Every year the United Bible Societies fellowship gathers information from all around the world and records how the Bible has been shared in every continent.
This year the ‘Global Scripture Distribution Report’ has revealed some incredible information.
More than 20% of all Bibles distributed by the United Bible Societies (UBS) fellowship in 2017 were downloaded from the internet. It’s the first time Scripture downloads have been recorded separately by Bible Societies – and it shows that online distribution is increasingly significant.
While overall Scripture distribution fell by 12% globally, the number of full Bibles made available around the world topped 34 million for the third year running
Nearly 355 million Scripture items, including Bibles, Testaments, Gospels and smaller Scripture items like booklets for people learning to read, were distributed (or downloaded) in 2017.
Two million Scripture items, including more than 350,000 full Bibles, have been distributed in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq since conflict hit the region in 2011. A record number of Scripture portions – 200,281– were distributed in Syria in 2017.
Bible Societies are running nearly 30 active literacy programmes in more than 50 languages across the globe, empowering well over 100,000 people each year to learn to read. More than 4.6 million new reader portions were distributed in 57 nations.
Every year the Bible is reaching new places and people.
Click here to read the full ‘2017 Global Scripture Distribution Report’.
“So also will be the word that I speak—it will not fail to do what I plan for it; it will do everything I send it to do.”
Isaiah 55:11 (GNT)