Lest you think that I’m raging against the Sociedade Bíblica de Brasil (SBB) in general, I want to be clear and state that my complaint is only with their digital text policy. I’m not in a position to say anything about their print distribution and exportation. Their online Bible is rudimentary but a large number of online services including Bíblica make up for what they lack.

Two projects of the SBB that most people aren’t aware of are aiding the cause of Bible translation especially in lusophone Africa. First, there are the translations made available by SBB for Paratext. Paratext is a translation suite developed especially by United Bible Societies for the assistance of those involved in Bible translation. (You can’t have a copy, sorry…) SBB provides the João Ferreira de Almeida Revista e Atualizada (1993) and the João Ferreira de Almeida Revista e Corrigida (1995).

The RA1993 is the most widely accepted and best (in my opinion) version for translator use. So it’s good news that this is the version used in the Portuguese/Greek Interlinear: Novo Testamento Interlinear Grego-Português. Many of our translation teams in Mozambique use this book on a daily basis. In addition to the interlinear text it has the RA93 and the Linguagem de Hoje (an excellent contemporary language version) in the inside margins.

I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am to the SBB for the way they have made these versions available in ways that are of great benefit to Bible translation in Mozambique.

I almost forgot. Another place where the RA93 shows up is in the Bíblia de Estudo de Genebra, a highly-respected and widely available study Bible here in Mozambique.

Finally, I want to confess my puzzlement with regard to the Portuguese Bible Society. Like the SBB, the SBP makes available one of their translations, the excellent Boa Nova (Good News) for use in the Paratext suite. But beyond that I have a hard time understanding how they are fulfilling their mission. Their domain name http://www.sociedade-biblica.pt/ takes you to an online store for Portuguese Bibles and none of the links to SBP seem to work. I will say that their Facebook page and Twitter feed seem quite active.

Finally (and I really mean it this time), the Bible Societies in general seem to have a negligible online presence. Maybe they’re busy getting work done while folks like me goof around on the Internet…