Two Centuries of
Innovation and Impact

Our History

God has blessed Biblica with a rich and amazing history — and we dare to believe He’s just getting started. Because as long as there are people still waiting to hear the Gospel, we will not stop breaking down barriers to the Bible.

1809

Biblica is founded as the New York Bible Society to meet the spiritual needs of the city.

1810

First Bible translation sponsored: missionary William Carey’s Bengali Bible in India.

1892

Scriptures in 65 languages are provided to immigrants at the new Ellis Island.

1952

Scriptures provided for Billy Graham’s New York crusades.

1973

The New International Version (NIV) is first published.

2004

The Reach4Life Bible program for youth launches in South Africa.

2008

The NIV launches with YouVersion’s Holy Bible app, one of the first 100 apps in Apple’s App Store.

2009

Biblica becomes the new name of the ministry to reflect the growing diversity of our work.

2010

Bible translation organizations unite around a shared vision of reaching every language by 2033.

2019

The Digital Training Library launches to improve the speed and quality of Bible translation.

2019

Open.Bible launches, unleashing the free release of God’s Word through Creative Commons licensing.

2019

Frontline Church

Biblica releases the first Open License Bible release in Arabic.

2022

Biblica fast-tracks the launch of a contemporary Ukrainian New Testament and app in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.