American Bible Society is a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the American member organization of

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 ...

, it supports global Bible translation, production, distribution, literacy, engagement, ministry, and advocacy efforts. American Bible Society publishes and distributes interconfessional translations of the Christian

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 ...

and provides study aids and other tools to help people engage with it. Founded on May 11, 1816, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, it is best known for its

Good News Translation Good News Bible (GNB), also called the Good News Translation (GNT) in the United States, is an English translation of the Bible by the American Bible Society. It was first published as the New Testament under the name ''Good News for Modern Man' ...

of the Bible, written in the contemporary vernacular. American Bible Society also publishes the

Contemporary English Version The Contemporary English Version or CEV (also known as Bible for Today's Family) is a translation of the Bible into English, published by the American Bible Society. An anglicized version was produced by the British and Foreign Bible Society, w ...

. American Bible Society is a member of the

, Forum of Bible Agencies International, Every Tribe Every Nation and not affiliated with any single denomination. However, it does not consider

Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The c ...

or Jehovah's Witnesses to be Christians. American Bible Society's headquarters relocated from 1865 Broadway in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

in August 2015.

History

19th century

American Bible Society was founded in 1816 by prominent American Protestants. The first President was

Elias Boudinot Elias Boudinot ( ; May 2, 1740 – October 24, 1821) was a lawyer and statesman from Elizabeth, New Jersey who was a delegate to the Continental Congress (more accurately referred to as the Congress of the Confederation) and served as President ...

, who had been President of the Continental Congress from 1782 to 1783.

John Jay John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the f ...

, the first Chief Justice of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, was named president in 1821, and a number of illustrious individuals like

Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen (August 4, 1817May 20, 1885) was an American lawyer and politician from New Jersey who served as a U.S. Senator and later as United States Secretary of State under President Chester A. Arthur. Early life and ...

and Edwin Francis Hyde, a former president of the Philharmonic Society of New York, headed up the organization over the years. Francis Scott Key, the writer of the United States'

National Anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

, was a Vice President of the organization from 1817 until his death in 1843. American Bible Society's first headquarters were on Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan. American Bible Society used the King James Bible, and indeed starting in 1858 appointed committees to be sure to avoid any textual corruption. The American Bible Society provided the first Bibles in hotels and the first pocket Bibles for soldiers during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. The first translation by the American Bible Society was in 1818 into Lenape of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

, a Native American language. By the 1830s, American Bible Society sold several English Bibles and Testaments, including a pocket version. The organization owned stereotype plates that allowed it to print Scripture in French, Spanish, and German. It also carried Bibles from other printers in various languages, including Gaelic, Welsh, Dutch, Mohawk, Hawaiian, and Seneca. American Bible Society began its outreach to the blind in 1835. The organization was a supporter of Samuel Gridley Howe, who developed a raised-letter printing system called “Boston” or “Howe” type. A Bible using Howe’s type was heavily funded and sold by American Bible Society in the first half of the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, the organization was printing the entire Bible in the New York Point System. Many American Bible Society founders, including Elias Boudinot and John Jay, opposed the institution of slavery in the United States. eference 3 In an incident well publicized at the time, the ABS refused a donation offered in 1834 by the American Anti-Slavery Society. The purpose was to subsidize the distribution of Bibles to American slaves, about one-sixth of the population, as

abolitionists Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

believed that knowledge of the Bible hastened the end of slavery. (That the Bible ''supported'' slavery was maintained by a number of Southern clergymen.) While it sent Bibles to Liberia for the former slaves there, the ABS left domestic distribution in the hands of its state auxiliaries, who refused to distribute Bibles directly to slaves. The Society was widely seen as insufficiently committed to the abolition of slavery, to the point that the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society "decided to throw most of its support behind the American Missionary Society, an organization that it believed was making a 'systematic effort' to get Bibles and tracts to slaves." In 1852, while

Theodore Frelinghuysen Theodore Frelinghuysen (March 28, 1787April 12, 1862) was an American politician who represented New Jersey in the United States Senate. He was the Whig vice presidential nominee in the election of 1844, running on a ticket with Henry Clay. Bo ...

was President of American Bible Society, the Bible House was built, occupying the whole of the block bounded by Third and Fourth Avenues,

Astor Place Astor Place is a one-block street in NoHo/ East Village, in the lower part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs from Broadway in the west (just below East 8th Street) to Lafayette Street. The street encompasses two plazas at ...

