About American Bible Society
Imagine wanting to read the Bible but discovering that it doesn't exist in the language you understand best.
Or finally having access to Scripture, but carrying so much pain that believing its words of hope feels almost impossible.
For more than two centuries, American Bible Society has worked to remove barriers like these.
Founded in 1816, American Bible Society is a Christian ministry dedicated to helping people encounter God through Scripture. What began as an effort to make the Bible widely available across a young United States has grown into a global mission that reaches far beyond simply printing and distributing books.
The goal is not just for people to own a Bible.
It's for them to encounter the God who speaks through it.
It Started With a Simple Concern
In the early 1800s, access to Scripture in America wasn't something everyone could take for granted.
Local Bible societies were already trying to meet the need, but Christian leaders believed something larger was necessary.
On May 11, 1816, representatives from Bible societies around the country gathered in New York City and formed American Bible Society.
They came from different backgrounds but shared a conviction that Scripture should be available to everyone.
That commitment would carry the organization through more than 200 years of enormous change.
Printing presses gave way to new publishing technologies. Printed Bibles were joined by audio and digital Scripture. A mission that began largely within the United States eventually became connected to Bible work around the world.
But the question remained remarkably similar:
What's preventing someone from encountering God's Word?
Removing the Language Barrier
Sometimes the barrier is language.
Millions of people still don't have access to the complete Bible in the language they understand best.
American Bible Society works through a global network of partners to support Bible translation so more communities can encounter Scripture in their heart language.
Translation is painstaking work.
Words have to communicate faithfully while making sense within another language and culture. The process can take years, but when it's finished, a community may be able to read biblical passages in its own language for the first time.
American Bible Society has set an ambitious goal of working with partners toward Bible translation in 100 percent of the world's languages.
Putting Scripture Into Waiting Hands
Even when a translation exists, having access to a Bible isn't guaranteed.
Poverty can make purchasing one difficult. Geography can make distribution complicated. Persecution can make owning or sharing Scripture dangerous.
American Bible Society works with churches and ministry partners to help Scripture cross those barriers.
That commitment has taken many forms throughout its history.
It has provided Scripture to members of the U.S. military since 1817, developed resources for people with visual impairments, supported audio Scripture, participated in Bible publishing around the world, and helped make digital translations available through modern technology.
The format changes depending on what people need.
The purpose doesn't.
Help people encounter God's Word.
When the Barrier Is Pain
Sometimes someone already has a Bible sitting nearby.
The barrier is what's happening inside them.
Trauma can make it difficult for people to experience the hope Scripture communicates. American Bible Society's Bible-based Trauma Healing ministry helps churches and organizations walk alongside people carrying those wounds.
The approach brings biblical truth into conversation with established mental-health principles.
Rather than simply telling hurting people to read more Scripture, trained facilitators create spaces where participants can talk about suffering and begin processing what they've experienced while discovering how the Bible speaks into their pain.
It's another example of Bible access meaning more than putting a physical book into someone's hands.
Making the Bible Available—and Alive
American Bible Society has been around long enough to watch the way people encounter information completely transform.
Its ministry has adapted with it.
Today, its work stretches from translation and Scripture distribution to digital Bible access and resources that help people meaningfully engage with what they're reading. It also equips local leaders and works alongside churches and other partners that can bring Scripture into their own communities.
Through all of those changes, the ministry continues returning to the conviction that brought its founders together in 1816.
People need God's Word.
At the heart of American Bible Society is a desire to remove whatever stands between people and Scripture—so someone who has never held a Bible, someone waiting to read it in their own language, or someone wondering whether its words still speak into their life can encounter the hope, truth, and transforming message of Jesus Christ.
