British and Foreign Bible Society

James Catford

The British and Foreign Bible Society is a Christian charitable organization with the goal of making the Bible available worldwide. In England and Wales, it is known simply as Bible Society. The company was founded on March 4, 1804 and is no confessional belonging.

History

In 1804 a group of Christians searched the problem of availability of affordable Bibles in Wales to solve for Welsh- Christians. The situation was clarified by a young girl named Mary Jones who walked over 20 miles on foot to get a Bible in Bala.

Even in the early days the British and Foreign Bible Society was trying to be ecumenical and nichtsektiererisch. The first president was John Shore. 1813 allowed the British and Foreign Bible Society, the inclusion of the Apocrypha. A controversy over the Apocrypha and the metrical psalms led 1825/26 for the cleavage of Glasgow and Edinburgh Bible Society Bible Society, which later became the Scottish Bible Society formed. In a similar confrontation of 1831 over important parts of society that were occupied by Unitarians, a minority broke away and founded the Trinitarian Bible Society.

The library of the society was given in 1984 as a deposit at the Cambridge University Library. The end of 2013 it was announced that the Bible Society wants some manuscripts, including the Codex Zakynthius sell to finance the construction of a visitor center. The University of Cambridge was given a right of first refusal and strives to raise the required sum to February 2014.

Network

Like many other local Bible societies around the world, the British and Foreign Bible Society is one of the United Bible Societies.