God did not intend for His Word to be difficult. But the Good News is hard to understand for many of the people we serve. They are among the poorest and least educated in the world, often living in remote villages or under‐developed urban centers. Many have never known or even heard of Jesus Christ. These are the people who need the hope of the Gospel, who need to understand God’s love for them, so they can believe. That is why Bible League International’s easy‐to‐read Bible translations, written in everyday language, are so important.
Easy‐to‐Read Bible translations bring together a scholarly commitment to faithfully and accurately represent the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts of the Bible in contemporary language. Today, full Easy‐to‐ReadTM Bibles are available in 24 languages and New Testaments are finished in 33 languages. Bible League International’s easy‐to‐read translations ensure that the first Bible people receive— especially seekers and new believers—is one they can understand. All available easy‐to‐read Scriptures are integrated into Project Philip, Church Planter Training, and Bible‐based Literacy materials. Completed Bible translations are Arabic, Awadhi, Bengali, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, English (US and UK), Gujarati, Hindi, Hungarian, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Tamil, Telegu, Thai, Ukrainian, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Translation teams around the world have completed New Testaments and are currently working on Old Testaments in Haitian Creole, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Swahili, and Turkish. Also, work is progressing on an easy‐to‐read French New Testament and the revision of Hindi and Telugu New Testaments.
The English language Easy‐to‐Read Version of the Bible (ERV) accurately expresses the full meaning of the original text in a style that is clear and easy to understand. The ERV Bible is especially helpful for those who have limited experience with English, including children, and people learning the language. Written at a third grade reading level, using short sentences and everyday vocabulary, this translation is one of the easiest to understand English language versions ever published.