Image: © 2020 Wycliffe Bible Translators.
The popular YouVersion Bible app has reached a milestone as God’s Word is now available in 1,500 languages.
Since its launch in 2008, YouVersion has seen exponential growth as the number of available languages on the platform continues to increase.
Premier Christian News reports that YouVersion managed to make the Bible accessible in 100 languages in 2012. That number would later increase to 500 in 2014, followed by 1,000 in 2016.
Last month, the app managed to reach 1,500 languages. The app also celebrated adding its 2,200th version of the Bible.
YouVersion, which works alongside Wycliff Bible Translators, expressed gratitude over the milestone, noting that they hope to make the Scriptures available to all.
James Poole, executive director of Wycliffe, believes that it is “crucial” to have digital and online formats of God’s Word in order to reach as many people as possible with the gospel.
“We hear many reports of people coming to faith in Jesus as they read or listen to the Scriptures online or on their phones in their own language, and we make translations widely available to enable this,” he explained.
YouVersion, alongside digital Bible platforms Faith Comes by Hearing and Global.Bible, offer the Bible in a combined 1,900 languages.
The app, however, only makes up about 20 percent of all languages worldwide, with a slight increase to 27 percent when the languages available on the other platforms are included.
“These are very encouraging figures and the work of Bible translation is accelerating. However, Wycliffe continues to press on for the one in five who currently do not have the Bible in the language that they understand best,” Poole added.
In 2007, pastor Bobby Gruenewald created YouVersion as a Bible website for his church, Life. Church, a multi-site church based in Oklahoma. A year later, YouVersion would be launched as a mobile app on the I-Phone app store.
According to Herald Review, the app was downloaded and installed 80,000 times in the first three days of its launch.
