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But, there was one emotion that
grabbed me more than any of the oth-
ers. I was gripped with a bit of frustration
about this event which I had just finished
laughing and crying over. Why don’t
Americans have this reaction to receiv-
ing a Bible? What are we missing from
our basic understanding of the Word of
God that limits our own appreciation for
holding one in our hands? Shouldn’t we
also feel like we are a privileged people to
own, read, and study our own personal
Bibles? As I pondered these questions, it
dawned on me that most people are unfa-
miliar with the process of how we got the
Bible into modern English. The ability to
simply go into your local store and buy
a Bible is something that has become so
easy for us that I’m afraid we’ve become
apathetic. Have you ever stopped to ask
yourself, how did that Bible get on the
shelf in the store in the first place?
The ease of owning your own Bible in
English has been taken for granted, yet
the rate at which Bibles are purchased
has not changed. The Bible is the best-
selling book of the year, every year. It is
almost impossible to accurately calculate
the amount of Bibles that are sold in the
United States every year, but conserva-
tive estimates range around twenty-five
million, producing more than half a bil-
lion dollars annually. Publishing the Bi-
ble has been a very lucrative business in
America, but that wasn’t always the case.
Before the Revolutionary war, the printing of the Bible in English was banned in
America, due to the king’s printers having exclusive rights to the printing of
the Authorized or King James Version.
During that war, the supply of Bibles
from Britain had been completely cut
off. This led the Continental Congress to
examine the work of a Philadelphia
printer by the name of Robert Aitken,
who had undertaken the task of typeset-
ting a Bible into English. On September
10, 1792, the Continental Congress is-
sued this resolution to the American
public, which finally allowed the Bible to
be printed in English in America:
“That the United States in Congress
assembled highly approve the pious
and laudable undertaking of Mr.
Aitken, as subservient to the interest
of religion as well as an instance of
the progress of arts in this country,
and being satisfied from the above
report of his care and accuracy in the
execution of the work, they recom-
mend this edition of the Bible to the
inhabitants of the United States, and
hereby authorize him to publish this
recommendation in the manner he
shall think proper.” 1
President Reagan framed the importance of the Bible in America like this,
“Of the many influences that have shaped
the United States of America into a distinctive Nation and people, none may be
The ability to simply go
into your local store and
buy a Bible is something
that has become so easy
for us that I’m afraid
we’ve become apathetic.
