The Bible Society of India is a

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 ...

body that is authorized to translate, produce, distribute and market 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 ...

and is a member of the

United Bible Societies The United Bible Societies (UBS) is a global fellowship of around 150 Bible Societies operating in more than 240 countries and territories. It has working hubs in England, Singapore, Nairobi and Miami. The headquarters are located in Swindon, Eng ...

. The motto of the Society is to translate the word of God into languages, which people can understand, in a format they have access to, and produce the scriptures at a price people could afford to buy. The Bible Society works together with many organizations in India to translate the Bible into various languages of India. The Bible is now available in 74 Indian languages, the New Testament in 92 additional languages, Braille Bibles in 15 Indian languages for visually impaired people, and Scripture portions in 48 languages. Bible society of india bangalore

History

On 21 February 1811, a meeting was held "at the college of Fort William for the propriety of instituting a Bible Society, as Auxiliary to the British and Foreign Bible Society established in London", entitled "The Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society" with the same objectives as those in London." This Auxiliary Bible Society in Serampore, West Bengal first began an attempt to coordinate the supply of Scriptures to existing Christians in Portuguese, Tamil, '' Cingalese'', Malayalam, and ''

Canarese Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native sp ...

'' languages. They sent 5,000 ''Cingalese'' (Sinhalese) New Testaments to a new Auxiliary Bible Society in Ceylon formed in August 1812. The headquarters of the Bible Society of India moved from Nagpur to Bangalore in 1950, under the leadership of General Secretary Premanand Mahanty. The Central Office of the Bible Society of India is located in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

city in the state of

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

The Translations

Sources for translating and revising

The Society depends on original sources material of the scriptures available in

Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew (, or , ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of ...

Biblical Aramaic Biblical Aramaic is the form of Aramaic that is used in the books of Daniel and Ezra in the Hebrew Bible. It should not be confused with the Targums – Aramaic paraphrases, explanations and expansions of the Hebrew scriptures. History During ...

and

Biblical Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

languages for which the sources include the

Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, abbreviated as BHS or rarely BH4, is an edition of the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible as preserved in the Leningrad Codex, and supplemented by masoretic and text-critical notes. It is the fourth edition in ...

and the

Novum Testamentum Graece (''The New Testament in Greek'') is a critical edition of the New Testament in its original Koine Greek, forming the basis of most modern Bible translations and biblical criticism. It is also known as the Nestle–Aland edition after its mos ...

Pool of Scholars trained in Biblical languages

Since the beginning, the Society worked together with the

National Council of Churches in India The National Council of Churches in India is an ecumenical forum for Protestant and Orthodox churches in India. History The Council was established in 1914 as the "National Missionary Council." In 1923, the Council constituted itself as the "Nat ...

and the

Senate of Serampore College (University) The Senate of Serampore College (University) is located in Serampore in West Bengal, India. Serampore was granted the status of university in 1829, making it India's first institution to have the status of a university.Government of India, Mini ...

and the first Translations Director, C. Arangaden helped found the Society for Biblical Studies in India (SBSI) which had been fully-

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

consisting of Biblical Scholars from the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

, and

Charismatic Charisma () is a personal quality of presence or charm that compels its subjects. Scholars in sociology, political science, psychology, and management reserve the term for a type of leadership seen as extraordinary; in these fields, the term "ch ...

Church Societies.

Father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

Rene Van de Walle a member of the Society for Biblical Studies in India was associated with the revision of the

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

Bible. Similarly,

Lucien Legrand was associated with the inter-confessional translation in

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...

. With this background, the Society systematically built up a pool of Biblical Scholars who specialised in

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

with

and

and also

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 ...

with

. The Scholars include Yisu Das Tiwari, B. E. Devaraj, C. Arangaden, Victor Premasagar, E. C. John,

K. V. Mathew Kuzhuvelil Varkey Mathew (born 2 November 1931) is an Indian biblical scholar and a member Fr. Max Gonsalves (Ed.), Society for Biblical Studies in India Directory 1998. Entry 131, page 30. of the Society for Biblical Studies in India. Educati ...

, M. P. John, John Philipose,

Gnana Robinson Gnana Robinson (17 March 1935 – 3 February 2019) was an Indian Biblical scholar who studied the Old Testament. Biography Robinson was born into a Christian family who were communicant members of what was then the South India United Church. ...

, G. Babu Rao, Timotheas Hembrom, Nitoy Achümi, Basil Rebera, S. John Theodore and others.

Inter-confessional translations

The Society translates and revises the scriptures from the original Biblical languages without prejudice to

. As such, the translations of the Society are held in regard by the Christians. Though the

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

did not have scriptures in a language of their own, it was the outcome of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...

which paved way for the vernacular translations.

and

Scholars of the

Churches worked together with the Society to either translate or revise vernacular translations and were also instrumental in inter-confessional translations. Basil Rebera, ''The Bible Society of India and Inter-Confessional Translations'', in D. S. Amalorpavadass (Edited), ''Report of the II All-India Biblical Meeting'', NBCLC, Bangalore, 1975, p.348.

/ref> The Reverend, The Rev. Father D. S. Amalorpavadass was a strong proponent for the inter-confessional translations making the Bible Society to come out with one such version in

. In other languages of India too, the Catholic Fathers were very much in favour of an inter-confessional translation. In the recent times, the Society works together with the

Conference of Catholic Bishops of India The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India or CCBI, is the national episcopal conference of the bishops of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in India, functioning in accordance with canon 447. There are 132 Latin Catholic dioceses in the ...

led by Fr. Govindu Rayanna, a

Scholar and a member of the Society for Biblical Studies in India.

The Translation Directors

The Directors who led the translation at the Society were notable in the

having taught at either the constituent College of the University or its affiliated institutions. It was during the period of C. Arangaden that the translations department was built up together with the General Secretary, the rural Pastor, A. E. Inbanathan had much understanding of the Church and Christianity in India and worked together with the

. It was during their tenure that thoroughbred Scholars were appointed throughout India leading to quality translations.

Management of the Society

The Society has been led by able administrators hailing from the

Clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

. During 1980 when a gap arose, the Society had to appoint

Laymen In religious organizations, the laity () consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. In both religious and wider secular usage, a layperson ...

for a temporary period but with the appointment of The Reverend, The Rev. M. Mani Chacko, an

Scholar and a member of the Society for Biblical Studies in India (SBSI), the Society is again led by the

Trust Association

The India Bible Society Trust Association (IBSTA) is the main management body which runs the administration of the Bible Society of India and has been led by Theologians including Victor Premasagar, Navamani Elia Peter and other

General Secretaries

Though General Secretaries were in short tenures, it was the rural Pastor, The Reverend, The Rev. A. E. Inbanathan who held the longest tenure and built up the society in all spheres in Translation, Promotion, Distribution and Resource Mobilisation.

Sowing Circle

''Sowing Circle'' is a

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