, and Ninth Street in New York City. Suffragist and economist Virginia Penny offered an employment office for women in the Bible House, and she gave lectures on the many different types of jobs for women in New York City. By 1920, it was one of the oldest office buildings in the city. The American Bible Society's mission is to make the Bible available to all people and to that end, during the 19th century, four canvasses of the United States for this purpose were undertaken. These canvasses took place in 1829, 1856, 1866, and in 1882. During the fourth canvass, in 1882, more than 6.3 million families were visited, and 473,806 families were supplied with Bibles; in addition nearly 300,000 individuals received Bibles. American Bible Society sold 437,000 Scriptures and portions in 1898 in China.

20th century

By 1912, American Bible Society issued Bibles for use in the United States in 83 languages besides English. Foreign circulation was rising steadily, increasing from 250,000 copies in 1876 to over 2 million copies in 1915. Although American Bible Society continues to publish and print Bibles with partner printing presses, it ceased printing Bibles on printing presses owned by the organization itself in 1922. American Bible Society celebrated a century of service to China in 1934. Vice President John R. Mott recalled that in 1833 American Bible Society sent $3,000 to Elijah Coleman Bridgman, first U.S. Protestant missionary to China, to print scriptures in Chinese. As of 1934 American Bible Society had spent $2,897,383 distributing nearly 70 million volumes of Scripture in China. In 1998, American Bible Society paid about $1.6 million to

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainmen ...

in order to distribute several Christian children's series, including

Angel Wings Angel wings are a traditional sweet crisp pastry made out of dough that has been shaped into thin twisted ribbons, deep-fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Common to many European cuisines, angel wings have been incorporated into other r ...

and Kingsley's Meadow. In 1999, the organization launched its first major Internet ministry, ForMinistry.com, a free church web-builder. Operations ceased in 2013 after 14 years of serving over 180,000 churches and ministries.

21st century

In the aftermath of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

, American Bible Society distributed more than one million Scriptures and offered downloadable portions free of charge to those affected by the tragedy. Staff members also volunteered at Ground Zero distributing Scripture Portions to rescue workers. It has also maintained its commitment to

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

, including producing a pocket-sized military Bible, developed jointly with the aid of

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 ...

and

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

chaplains from all branches of the armed forces. Since 1817, it has distributed almost 60 million free Bible resources to America's armed forces. It also provides Scriptures to victims of natural disasters. Following the

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

in 2004, American Bible Society worked in cooperation with the

and partner Bible Societies in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

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. American Bible Society formed a partnership with Habitat for Humanity to give a free Bible to each of its new homeowners in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. In 2007, American Bible Society partnered with

The Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. The organisation reports a worldwide membership of over 1.7million, comprising soldiers, officers and adherents col ...

to promote literacy with its program Mission: Literacy. In 2008, American Bible Society published its first polyglot Bible and presented a specially bound copy to Pope Benedict XVI. The text was printed in five languages: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English and Spanish. In 2010, American Bible Society launched an annual, nationwide study to survey trends in the U.S. regarding spirituality and Scripture engagement calle
State of the Bible
American Bible Society launched a new Bible Search tool, an ad-free web engine that searches across ten translations of the Bible and targets the "Bible curious" and

and

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...

believers. Also in 2010, American Bible Society launched the Bible-based Trauma Healing ministry in a war zone in East Africa. In 2013, American Bible Society and United Bible Societies launched the Digital Bible Library, a repository that houses digital copies of Bible translations and makes the texts available for repurposing across any media platform. Doug Birdsall was also appointed in 2013 as President and CEO. In 2014, American Bible Society contracted with ICANN to operate the .BIBLE TLD Registry. The availability of .BIBLE domain names will accelerate global online Bible engagement. The first site to launch was American.Bible in September 2015, which makes the message of the Bible accessible to people in a way that fits their digital lives. In 2014, Roy Peterson succeeded Doug Birdsall, having previously served as President of

the Seed Company Seed Company, also referred to as SC or formally The Seed Company, is a subsidiary organization of Wycliffe USA and a participant in the Wycliffe Global Alliance. SC was launched in 1993 by a former president of Wycliffe USA, Bernie May. Their fo ...

and

Wycliffe Bible Translators 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 ...

