Society Was First

Of Its Kind

The British and Foreign Bible Society, which has the Queen and Queen Mother as its patrons, is the oldest society of its kind in the world. But since its foundation in 1804, 24 similar societies have been established, all of which work closely with it.

The original society, which relies for its existence on gifts, looks on itself as three things in one: a publishing house, a learned society and a missionary agency.

As a publishing house it is unique in that all its publications are versions of the same book—the Bible, or portions of it. These are invariably sold at a loss because the selling prices are fixed at what "average people can afford to pay".

The Bible Society is a learned society because it has a translations department at its London head quarters and translation advisers elsewhere who assist Bible trans lators in the field and prepare their manuscripts for publication.

And it is a missionary agency in that it supplies missionary societies with Scriptures and has its own itinerant agents —colporteurs—who circulate the Bible in remote places.

When the society was founded, the Bible or parts of it had been translated into only 72 languages.

Now there are more than 1,200 translations.

The affairs of the society are in the hands of a committee of 36 laymen—ls from the Church of England, 15 from other denomina tions, and six foreigners.