95% of printed Bibles are in English

Numbers, rate, percentage and misinformation. Today I was browsing a newsletter of a Christian organization which said 95% of all printed Bibles are in English, but that only 4.8% of the world population knows English.

Apples and oranges. And this was an appeal for more translation projects.

I look to my right and I have 10 Bibles--including one in Spanish and one in Russian. And that doesn't count what's in my husband's office or other rooms. It would make more sense when talking about Bibles to use "household."

There are 983 million people in the world who speak English, 372 as a first language and 611 as a second (about 13%). Yes, having the Bible in your own heart language is important, but it would be important for those with an English language Bible in their home to open it and read.

English was the language of the Union Jack, and the King James Bible went where ever the British went. The Crown had a monopoly and colonists couldn't print and distribute the KJV Bible. The Geneva Bible (1599) was the original Bible of the colonies--came with the Pilgrims in 1620. That said, English Bibles were translations of Greek, Latin and Hebrew.

The first European language Bible printed in the future United States was in German in 1743, not English, and it was for the Brethren (Church of the Brethren current name). The first Bible in any language printed in America was in Algonquin in 1661, which brings us back to the point of the article I read--translations are important.

Christianity in America, a handbook, 1983.

Lutheran Bible Translators.  The Messenger, Christmas 2019.

4809 Digging for Danners

My Ohio State e-mail account is currently a magnet for spam on gambling and Russian spam. Does everyone get Russian language spam or am I just one of the lucky ones? I never got it before the new "secure" system OSU OIT instituted awhile back. It can almost make one yearn for cheap ink cartridges, mortgages, and virgin lesbians, which used to be the content of my spam. Yesterday I had about 500 items in those categories.

After figuring out how to trash 20 at a time, but scanning for those I didn't want to lose, I found an older one I had not deleted but held to read later. And it was from the Brethren genealogy listserv on Samuel Danner, grandson of Michael Danner, Sr., who immigrated in 1727. I'm a descendant of Henry Danner, not Jacob, Samuel's father, but I copied and pasted into my Family Tree Maker notes to be figured out later. I'm a descendant of Henry's daughter, Rachel. Merle Rummel, who contributed this information to the listserv on April 16 had an interesting item about the location of a Sauer Bible in the Danner family. The first Bible printed in America in a European language was not in English, but in German and Christopher Sauer of Philadelphia published it:

"Brethren Roots and Branches (predecessor of our current Brethren Roots) of 1987 (Spring-Summer and Fall-Winter) had two discussions on the Sauer Bible owned by Samuel Danner Sr (son of Jacob Danner - grandson of Michael Danner), father of the minister Samuel Danner. This was the family records of the birth and marriages of Samuel SR Family (did not include deaths). The second presentation included the children and spouses of Samuel JR - and a partial list of grandchildren. The Bible is at the Duggan Library, Hanover College, Hanover IN. The records are in German -from the sequence of names - the Bible was passed down for 3 generations.