Faith Comes By Hearing is an international 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that records and freely provides the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

in the languages of the world. It provides Audio Bibles in 1,759 languages. The organization is a member of the

Forum of Bible Agencies International The Forum of Bible Agencies International is an alliance of more than 25 international Bible Agencies and other missions organizations which provides access to the Bible and encourages its use worldwide. The Forum provides standards for Bible tran ...

and the

Wycliffe Global Alliance Wycliffe Global Alliance is an alliance of organizations that have objective of translating the Bible into every language. The organisation is named after John Wycliffe, who was responsible for the first complete English translation of the whole ...

. The Chairman of the Board for the organization is Jeff Solscheid, and its president is founder Gerald (Jerry) Jackson.

History

The ministry, which began under the name "Hosanna," was founded in 1972 by Jerry Jackson and his wife Anet Jackson as a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

that lent

cassette tapes The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

geared toward

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

themes and ideas provided by various teachers. The idea for producing Audio Bibles came from a missionary visit of theirs to a

Hopi Indian reservation The Hopi Reservation (Hopi: Hopituskwa) is a Native American reservation for the Hopi and Arizona Tewa people, surrounded entirely by the Navajo Nation, in Navajo and Coconino counties in north-eastern Arizona, United States. The site has a l ...

, where they discovered that written Bibles

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

into the

Hopi language Hopi (Hopi: ) is a Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Hopi people (a Puebloan group) of northeastern Arizona, United States. The use of Hopi has gradually declined over the course of the 20th century. In 1990, it was estimated that more than 5,0 ...

were not being used due to chronic

illiteracy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

. Hosanna entered the international marketplace in 1986, when the ministry began working with several

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

to record a Creole translation of the Bible. From 1986 forward, the ministry used revenues as well as donations to record translations of the Bible in hundreds of different languages. In 1991, its first international recording office opened in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. The organization works with several Bible translators and distributors. The language professor Alexander Arguelles notes that it is possible to use these recordings and the equivalent bible text in one's own language, to start learning any of the languages. For many there is no other way to learn the language.

Modern technology

In 2004 the ministry began distributing the Proclaimer, a device developed in house with an audio chip that can broadcasts recordings of the Bible to hundreds of people. Rechargeable via an electrical socket, solar energy, or a hand crank, the Proclaimer's battery can last through enough charges to play the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

more than 1,000 times. In 2006 the ministry began producing audio Bible

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

s, fitting the entire New Testament onto a single disc, instead of over a dozen

CDs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

tapes Tape or Tapes may refer to: Material A long, narrow, thin strip of material (see also Ribbon (disambiguation): Adhesive tapes * Adhesive tape, any of many varieties of backing materials coated with an adhesive * Athletic tape, pressure-sensiti ...

. During this period its revenues rose from $8 million to $22 million over four years. The Proclaimer is also now given away for free to individuals in developing countries. Later on the ministry developed the "BibleStick", a personal audio device that uses

digital technology Digital technology may refer to: * Application of digital electronics * Any significant piece of knowledge from information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange al ...

to broadcast. More than 900,000 BibleSticks have been donated to

US soldiers The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

overseas since their invention. The Biblestick sent to the military differs from those sent to other areas of the world, as it is designed to reduce visibility in low-light situations. The organization forms Bible listening groups, and developed more than 85,000 of these groups worldwide in 2009, varying from a few dozen individuals to groups of thousands. The organization has now set up almost a million groups. As of January 2023, the ministry has produced audio Bible recordings in 1,759 languages. The ministry'
Bible.is
app, available for both

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

and Android listening devices, provides Scripture in 1,889 languages. In November 2012, they added an app for the

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...

community called the Deaf Bible app. In August 2014, the ministry launched the Bible.is KIDZ app to help kids engage with the Bible through interactive games and activities. Faith Comes By Hearing operates an API (application programming interface) called Bible Brain. The Bible Brain platform removes the burden of organizing Bible content and empowers individuals and organizations to create Bible-based applications that meet a changing world’s needs.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.faithcomesbyhearing.com/
Bible.is app

Bible Brain API

MP3 Downloads

Recordings Database

Gospel Films
Audiobooks by title or series Bible societies Christian missionary societies Religious organizations established in 1972

History

Modern technology

See also

References

External links