The initiative by the Bible Valley Society, an Israeli NGO, along with its government there aims to translate the Bible in several native languages and keep for display at a Jerusalem museum.
The international endeavor titled 'People of the World Inscribe the Bible' already saw thousands of people from 31 countries successfully participating in the project.
Among the completed versions is southern India's Tamil language. The completed versions of Chinese (Mandarin and Taiwanese), English, Tamil and Finnish, and one in progress in Hebrew – already went on display at the Bible Lands Museum in the capital, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Denmark, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Greece, Israel, Poland, Singapore, Finland, Canada, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia and Ukraine are the 31 countries participated so far.
Inaugurated in 2007, the project intends to reach their goal of 100 Bibles in 100 languages within five years. In fact 25,000 acres in the foothills of the Jerusalem mountains have been designated for this monumental project.
The motivation behind the project, says Bible Valley, is to promote cultural heritage and create a bridge between monotheistic civilizations.
Such a linkage between the holy land, the holy books and the peoples who share a common belief in them, is a source of affinity and cooperation, adding to tolerance and peace, it adds.
Few of the project objectives is enumerated as: Archive, manage, and display the hundreds of manuscripts and Bible volumes, written in many languages; To foster continued multinational and multi faith dialogue through the ongoing process of inscribing the Bible; To enable visitors to the Bible Shrine to contribute their own handwritten verses.
The project also collects a nominal donation from the contributing organisation which will be used for Bible translation, publication and distribution efforts to needy Christians in less developed countries.