Bible society
A Bible Society is a non-profit organization, Foundation for the purpose of mass production of the Bible or biblical writings on free or low cost distribution. Many Bible societies also promote the translation of the Bible into the languages in which the "Book of Books " not yet, or is not yet fully available or revise existing versions due to the changes in language use ..
While the Protestant Bible and the interdenominational organizations usually the term " Bible Society " Maintain, Bibelwerk is the name of Catholic Bible organizations. They were founded as a movement of lay people and theologians in the German-speaking countries. They currently have about 50,000 members, are also associated with institutes of biblical research and give regular publications, or magazines.
The Bible works form a community of Christians who live by the Word of God and want to keep it alive in the Church. Your goal is to promote the dissemination of the Scriptures and to give people access to the Bible, the " Book of Life ".
History
The Protestant Bible societies were created in the tradition of pietism and revivalism. Its roots can be found in England in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded in 1698, and the London Religious Tract Society, 1799.
In Germany, Carl Freiherr von Hildebrand Canstein the first Bible institute in the world in Halle / Saale with the publication of the New Testament in 1712 and the entire Bible in 1713, which has been trading since 1775 Cansteinsche under the name Bible Institute. Its revolutionary action: the lead type for printing the Bible are no longer sealed, but remain as a standing matter. This allowed for faster and cheaper production.
1804, the British and Foreign Bible Society was founded, the forerunner of many other Bible societies, among others the Württemberg Bible Society, which was founded in 1812 as a Privileged Württemberg Bible Institute and the oldest existing Bible Society in Germany.
1809, the International Bible Society was founded in New York to give with the goal of giving all immigrants a Bible in their mother tongue, on their way to their new home.
Traditionally, the editions of the Bible societies include the Protestant canon of scripture without annotations and comments. Meanwhile, it has relaxed this principle, so that the expenses have been annotated to alternative translation possibilities or with references to other manuscripts.
1824-1826 resulted in the printing of the Apocrypha by certain English Bible societies to serious, known as Apokryphenstreit become disputes.
After the Protestant principle of sola scriptura many see in this form of freely distributed Bible an effective method of evangelism. This makes the Bible Societies attractive for joint activities with Protestants of different denominations.
According to Catholic understanding of the Bible can be interpreted binding only with the help of tradition and church teaching. This form of evangelism would make more intensive personal contact is required, which can not be exhausted in a simple Bible distribution. The free Bible distribution could also lead to their profanation. Until the emergence of ecumenical translations of the Bible ( through joint commissions of Catholic and Protestant translators) in recent decades, Catholics suspected the Protestant Bible translations of corruption and non -compliance with the ecclesiastically approved translations Catholic scholar. These reasons prompted Pope Leo XII. to condemn the activities of the Protestant Bible societies in the encyclical Ubi primum (1824 ). This opinion was echoed Gregory XVI. In his encyclical Inter praecipuas (1844 ) on. Pope Pius IX. repeated this judgment in the encyclical Qui pluribus (1846 ) and extended it to their precursors. From 1902 ( pious Society of St.. Jerome for the dissemination of hl. Gospels ) Catholic Bible -founded companies began to operate again. The Societa di San Geronimo moved as a Catholic Bible Society Italian Catholic Gospels translations.
The best-known Catholic institution, which was due to the Bible movement, the Catholic Biblical Association in Stuttgart.
With the development of ecumenical translation projects cooperation between Catholics and Protestants in terms of Bible societies grows. Some Bible societies lead recognized Catholic translations ( with the Catholic canon ) in their publishing program. Also perform certain Protestant Catholic Biblical works expenditure in its program.
The United Bible Societies ( United Bible Societies ) is the umbrella organization of national interdenominational Bible societies in over 140 countries worldwide. The Catholic Church has its own Bible work. The International Bible Society is a missionary that this covenant is also not connected.
The 28 regional Protestant Bible Societies in Germany since 1980 by the German Bible Society (Religious foundation under public law ) has its own governing body.
Known Bible Societies
German-speaking countries:
- German Bible Society, Stuttgart
- Catholic Biblical Association, Stuttgart
- Catholic Biblical Association Austria
- Cansteinsche Bible Institute, Halle / Saale
- From Cansteinsche Bible Institute in Westphalia, Dortmund
- Lübeck Bible Society, Lübeck (1814 )
- Hamburg- Altonaische Bible Society, Hamburg (1814-2003)
- Schleswig -Holstein Bible Society, Schleswig (1815 )
- Eutiner Bible Society, Eutin (1816 )
- Frankfurt Bible Society, Frankfurt ( 1816)
- Lauenburg - Ratzeburgische Bible Society, Ratzeburg (1816 )
- Württemberg Bible Society, Stuttgart
- Pfälzischer Bible Club ( 1915)
- Austrian Bible Society, Vienna
- Swiss Bible Society, Biel
- Swiss Catholic Biblical Association
- Geneva Bible Society, Romanel -sur -Lausanne
International UBS United Bible Societies:
- United Bible Societies
- American Bible Society (1816 )
- British and Foreign Bible Society (1804 )
- Bible Society In Australia ( 1817)
- Palestinian Bible Society (1993 )
Other organizations: