Yet in spite of centuries of bitter opposition, the sheer volume of Bibles available today is mind-boggling. In the five years to the end of 2002, the United Bible Societies distributed more than 2,979,000,000 copies of the Bible in whole or in part. The translation figures are equally impressive. 200 years ago the Bible, or a part of it, was available in just sixty-eight languages; by the end of 2002 this figure had risen to 2,203. These cater for well over 90% of the world’s population, and translation
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