The United Bible Societies has appointed Nelson Saba to the newly created role of digital publishing strategist, demonstrating its commitment to harnessing digital technology to make the Bible more widely available and accessible.

Saba, a Brazilian, is a pioneer of digital Bible publishing, having begun work in the field in 1996. He created the best-selling Bible software iLumina, which launched in 2002, and 2009’s multimedia Glo Bible, which has moved more than 3 million downloads to date.

“We have really exciting opportunities ahead of us,” said Saba. “United Bible Societies is in a very strong position to be a leader in this field because we have great intellectual property—our Bible texts—and a huge global community of users of those texts. Digital media has tremendous power to communicate God's Word and will help Bible Societies fulfill their mission of Scripture distribution and engagement in ways that have not been possible with print.”

Melvin Rivera, United Bible Societies director of global Bible publishing, said he was “delighted to welcome Mr. Saba onto our team.”

“He shares our passion for the Bible and our deep desire to see its life-changing message known across the world,” Rivera said of Saba. “His wealth of experience in digital publishing will help us to greatly extend our work in this area.

“He will be involved in the expansion of our Digital Bible Library—already the world's largest collection of digitized Bible texts, available in more than 500 languages and growing—and he will also be leading the creation and coordination of a comprehensive global digital strategy for the Bible Societies,” added Rivera. “We are grateful to the Bible Society of Brazil, which has seconded Mr. Saba to do this work."

Michael Perreau, United Bible Societies director general, said that Mr. Saba is joining the Bible Societies at a “pivotal moment of history.”

“New technologies are being adopted ever faster in society and I am staggered by the effective and meaningful ways in which digital technology can communicate the message of the Bible, helping people to better interact with it,” Perreau said. “The creation of this new position reflects our recognition of the strategic importance of digital Bible publishing.”