For some reason we seem to expect the title of the Bible to kind of look like this written in “Old English Script”, and full of archaic words ending in “th”. I have heard some persons claim that the King James Version is the only “true” Bible. Yet it was actually originally written in the common language of its first readers in such a way that anyone who could read (and even those who could not read) would be able to fully understand every word, every thought, every incident, and every lesson being taught.
My very first Bible fit the traditional image quite well. (I was in 1st. grade at school long before the advent of fancy Children’s Bibles full of color pictures.) It was a black imitation leather-bound copy of the King James Bible therefore in English. I point this out because my second Bible was a small zippered maroon leather-bound Bible “Antigua Version de Casiodoro de Reina (1569)–yes, a Spanish Bible I purchased myself with my own allowance money when I was about 12 years old and living in Peru. (I still have it and hold it very special in my heart.) It obviously also uses quite a few archaic Spanish words. And, I have my Father’s Bible(KJV), my Mother’s Bible (NIV), and even my Great-grandfather’s Bible (KJV), my Spanish (1960 Revision) preaching Bible, a Today’s English New Testament, and my Portuguese preaching Bible(João Fereira de Almeida version revised in Brazil, 1969). 
My most recent addition has been the excellent NKJV Andrews Study Bible.
Along the way, I realized that many persons, guided by the Holy Spirit, tried to keep that early historical focus of having God’s Word in the language of the common man. William Tyndale was martyred because of his burning desire to have the Bible in the common language of his countrymen, yet if you would try to read it today, it would be even more difficult than the King James! I also realized it could be of great value to understand the nuances of biblical terminology if I were to have as many different versions of the Bible as possible so I began collecting them as references. I found out that there is nothing “sacred” about King James’s English, it was the language of the British subjects of that era. I also soon realized that there were efforts by persons who had particular opinions that may or may not be in agreement with God’s Word who set about writing their “own version” and if I were to be able to talk intelligently with proponents of those versions I should become familiar with them and with some of the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic words and their best translations. Therefore, some of those versions soon joined the collection.
It wasn’t long before the collection began to expand even further. While living in Brazil a friend and I decided to have a display of Bibles to show in churches on the annual Day of the Bible and I was able to acquire numerous versions in Spanish, Portuguese, then other languages and dialects of South America. Eventually I found my work taking me to the far corners of the globe and when folk heard I was interested in Bibles, I was given editions in their languages both modern and old. Before I hardly realized it, the collection had reached to over 150 Bibles in nearly 100 languages. In the collection there’s a small booklet once published by the Voice of Prophesy that has 1 Corinthians 13 in thirty one English versions, a great source for a month’s worth of devotionals! There’s an archaic German version translated by Martin Luther. 
There’s a Hebrew Septuagint from the late 1800’s that had belonged to my Grandfather. There’s an Armenian version which was the first language the early Greek was translated into.
Throughout history the Bible has managed to survive in spite of diabolical efforts to destroy it or at least suppress it. We are even seeing a resurgence of this today with Bibles being burned publically, even in our own society of so-called “freedom of religion”. Yet all along the Bible has served to help people become literate; the Bible has brought its readers to Christ directly out of paganism and atheism. The Bible has been of such an impact in individual lives that many people have been willing to die rather than turn their backs on its teachings.
The question must be, what part of your life does the Bible play a part in? A friend once told me that theology without biography is meaningless. In other words, if the truth’s found in the Bible do not have a positive impact in one’s daily life, it is irrelevant. Hopefully one day soon, this collection that now resides with the Adventist Youth Ministries Museum will be able to spark an interest in its contents and in the global impact it has had, has, and will have on people young and old who look forward to Christ’s return.
