Bible Society, an association having exclusively for its object the diffusion of the sacred Scriptures. Perhaps the first association ever formed for the sole and specific purpose of providing copies of the Scriptures for those who were destitute of them, was that founded in 1710 by Baron Hildebrand von Canstein, an intimate friend of Spener, in conjunction with Francke, at Halle, and which, down to 1834, when other Bible Societies had begun to be established in Germany, had distributed 2,754,350 copies of the Bible, and about 2,000,000 copies of the New Testament.—The impulse, however, to the formation of the Bible Societies now existing in all parts of Protestant Christendom proceeded from England, where in 1780 an association was formed for the distribution of Bibles among soldiers and sailors. It was at first simply called The Bible Society; it exists to the present day, is now known as the Naval and Military Bible Society, and confining itself to its original specific object, has accomplished much good.—In the beginning of 1792, a similar association was formed in London, under the name of the French Bible Society, with a similar limited and specific object of distributing Bibles in the French tongue. It was probably the attitude assumed by infidelity in France which gave occasion to the formation of this Society, but the greater part of its funds having been remitted to Paris for printing the Bible there, were lost, and everything belonging to the Society was destroyed in the tumult of the Revolution.—It was not till 1802 that the first steps were taken towards the formation of the BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, the parent of a multitude of similar institutions, and the establishment of which must be regarded as the great epoch in the history of this branch of Christian beneficence; nor was the Society fully organised and established till March 7, 1804. Its formation took place in consequence of the deep impression made upon the mind of the Rev. Thomas Charles of Bala, in Wales, by the scarcity of the sacred Scriptures in the sphere of his labours, and particularly by a striking illustration of that scarcity. A little girl who had been saving up her small earnings for some years in order to buy a Bible, after walking 25 miles to procure one, found that they had all been sold. She wept so bitterly that Mr Charles not only contrived to get her a copy, but on his next visit to London, brought the subject of the want of Bibles in Wales under the notice of the committee of the Religious Tract Society (q.v.), when it was suggested by Mr Hughes, a member of the committee, that a Society might be formed for the purpose of supplying Bibles not only in Wales, but wherever destitution existed throughout the world. The Society was constituted on the widest possible basis, churchmen and dissenters being alike included in it. It was able to expend only £691 in the first year of its existence, but its annual income gradually increased, and in 1886 amounted to £116,865, from subscriptions, legacies, &c., and £104,839, from sales, &c.—in all £221,754; in 1898 the total was £222,000. Auxiliary and branch societies and dependent associations rapidly sprung up in all parts of Britain and in the colonies, the number of which at present amounts to between 5000 and 6000. Much more than one-half of the expenditure of the British and Foreign Bible Society has been devoted to the diffusion of the authorised English version of the Bible, the only English version with which its fundamental rules permit it to have anything to do; it has also spent large sums in printing and circulating the Scriptures in the different Celtic languages spoken in Great Britain and Ireland, and a very important branch of its operations has been the printing of translations of the Bible prepared by missionaries. The number of transla- tions of the Scripture—in many cases complete, in others extending only to the New Testament, in some only to particular books—which have been printed or distributed by the Society, is 279 (some being indirectly distributed). Very many are translations never before printed, and many in languages possessing no previous literature. The British and Foreign Bible Society now issues annually above four million copies of the Bible, the New Testament, and such portions of sacred Scripture as have been printed in languages not possessing complete translations. The whole number issued from the formation of the Society to 31st March 1887 was 112,253,547. This Society also employs 26 agents of high education and Christian character, resident in various countries of Europe, Asia, North Africa, and South America, also in Australia and New Zealand. The names of Dr Henderson, Dr Pinkerton, and other agents, must be familiar to many readers. Upwards of 600 colporteurs are employed, chiefly in Europe and Asia. A controversy concerning the circulation of the books of the Apocrypha along with the canonical Scriptures by the British and Foreign Bible Society (see APOCYPHA), led to a resolution in 1826, that its funds should be devoted, according to its original design, to the diffusion of the canonical books alone.—The EDINBURGH BIBLE SOCIETY became from that time forward an entirely separate Society, till 1861, when the leading Scottish societies amalgamated to form the NATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND. In 1886 its income was £33,767; its issue for the year, 707,580 Bibles, New Testaments, &c., and total issue nearly ten millions.
The AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY is, in the magnitude and importance of its operations, next to the British and Foreign Bible Society. It was founded at New York in 1816, and still has its headquarters in that city, in the 'Bible House,' a very large and magnificent building erected by special subscription. It reckons fully 7000 auxiliary societies in all parts of the United States. Its income amounts to about 524,000 dollars a year, rather more than one-half being derived from sales of Bibles and Testaments, and the rest from donations, collections, &c. The American Bible Society issues annually about 1,500,000 Bibles, New Testaments, and other portions of Scripture, and has in all distributed about 49,000,000 copies. The funds of the Society have been chiefly expended in supplying the wants of the inhabitants of the United States, amongst whom the Indian tribes have not been neglected. 'The Bible Association of Friends in America,' founded at Philadelphia in 1829, has also distributed the Bible extensively.
Of the numerous Bible Societies of Germany, the most important and extensively ramified is the Prussian Central Bible Society (Hauptbibelgesellschaft) in Berlin. It was founded in 1814, has branches in all parts of the Prussian dominions, and distributes annually about 80,000 Bibles and New Testaments. There are besides numerous independent Bible societies in other parts of the German empire. A large number of Bibles are still, however, annually supplied to the people of Germany by the agents of the British and Foreign Bible Society. They amounted in 1886 (including Switzerland) to 363,094 copies.—Bible societies were prohibited by the Austrian government in 1817, and some which had already been established in Hungary were dissolved.—The RUSSIAN BIBLE SOCIETY, founded in St Petersburg in 1813, through the exertions of Dr Paterson, and under the patronage of the Emperor Alexander I., entered upon a career of great activity and usefulness, co-operating with the British and Foreign Bible Society for the printing of the Scriptures in the numerous languages spoken within the Russian dominions; but its operations were suspended in 1826, on the accession of the Emperor Nicholas, its stock of Bibles and the whole concern being transferred to the Holy Synod, under the pretence that the sacred work of supplying the people with the Holy Scriptures belonged to the church, and not to a secular society. The Bibles and Testaments in stock were indeed sold, and very large editions were thus disposed of, but the activity of a society which had no equal in continental Europe was at an end. A Protestant Bible Society was then formed for the purpose of providing editions of the Scriptures, and circulating them among the Protestants of all parts of the empire, which now reckons about 300 auxiliary societies. But the action of this Society 'does not touch the members of the Greek Church, or, if at all, only slightly and incidentally, and it makes no provision of the Scriptures in the language spoken by the great mass of the people. It is merely designed to meet the wants of colonists and others who do not use the Russian language.' Of the translations of the Scriptures published by the original Russian Bible Society, the greater number have never been reprinted since its suppression. The British and Foreign Bible Society still carries on an important work in Russia. The issues in 1886 were 450,115 copies.