People who want to read the Bible can easily do so thanks to the YouVersion Bible app. Aware that there were language barriers that required some to resort to translation apps, the YouVersion Bible App is now available in 1,500 languages.
This is a big development for people across the globe who want to read scriptures and the gospel via online digital platforms. The increase in the number of languages available is also a testament to the continued improvement of the app. Despite this breakthrough, the YouVersion Bible app will continue to come with Wycliff Bible Translators to make sure that people do not miss out on important verses.
“We hear many reports of people coming to faith in Jesus as they read or listen to the Scriptures online or on their phones in their own language, and we make translations widely available to enable this,” Executive Director for Wycliffe James Poole said.
Together with Faith Comes by Hearing and Global Bible, YouVersion offers the Bible through a combined 1,900 languages. The app accounts for only 20 percent of languages worldwide. However, those numbers can be slightly tweaked to 27 percent with the help of other platforms.
"These are very encouraging figures and the work of Bible translation is accelerating. However, Wycliffe continues to press on for the one in five who currently do not have the Bible in the language that they understand best," Poole added.
It was in 2007 when Bobby Gruenewald created the YouVersion as a Bible website for Life Church. From there, it was launched as an app. In three days, the app was downloaded and installed 80,000 times, the Herald Review reported. One can imagine how those numbers have ballooned since.
With most transitioning to digital and online means, broadening the language scope of the YouVersion Bible app makes sense. Especially during these times of pandemic crisis, most have nothing much to do while constrained at home. Reading passages and scriptures from the Bible would be fit, particularly for the ones who need guidance during these times.
In 2019, it was revealed that the YouVersion community engaged more in the Bible compared to previous years. YouVersion saw 5.6 billion chapters listened to and 35.6 billion chapters read in 2019.
Though there are more than 2,000 Bible versions in more than 1,350 languages available, there are still over a billion people globally that don't have access to a complete Bible in their native language. Together with illumiNations, a movement of ten Bible translation agencies, YouVersion continues to work in giving people the Bible in their native language.
With 2020 note exactly being the year that most had expected it to be because of the coronavirus, the numbers from 2019 are expected to swell. Mental wellness and restlessness are some of the main concerns in the world right now as the coronavirus issues remain up in the air.
Covering more ground, the YouVersion Bible app should provide people with something to lighten their load. The increase in the number of languages is laudable but there is still a lot of ground to cover.
