Biblica Bibles in Majority Languages

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Most people in the world speak at least two languages - their mother tongue and a majority language. They need the second language to learn at school, haggle in the market and (often) to read their Bible. We'd like to give everyone a Bible in their mother tongue, but in the mean time, everyone can read it in an up-to-date version of their majority language - thanks to Biblica.

Majority Languages 

Biblica, the International Bible Society, is working with STEPBible to include their majority-language Bibles in STEPBible to augment other traditional Bibles already available in these languages. These are currently available through the free website at www.stepbible.org and will later be available for the downloaded STEPBible offline version for those that have limited or no Internet service. This is especially important in the disadvantaged world which is STEPBible's primary target. STEPBible's free distribution policy coheres with Biblica's aim to make their Bibles available to all who wish to read them, especially new generations who have not yet discovered Jesus

Biblica owns and curates the NIV to ensure it keeps up with research and language changes. They aim to translate the Bible as accurately and idiomatically as a United Nations translator. For example, the NIV recently changed the word 'booty' to 'plunder', and 'aliens' to ‘landless immigrants’. 

Biblica also supports about a hundred translation committees in other languages. These committees work on Bibles in 'majority' languages - i.e., the languages understood by the majority of people in the world. Those who speak minority languages are usually bilingual - they have to be - because they also need to know a majority language. So these majority languages are closer to being their ‘own’ language than a second language normally is.

These translations now available in STEPBible, like the NIV, are written in a contemporary version of the language, without confusing out-of-date terminology. Often a strict word-to-word translation is useful when studying the underlying Hebrew or Greek. At other times it is useful to read a contemporary language translation that is straightforward to help to understand a Bible passage. STEPBible can show both types of Bibles side by side, with links to the original vocabulary they are translating, and tools to investigate them deeply. 

The best of all Bible reading experiences is therefore now freely available in STEPBible. Everyone can read an easy-to-understand Bible in a majority language accessible to them, alongside translations that reflect word order and language traits of the underlying Hebrew and Greek. This mixture is the best way to read the Bible you love, and you can study words in depth when you come across something intriguing. 

We would love to learn about how you are use STEPBible. Your feedback will help us to develop and enhance its capabilities. Please email STEPBibleATgmail with a note on how you use STEPBible.  What ideas do you have to make STEPBible better? Do you know missionaries, church communities or others who would benefit from STEPBible?  If you haven't already, please tell them about this resource.  Would you like to help mature STEPBible?  Let us know what you're good at.  We particularly need help with translations of the interface into other languages.

Try out the new Bibles at: www.STEPBible.org

New Amharic Standard Bible  2001

New Arabic Version  2012

Cebuano Contemporary Bible  2014

Czech Living Bible  2012

Kurdish Sorani Standard Version 2020

Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified Script) 2011

Chinese Contemporary Bible (Traditional Script) 2012

The Bible in Everyday Danish  2015

Ewé Contemporary Version  2006

Gbagyi New Testament  1997

Hausa Contemporary New Testament 2009

“The Way” Hebrew Living NT  2020

Hiligaynon Bible 2011

Hindi Contemporary Version  2019

The Book of Christ, in Croatian   2000

Igbo Contemporary Bible, New Testament 2019

Indonesian: Firman Allah Yang Hidup  2020

The Holy Word of God, in Gikuyu, Kikuyu  2013

Korean Living Bible  1985

Luganda Contemporary Bible  2019

Malayalam Contemporary Version  2017

Ndebele Standard Bible 2006

New International Readers Version 2014

New International Version 2011

New International Version, UK spelling  2011

Het Boek, in Dutch, Flemish 2007

The Word of God, in Contemporary Chichewa  2016

Persian Contemporary Bible, in Farsi  2020

Polish Living New Testament  2016

Nova Versão Internacional, in Brazilian Portuguese  2011

New Romanian Translation  2016

Central Asian Russian Scriptures  2013

Central Asian Russian Scriptures (with 'Allah')  2013

Central Asian Russian Scriptures, in Tajik  2013

New Russian Translation  2014

Slovenian Living New Testament  2014

Shona Contemporary Bible  2018

Nueva Versión Internacional, in Castilian Spanish 2017

Kiswahili Contemporary Version  2015

Tagalog Contemporary Bible  2015

Thai New Contemporary Version 2007

The Word: Living Tswana New Testament 1993

Akuapem Twi Contemporary Bible 2020  2020

Vietnamese Contemporary Bible  2015

Kiyombe Contemporary Version  2002

Yoruba Contemporary Bible  2019