ASIA/INDIA - Carrying the Bible to remote areas of India: Centre for research and translation of Sacred Scripture has a special mission

Bangalore (Fides Service) - In Bangalore, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka besides various industries and famous institutes of research there is also the World Bible Translation Centre WBTC which has the mission to make the Word of God accessible to as many people as possible. In fact complete editions of the Bible are available in less 300 of the over 5,500 languages used in the world today.
In its mission to make the Bible available to all, besides translating the text into various languages, the Centre sells the Bibles it produces at very low prices or in some cases gives them away free. Every year the Centre prints and distributes thousands of copies of the unabridged version of the Bible and millions of shorter versions in many of the numerous languages spoken in India.
The Director of the Centre, Joshua Paul, said: “Sometimes we hear that missionaries are labelled as fundamentalists and our publications are burned, but this only increases people’s curiosity and interest for Sacred Scripture”.
In its work of translation the Centre uses simple language to render the Bible accessible to people of all walks of life including rural peoples with only elementary education.
The Translation of the Bible prepared by the WBTC is used by the main Christian communities in India, the Catholic Churches, Church of India, Methodist, Baptist, especially in their activity to carry the Word of God to people in rural areas.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 8/9/2004 lines 25 words 215)