The American Bible Society (ABS) is an interconfessional, non-denominational, nonprofit organization, founded in 1816 in New York City, which publishes, distributes and translates the Bible and provides study aids and other tools to help people engage with the Bible.
It is probably best known for its Good News Translation of the Bible, with its contemporary vernacular and unique stick figure illustrations interspersed throughout the book. They also publish the Contemporary English Version.
The stated mission of the ABS is to make the Bible available to every person in a language and format each can understand and afford, so all people may experience its life-changing message.
ABS is headquartered in New York City. Its headquarters building at 1865 Broadway houses an extensive museum of religious art and a 45,000 volume collection of Scriptures, making it the largest Bible museum in the western hemisphere and second largest in the world behind the Vatican.
The current president of the American Bible Society is Dr. R. Lamar Vest, a minister in the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) denomination.
History
The American Bible Society was founded in 1816 by people who were committed to the word of God and to the end of slavery. The first President was Elias Boudenot, who was also President of the Continental Congress from 1782 to 1783 and later Director of the U.S. Mint.
John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was named President in 1821 and a number of illustrious individuals like Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, Johns Hopkins University President Daniel Coit Gilman and Edwin Francis Hyde, a former president of the Philharmonic Society of New York, headed up the organization over the years.
The American Bible Society provided the first Bibles in hotels and the first pocket Bibles for soldiers (during the Civil War). The first translation by the Bible Society was in 1818 into a Native American language.
In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the ABS distributed more than one million Scriptures and offered downloadable portions free of charge to those affected by the tragedy.
It has also maintained its commitment to military military, including producing a pocket-sized military Bible, developed jointly with the aid of Catholic and Protestant chaplains from all branches of the armed forces.
It has also provided Scriptures to victims of natural disasters. Following the tsunami in 2004, ABS worked in cooperation with the United Bible Societies and partner Bible Societies in Thailand, Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka to provide a host of Bible resources to people in the affected regions. In 2005, it sent nearly a million Bibles and Scripture portions to those who survived the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
And ABS has formed a partnership with Habitat for Humanity to give a free Bible to each of its new homeowners in the United States.
Israel MK
Effie Eitam reviewing a 16th century Hebrew Bible at the American Bible Society's Bible Library with Dr. Lupas.
Current events
Housed at ABS’s main headquarters in mid-town Manhattan in New York City is a museum that houses the largest collection of Bibles in the Western Hemisphere and a number of interesting and valuable editions of ancient and historic bibles dating back as far as the Gutenberg edition, of which ABS has several pages under protection.
The curator of the 45,000 volume collection is Dr. Liana Lupas, a fascinating woman with a Ph. D. in classics from the University of Bucharest (Romania) who came to the United States in the 1990’s. The collection contains editions of scripture in every language, from many counties and regions and spanning nearly six centuries and is the second largest collection of religious books, with the Vatican the largest. ABS often finds and protects found scriptures, sometimes even buying them at auction. The Museum is open to the public, and Dr. Lupas provides tours of the facility.
In ABS’s Bible repository in South America, there are hundreds of thousands of random versions and editions of Bibles that it has collected over the years.
The American Bible Society celebrated a century of service to China in 1934. Vice President John R. Mott recalled that in 1833 the Society sent $3,000 to Dr. Elijah Coleman Bridgman, first U. S. Protestant missionary to China, to print scriptures in Chinese. As of 1934 the Society had spent $2,897,383 distributing nearly 70,000,000 volumes of Scripture in China.
In 1999, ABS launched its first major internet ministry, ForMinistry.com, a free church webbuilder. Since then, it has released many different ministry sites including ShareYourStoryNow.org (2006), which allows users to share stories of how the Bible has changed their life, and enables ABS employees to share their ABS mission experiences.
In December 2006, along with Larry Jones and his group Feed the Children, ABS participated in the "largest food distribution effort" in the U.S.. Over 10,000 bundles of food were handed out in one day (consisting of a case of chicken, juices, fruits and vegetable) in Harlem, outside the Abyssinian Baptist Church on 138th Street. ABS handed out Bibles to all of the food recipients[1]
See also
References
- ^ News Release
External links
