United Bible Societies Turns 73

On 9 May 2019, the United Bible Societies (UBS) turned 73.

The organisation was first formed on 9 May 1946, when representatives from 14 countries gathered in Haywards Heath, England.

At that meeting, Czechoslovakia’s representative Rev. Dr J. Krenek said that the, “deepest need of the human soul is for the positive—the great ‘yes’ to life.”

“There is no book in the world other than the Bible which replies to that deepest longing.”

Seventy three years later, there are more than 150 Bible Societies across 240 countries and territories.

In 2018, Bible Societies distributed more than 38 million bibles around the globe.

Since 2010, the organisation has provided more than 305 million bibles to the world.

In 2018, Spanish was the most common language for printed Bibles distributed by Bible Societies, with 7.2 million Spanish language Bibles distributed. This was closely followed by Portugese Bibles at 6.3 million, and English, 5.6 million. There were 3.4 million Chinese Bibles distributed that year.

Jonathan Foye is Insights’ Editor