Bible Societies
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
of the execution of the work." It was not until 1808 that the first Bible Society was organized in Philadelphia. In 1809 societies were organized in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey in the order named and by 1816 there were 128 such societies.
The idea of uniting these societies in one organization was a natural one and was much discussed. The missionary travels of the Rev. Samuel J. Mills (q.v.) in the West and South, reported in religious periodicals, increased the desire for a national organization, which he strongly advocated. On Jan. 1, 1816, Elias Boudinot (q.v.), the president of the New Jersey Bible Society, made a public communication on the subject, and on Jan. 17 he issued a circular letter appointing Wednes- 1. Organ- day, May 8, 1816, as the time for ization. holding a convention for this purpose in New York. Sixty delegates representing twenty-eight Bible societies (besides several other persons admitted to seats in the convention) met on the day named in the Garden Street Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church, representing the Presbyterian, Congregational, Methodist, Episcopal, Dutch Reformed, and Baptist Churches, and the Society of Friends. The convention was in session for two days, adopted a constitution and in accordance therewith elected managers, who met in the City Hall, May 11, and elected officers, Elias Boudinot being made president.
Under this constitution " the sole object shall be to encourage a wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures without note or comment" (art. i). The board of managers is composed of thirty-six laymen, one-fourth of whom go out of office every year, but are eligible for reelection. Every clergyman who is a
2. Constitution and
Mana life member may meet and vote with
ment. *ne board of managers, provided he receives no salary or compensation for services from the society. The managers meet regularly every month, consider and act on all matters presented by ten standing committees besides other matters originating in the board itself and report all their proceedings to the annual meeting of the members of the society held on the eecond Thursday of May and usually in New York.
The society was incorporated in 1841. The societies which already existed became for the most part auxiliary to the national organization and in addition many other auxiliary societies were organized under its direction, the number at one time reaching 2,200. Many of these, however, have ceased to exist, the number now being 541. The " Bible House," Astor Place, N. Y., the society's headquarters, was erected in 1852 and was paid for by funds contributed for the special purpose and not from current receipts for benevolent work.
The ninety-first annual report of the board of
managers was presented May 9, 1907. The
total cash receipts were $575,820.94.
" The total issues of that year were
*Work 1.910,853, of which 1,010,777 were
issued from the Bible House in New
York, and 900,076 from the society's agencies
abroad, being printed on mission presses in China,
Japan, Siam, Syria, and Turkey. The total issues of the society in Bibles, Testaments, and portions amount to 80,420,382 copies, distributed as follows: Bibles 20,293,636 Testaments and portions 58,215,889.
The efforts of the society were at first directed mainly to meeting the needs of the people of the United States, but from the very first it was in spirit and intention a foreign as well as a home mission society. Bibles at the very beginning were supplied to the North-American Indians. The third annual report shows that steps were already taken for sending Spanish Bibles to Buenos Ayres and the next year the society was reaching out to West Africa. In 1836 the first foreign agency was instituted in Constantinople, and in 1 8ij4 the agency for the La Plata region in South America. During the past thirty years this
4. Foreign work has largely increased and regular Work. agencies have been established in
Japan, China, Brazil, Mexico. Korea, Cuba, Siam and Laos, Central America, Porto Rico and the Philippines, besides Venezuela and Colombia, where the agencies have been temporarily discontinued. These agencies have distributed a total of 9,453,918 Bibles, Testaments, and portions in China alone. Besides this the society has continually cooperated with missions and missionaries in countries in all quarters of the globe. It has stimulated Bible translation, initiating it in some cases, cooperating with others more frequently and securing needed revisions under its patronage and partly or wholly at its expense. It has been thus interested in about 100 translations and revisions in all.
The labors of the society have been broken twice by serious differences among its friends and supporters. In 1835 missionaries in Burma published at the expense of the society a translation of the New Testament which rendered the Greek word baptizein and its cognate terms by the English " immerse " or an equivalent. After much discussion the managers resolved that they felt at liberty " to encourage only such versions as conform in the principle of their translation to the common English Version — at least
5. Contro- so far as that all the religious denomversies. inations represented in this society
can consistently use and circulate such versions in their several schools and communities," and missionary boards were requested in asking aid to state that the versions they proposed to circulate were in accordance with this resolution. The Baptists took offense and a controversy ensued, the consequence of which was the formation of the American and Foreign Bible Society (see below, 2 V In 1847 the committee on versions was instructed to undertake a careful collation of different editions of the English Bible with a view to perfecting its text in minutiae. Their final report, made May 1, 1851, stated that in collating five standard copies of English and American imprint with the original edition of 1611 nearly 24,000 variations were found solely in the text and punctuation, not one of which marred the integrity of the text or affected any doctrine or precept of the Bible. A standard then