Thirteen Countries
“Thirteen countries are now working with the digital technology developed by the BSNF,” says Stefan van Dijk, manager Development and Publishing at the BSNF. “Bible Societies in Germany, Finland, Brazil, South Africa and Kenya came first, after that, some other European countries and Peru followed. Now, four more countries are added to that. The sites in Angola, Ukraine, Ecuador and Argentina are going live this week. Later this year, more countries will follow, among others five African countries and Romania. Digital Bible platforms help to spread the Bible around the world – which is our mission – and to involve people in our work.”
The URLs of the four new Bible sites are:
- for Angola: https://sba.co.ao/
- for Ecuador: https://www.sbuec.org/
- for Ukraine: https://www.ukrbs.org/
- for Argentina: https://biblia.sba.org.ar/.
Julia from Ukraine worked on the site in her country and explains, “Due to the war, Ukrainians are struggling with big questions like, ‘Why is this happening to us?’” The Bible helps us deal with those big questions, to be strong and to trust that good will overcome evil.”
Two Versions
Since 2016, the BSNF has been working together with other Bible Societies to make the technology needed for this available and to improve it. Two versions have been developed: an elaborate one and a simple one. The platform debijbel.nl uses the elaborate version, with the free app Mijn Bijbel. There, dozens of Bible translations and the Hebrew and Greek source texts can be found, as well as current blogs, reading plans and background information. Argentina also uses this version. The simple version is based on the technology of the site bijbel.nbv21.nl and combines two functions: you can read the Bible and find information about the Bible Society of that particular country. This is the version Angola, Ecuador and Ukraine use.