The ministry, which began under the name "Hosanna," was founded in 1972 by Jerry Jackson and his wife Annette Jackson as a library that lent cassette tapes geared towards Christian themes and ideas provided by various teachers. The idea for producing audio Bibles came from a missionary visit of theirs to a Hopi Indian reservation, where they discovered that written Bibles translated into the Hopi language were not being used due to chronic illiteracy. Hosanna entered the international marketplace in 1986, when the ministry began working with several Haitian missionaries to record a Creole translation of the Bible. From 1986 forward, the ministry used revenues as well as donations to record translations of the Bible in hundreds of different languages. In 1991, its first international recording office opened in Ghana. The organization works with several Bible translators and distributors. The language professor Alexander Arguelles notes that it is possible to use these recordings and the equivalent bible text in one's own language, to start learning any of the languages. For many there is no other way to learn the language.
Modern technology
In 2004 the ministry began distributing the Proclaimer, a device developed in house with an audio chip that broadcasts recordings of the Bible to as many as 300 people. Rechargeable via an electrical socket, solar energy, or a hand crank, the Proclaimer's battery can last through enough charges to play the New Testament more than 1,000 times. In 2006 the ministry began producing audio Bible MP3s, fitting the entire New Testament onto a single disc, instead of over a dozen CDs or tapes. During this period its revenues rose from $8 million to $22 million over four years. The Proclaimer is also now given away for free to individuals in developing countries. Later on the ministry developed the "BibleStick", a personal audio device that uses digital technology to broadcast. More than 900,000 BibleSticks have been donated to US soldiers overseas since their invention. The Biblestick sent to the military differs from those sent to other areas of the world, as it is designed to reduce visibility in low-light situations. The organization forms Bible listening groups, and developed more than 85,000 of these groups worldwide in 2009, varying from a few dozen individuals to groups of thousands. The organization has now set up almost a million groups. As of March 2018, the ministry has produced audio Bible recordings in over 1150 languages, representing over 6 billion speakers in over 190 countries, and there has been over 900,000 Proclaimers distributed worldwide. The ministry's Bible.is app, available for both Apple and Android listening devices, offers over 90% of the ministry's languages to users. In November 2012, they added an app for the deaf community called the Deaf Bible app, which provides video of Scripture in 15 sign languages to date. In August 2014, the ministry launched the Bible.is KIDZ app to help kids engage with the Bible through interactive games and activities. All of the organizations digital expressions are powered by a system believed to be the world's largest digital Bible library called the Digital Bible Platform. In April 2013, the organization opened the Digital Bible Platform to approved developers through API access.
