Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-02-13
DEMAND FOR BIBLES TOLD
OF BY HASkIN
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskin

WASHINGTON. Feb. Print
ing presses have been running over
time ever since the close of the
world war. One explanation Of this
extraordinary activity will occur
readily enough 10 everyone-the
presses have had to be busy in order
to turn out the tremendous volume
! Of paper money required in Ger
many, Russia and the other coun-
tries with sadly deprecated cur
rency. Another explanation is
nearer the really one would be the
last one to suggest itself to the
average person-the unprecedented
demand for copies of the Bible.
This demand from every
country in the world, with China at
the head of the list. Last year APP
! proximately so, 000.0 900 Bibles were
distributed among the spiritually
hungry of all lands and chimes, and
tribution will far exceed that fig
ure.
One organization alone, the Amer
lean Bible Society, has plans that
contemplate tho distribution of at
.east 1000 600 and possibly $780,
600 copies, and it's officials say that
even at that they wall be unable to
meet the demands hat will be made
upon them. Recently the society
placed the largest single order for
Bibles known in the history of the
Rook-an order for 5000, 900 copies
of six separate books of the
Scriptures.
These tiny volumes will be
turned out on huge rotary presses
at the rate of 10000 copies an hour.
II is a far cry from production of
that sort, back to the day of Gut
tenburg, when the printing of the
first Bible. called the Mazarin Bible,
en- movable block types took about
five years, from 1850 to 1855. 1t
marks amazing progress in the
printers craft, but of far greater sig
~nificance is the fact that the book
first to be printed has always been
the one greatly i'll demand. No
book has Ver reached so many mill
lions o had so great an influence
on the world. IL stands preemi-
nently the Book of the Ages.
And yet with the distribution of
$4,000, 900 copies in n single year,
there are not enough to furnish a
copy for every newborn child that
comes into the world in a twelve
month. while il all the Bibles that
have been printed since the lays of
Gutenberg had been preserved and
could be assembled the total would
not suffice to provide a copy for
every man, woman and child in the
! world.
Many Languages and Dialects
1t is not generally known that the
Bible is now published in 770 diff
ferent languages and dialects, and
that the work OF putting it into still
more strange tongues is being
rushed by the committees of clerics
in all parts Of the world. The work
of preparing TRANSACTIONS for for
eign countries is done with the ut
most care and by tho best scholars
obtainable for the task in hand. Ii
IS W done by one man, but by a
committee, the idea being that dis
| cussions of mooted questions OF
meanings would eliminate many of
the possibilities of Vaeueness in the
translation. Each nan takes one
of the books of the Bible and trans
iates it and then in council the
group Of men go over the work OF
all.
Many problems arise in this work
because words used in the original
meanings of the Bible are not to be
lOuUu ia All Tie NV IA haSOS ohN
dialects into which the Word has
been translated. For example, take
the Eskimo language. The ancient
Hebrews were a pastoral people and
biblical references to sheep, lambs,
goats and such animals are frequent,
whereas the Eskimos, dwelling
among the eternal SHOWS, were IA
Iniliar enough with polar bears.
reindeer walruses and seal, but had
never seen nor heard of sheep or
lambs, and had no words for them
IN their language, nor any word hat
would convey the meaning of the
word date, or alive, or man other
things mentioned I'll the Bible.
In the circumstances, consider the
difficulties Of translators when
called upon to change into Eskimo
the twenty-ninth verse of the first
chapter of st. John, which reads:
''The next day John seeth yesut
looming unto him. and saith, Behold
the Lamb of God, which taketf
away the ain OF the world!'"
A prolonged debate ensued as K
what word might be used for lamb
which was not In the Eskimo
tongue, and 1t was finally decided
that the nearest word to IT wa
baby sSaL" so that the Eskimo