THE BIBLES UNIVERSAL CIRCULATION

One would expect that a book given by God to meet the spiritual needs of man would have far reaching appeal which would be measured by it's universal circulation. The Bible above all other books, including the religious literature of the world religions, has gained this type of universal appeal and circulation. No other book in human history has been translated, copied, printed or distributed throughout the world as much as the Bible. In fact no other book on earth even comes close to the Bible in this regard.

In 1976 Geisler and Nix report that the Bible had been translated into more than 1,100 languages and dialects which at that time represented more than 90% of the worlds people. As of 1966 they report that the scriptures were being distributed by the combined Bible societies in the amount of over 87,000,000 per year. The best estimate for the cumulative distribution of scripture as of the printing of their book was a grand total of over two billion portions of scripture..

More recently, according to the United Bible society their organization has now published at least some part of the scriptures into over 2,000 languages. Presently the United Bible society is assisting in the translation of the scriptures into 462 languages that have not yet received any part of God's word in their native tongue. In the year 2000 the United Bible society reports that their member societies combined distributed over 633 million scriptures worldwide. This is almost ten times the amount of scripture reported to be distributed just some 25 years ago. These figures, it should be noted, do not represent the whole picture. For there are other organizations such as the Gideons who by themselves distribute some 56,000,000 copies or portions of the scriptures on an annual basis. This also does not take into account the spread of the Word of God on the internet, radio, TV and gospel films. The truth is the combined cumulative numbers of scriptures that have been distributed through the ages is beyond calculation. However there is one fact that is undeniable: the Bible has been translated, copied, printed and distributed more than any book in human history proving it's universal appeal and circulation.

Jesus predicted that the Gospel would be preached to all the nations before the end would come. Some two thousand years later when the Bible is being translated into every known tongue on the face of the earth and distributed in the billions of copies we are watching this prediction be fulfilled.

(Matthew 24:14) "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come."