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GIDEON BIBLES

GIDEON BIBLES. In 1899, Samuel Eugene Hill, John H. Nicholson, and Will J. Knights founded the Gideons, an organization for Christian commercial travelers. The organization grew so rapidly that its membership soon numbered several thousand. A few years after Hill, Nicholson, and Knights founded the society, it began the work for which it is best known: distributing Bibles to hotels, hospitals, and similar institutions. By 2002, the Gideon Society had grown to include 140,000 members in 175 countries. It claims to distribute one million copies of the Bible and New Testament in eighty different languages every week. A similar organization, the International Bible Society, also distributes Bibles.

I. Howell Kane/A. E.

See also Religion and Religious Affiliation; Religious Thought and Writings.