Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT) have celebrated the translation of the Bible into an 800th language and have said that Bible translation is proceeding at an exponential rate.
Named after the 14th century priest John Wycliffe, one of the first people to translate the Bible into English, the WBT said it was not until the early 1800s that the Bible was translated into just 50 languages.
By the final quarter of the 19th century this had doubled to 100 languages and by 1950 the Bible was available in 200 languages.
Since then, the rate has accelerated even faster. By 1998 the Bible had been translated into 400 languages. WBT noted that in celebrating the 800th language, they were also witnessing exponential growth in the rate of translation. What previously took nearly two millennia, is now being accomplished in just over two decades.
In the last five years, 500 million more people have access to a Bible in their mother tongue.
James Poole, Executive Director of WBT, said, “This is an extraordinary time for world mission. Over recent decades we have seen remarkable progress, with translation work accelerating in many parts of the world. Communities are receiving the Bible far sooner than would have seemed possible only a generation ago.
“That matters because it means people are gaining access to God’s word in languages they understand deeply and naturally. As churches engage with the Scriptures in their own languages, they are better equipped for evangelism, discipleship and ministry.
“God is at work, and we have the privilege of being part of this historic moment.”
Despite the huge progress, WBT, noted that there are still around 6,600 languages, representing about 1.5 billion people worldwide, that still do not have a complete Bible.
If the current rate of 400 languages per 28 years were maintained, it would still take nearly five centuries to complete the project, although if the current exponential growth continues, that could be cut drastically.