find easily the Bible… It’s not available [or] affordable for them. It’s really, it’s a must for us to have such domains.”
Amir Elhamy, Bible Society of Egypt

“[The UBS .BIBLE domains are] an exciting opportunity for us as a country, and we shall be able to serve the nation better.”
Catherine Nakimera, Bible Society of Uganda

Mike Perreau of United Bible Societies
talks about the importance of the Digital .BIBLE Project.

Featured Digital .BIBLE Project Sites

Malagasy.Bible
Indian.Bible
Korean.Bible
Indonesian.Bible
Liberian.Bible

Slovenian.Bible
Portuguese.Bible
Ugandan.Bible
Thai.Bible
Greek.Bible

Sharing God’s Word through Mongol.Bible

When Dr. Bayarjargal Garamtseren was young, he was presented with a challenge: how will the people of Mongolia read God’s Word in their language? He was convicted to help bring a Bible to his people. He wanted to do it the right way, so he spent the following 17 years becoming an expert translator. For all those years, he’s kept his eye on the prize: translating the Bible into Mongolian.

Now, he and his team are releasing some of the first Scriptures they’ve translated into Mongolian—the Psalms. Dr. Garamtseren wants to ensure the text is accurate and understandable, so he has been testing early translations online.

He’s excited for how this ministry can grow and how—using his country’s .BIBLE domains—he can share God’s Word with everyone with Internet access in Mongolia.

websites launched

domains

“Once the person is able to get the Bible on their phone,
they will be able to read it anywhere, anytime.”
Anne Gichuru, Bible Society of Kenya

How is this Digital .BIBLE Project going?

UBS has launched 851 .BIBLE websites so far as a part of the donor-funded Digital .BIBLE Project.

The purpose of the project grant is to provide participating Bible Societies with the best online branding solution that increases Bible engagement and ministry funding.

This initial set of websites represents just a portion of the total 6,452 UBS .BIBLE domains currently reserved for this Project.

When fully funded and executed, the Digital .BIBLE Project will provide access to God’s Word to 500 million people from 60 countries across Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Americas and Europe!

We are establishing best practices today as we build out the initial set of websites to improve the process of launching Bible sites for additional languages for other Bible Societies in the future.

¹ Data Source: "Key facts about Bible access," United Bible Societies. Available from https://www.unitedbiblesocieties.org/key-facts-bible-access/. Internet. Retrieved on 2019-08-21.

² Data Source: "Google Search Statistics," Internet Live Stats. Available from https://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/. Internet. Retrieved on 2019-09-06.

Prayer Requests

God, open doors for your Word to spread online so more and more people discover hope in you.
God, give wisdom to the Bible Society leadership teams as they determine the most valuable resources for their communities.
God, give favor to Bible Societies in countries like Haiti and Bangladesh as they build an Internet presence that points people to your Word.

“Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find;
knock, and the door will be opened to you.”
Matthew 7:7 GNT

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