. In 2015, American Bible Society announced that it had sold 1865 Broadway to AvalonBay Communities for US$300 million and was moving to a new location in Philadelphia, leasing 100,000 square feet at 401

Market Street Market Street may refer to: *Market Street, Cambridge, England *Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia * Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia *Market Street, Manchester, England *Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ...

. In December, 2017, American Bible Society introduced the Affirmation of Biblical Community, an employee policy which requires staff to align around a core set of Christian beliefs and practices. The organization came under criticism as the policy excludes individuals who were homosexual, stating they had to agree that marriage was between one man and one woman, or unwed heterosexuas living together, it stated they had to agree not to have sex until they were married. While the organization lost 20 percent of its workforce in 2018, according to American Bible Society, that 20 percent of the organization's staff left in response to the Affirmation. Leadership of the organization attempts to explain that the 20 percent attrition in 2018 was consistent with annual totals, but could not show that in the year 2017 that they suffered a 20% loss in staff prior to the new Affirmation policy. On October 28, 2019, American Bible Society announced the retirement of President Roy Peterson. He had held the role since 2014. Robert Briggs was announced as the Interim President and CEO. On June 23, 2020, Robert L. Briggs was appointed by the Board of Directors as permanent President and CEO. In 2021, American Bible Society opened the Faith and Liberty Discovery Center to invite discovery of the influence of the Bible on individuals in key historical and personal moments. In 2022, after 2 years on the job, President Robert Briggs left American Bible Society. Jeff Brown, former board chairman stepped in as interim president. Brown was then replaced in September of 2022 by another former board member, David Viehman.

Museums

Faith & Liberty Discovery Center

The Faith & Liberty Discovery Center is a new museum that opened on Independence Mall in the summer of 2021. It says it "explores the relationship between faith and liberty in America from its founding to today, by illuminating the influence of the Bible on individuals in key historical and personal moments.". The project was originally slated to begin construction in Spring of 2017. The Center was completed and opened in 2021 and sells tickets for $10 for adults and $8 for children ages 7–17. While media coverage cites quotes from American Bible Society leadership that the FLDC will “...be an exciting experience for people of all faiths and backgrounds," American Bible Society's own website indicates they are seeking to convert visitors and hope the museum will, "spark a curiosity in every visitor to ask themselves, 'What difference can the Bible make in my life today?'" In 2019, American Bible Society paid to relocate White Water, a 40-foot-long, 16-foot high masterpiece of geometric stainless steel sculpture of 1978 by Robinson Fredenthal, from 401 Market Street to the

Woodmere Art Museum Woodmere Art Museum, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs focusing on artists from the Delaware Valley and includes works by Thomas Pollock Anshutz, S ...

The piece was commissioned for its location at 401 Market Street by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority's Percent for Art Program, which mandated a certain percentage of construction costs for a development involving city-owned property to go toward public art. The current site, however, is not devoid of public art. The Faith & Liberty Discovery Center includes a 4-story-high sculpture called the Beacon that completely surfaced in white thermoformed DuPont Corian® Solid Surface. The surfaces represent the three documents essential to the founding of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bible. The core values from these documents are carved into the sculpture's edges, symbolizing the inseparable relationship.

Museum of Biblical Art

The Museum of Biblical Art, was an independent but affiliated organization and was housed in American Bible Society's building at 1865 Broadway, in New York. It has closed.

Rare Scripture Collection

American Bible Society has a Scripture collection over 45,000 volume holdings, one of the largest collection of Bibles in the world including a number of interesting and valuable editions of ancient and historic Bibles dating back as far as the Gutenberg edition, of which American Bible Society has several pages under protection. The collection contains editions of scripture in every language, from many countries and regions and spanning nearly six centuries and is the second largest collection of religious books, with the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

the largest. American Bible Society often finds and protects found Scriptures, sometimes even buying them at auction.

Footnotes

External links

* {{Authority control Bible societies Religious organizations established in 1816 Christian organizations established in the 19th century 1816 establishments in New York (state) Midtown Manhattan Organizations based in New York City Organizations based in Philadelphia