The History of the Bible Society Movement

Mary Jones and her Bible
Mary Jones was a young Welsh girl who longed for a Bible of her own. It was a vain hope as money was scarce. But her desire grew and she became even more determined; she started saving money so she could buy her very own copy.
It took six years but finally Mary had enough to realise her dream. She was 15 and needed to walk to Bala, over 25 miles away, to buy her Bible. Excited, she set off in bare feet and finally reached the home of Thomas Charles - only to be told he had no more Bibles for sale. Heartbroken, she began to weep. Her despair touched Mr Charles, who found her a Bible, and made him think what could be done for others such as Mary.
Thomas Charles was central to the founding of Bible Society. His tale of Mary saving her pennies and then walking across Welsh mountains helped inspire others to a vision of God's Word being made available all across the world. Four years after Mary received her Bible, the British and Foreign Bible Society was founded in London.

William Wilberforce
When William Wilberforce travelled to Nice with a friend they read the New Testament together. Wilberforce said afterwards that he 'became a new man' on that journey.
One winter's night in 1785, Wilberforce slipped away from the glare of the political life and high society and made his way to a nondescript house. He was met at the door by an elderly man who ushered the young, successful politician inside. The conversation between them that followed was to prove a defining moment in British social history.
The elderly man was the former slave-trader turned hymn-writer and preacher, John Newton. Wilberforce's walk of faith led to a campaign that changed the world, by bringing an end to slavery. And Wilberforce was an important influence in the founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804. His journey, which spanned many decades and required the transformation of society and political life, is a challenge to us today: to press on in our journey, of applying the Bible's life-changing message to our personal and public life.
(Source: www.biblesociety.org.uk)

A Brief History of the United Bible Societies
The UBS is a world fellowship of national Societies. Each Society is rooted in the life of its own people and churches. A national Bible Society is a non-denominational organization whose purpose is to translate, produce, and distribute the Christian Scriptures in languages that people can understand at prices they can afford.
The birth of the modern Bible Society movement began with the founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) in London in 1804. Its purpose was to increase the availability of Scriptures in England and Wales, but quickly widened its missionary vision. BFBS soon had agents throughout Europe and beyond, distributing Scriptures and establishing local Bible Societies and agencies. The BFBS, by confining itself to the distribution of the Bible only, "without note or comment", hoped to enlist the support of Christians of all denominations.
Soon there were other national Bible Societies eager to operate in an international dimension: the Netherlands in 1814; the United States in 1816; Russia in 1821; and others. Their members were drawn from Anglican, Lutheran, and Reformed churches, and in some countries also from the Orthodox churches (Greece, Russia) and the Roman Catholic Church (Malta, Russia, Germany). Bible editions were published in translations approved by the various churches and according to their respective canons.
This fully inter confessional phase was short-lived: pressure from Protestant supporters of the BFBS, especially in Scotland, forced it to abandon publication of the deuterocanonical books in 1826. Not all Societies, however, accepted this decision. At the same time, successive Roman Catholic Popes began to issue attacks on Bible Societies as instruments of Protestant proselytism, and publishers of corrupted Bibles.
After World War I, the Societies began to look for ways of co-ordinating their work through "comity" agreements and joint agencies. In 1932, delegates from the Bible Societies in the United States, England and Wales, and Scotland met in London to coordinate their overlapping activities in the Balkans, Brazil, Chile, China, Japan, the Middle East, Uruguay and Venezuela. The benefits to be gained by sharing their experiences and expertise became more and more evident, and in 1939 in Woudschoten, the Netherlands, these three Societies, joined by the Bible Societies in France, the Netherlands and Norway, met to plan for the establishment of a "World Council of Bible Societies".
The realisation of their plans was delayed by World War II, but after the war, in 1946, delegates from 13 countries met at Haywards Heath, England, where the United Bible Societies (UBS) was founded on May 9. Other Bible Societies were invited to join the new fellowship. Seventeen responded within the first year. [The original 13 countries were: Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, USA. Also represented was the World Council of Churches.]
Since 1946 the traditionally powerful Societies have withdrawn from direct control of work in other countries and encouraged the development of autonomous national Societies. Member Societies have also established a structure of committees and offices to assist them in their work, and have set up a common budget (the World Service Program), through which the richer Societies support the less rich.
A movement of biblical renewal in the Roman Catholic Church was given an increased impetus by the Second Vatican Council, which stated that "easy access to sacred Scripture should be provided for all the Christian faithful" (Constitution on Divine Revelation, 1965).
In turn, Bible Societies began to re-affirm their original desire to serve all churches by providing the Bible in the form that each communion required. Restrictions barring the publication of the Apocrypha were removed by the ABS in 1964 and the BFBS in 1966. Of the 600+ UBS translation projects currently ongoing - in 495 unique languages - 86 have Roman Catholic involvement.
Also working in close liaison with the UBS is the Catholic Biblical Federation, which has cooperated in formulating a number of mutually agreed position papers, the most important of which was "Guiding Principles for Inter confessional Cooperation in Translating the Bible" (1968, updated in 1986).
Relations with the Orthodox churches are close, with Orthodox staff and board membership in some countries.
The Bible Societies, meeting in Council in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 1980, pledged their "openness to assist every Christian church with Scripture publications that support, deepen and intensify the church's life and mission."
In order to assist the work of translators, the UBS has played a leading role in the provision of scholarly helps. The Württemberg Bible Society in Stuttgart (founded 1812) made a notable contribution through the publication of Eberhard Nestle's Greek New Testament (1898, revised by Kurt Aland, 1979), Gerhard Kittel's Hebrew Old Testament (1937, revised by Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, 1977), Alfred Rahlfs's Septuagint (1935), and Robert Weber's Vulgate (1969). The UBS called on an international group of scholars to produce a new edition of the Greek New Testament (1966, 3rd ed. corrected 1983), and handbooks giving exegetical and linguistic help to translators.
It is thought that by 1804 the Bible or some part of it had been translated into 67 languages. Largely through the work of the Bible Societies, that number had risen to 200 by 1850, to 500 by 1900 and to 1,000 by 1950. Since then, Bible Societies and other Scripture translation organizations have brought that number to 2,403 by the end of 2005. There are about 6,500 languages in the world.
By 2006, the UBS had grown into a family of 141 national Bible Societies (83 Full and 25 Associate members) and 33 offices, together working in more than 200 countries and territories. Some Societies administer the work in neighboring countries as well as in their own country.
(Source: www.biblesociety.org)