What to count

If we ask how many languages have a translation of the Bible we get one number. But if we ask how many people have the Bible in their language we get a very different number.

Of the 7 billion people on our planet 6 billion have the Bible in their heart language, which is 86 percent. But only 9 percent of the world’s languages have the whole Bible. That’s about 650 out of 7,000 languages. Another 23 percent of languages have the NT. So close to 1/3 of languages worldwide have at least the NT.

The situation in Ghana is similar. 87 percent of Ghanaians have the Bible in their language; very close to the 86 percent worldwide. But that’s only about a third of Ghana’s languages.

The large differences between the percentage of languages and the percentages of people are due, of course, to the fact that there are big languages and small. All of the biggest languages in Africa, for example, have the Bible.

Although there are still some larger languages without the whole Bible, translating the Bible into more languages is mostly about the smaller and often marginalized peoples – “the least of these”. Each new translation is not so much an attempt to change the world, but rather to create in-depth and lasting transformation in one place – to connect at the deepest level for lasting impact. It is also about including those not yet included in God’s kingdom.