World English Bible (WEB)

Introduction

The World English Bible is a modern-language translation of the American Standard Version which has been placed in the public domain. See WEB Contact Information below for additional information as to the source of this work.

SpiritAndTruth.org has adapted the WEB to operate within WordLinks. See Modifications to the WEB By SpiritAndTruth.org for information regarding the minor changes (non textual) made by SpiritAndTruth.org to integrate the WEB into WordLinks.

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WEB Buttons

The following buttons appear within each WEB chapter to facilitate moving through the text. (When using the WEB within the SpiritAndTruth Bible Viewer, these buttons are largely unnecessary.)

Help Click on this button to get help (this file.)

Up Clicking on this button takes you to the previous chapter.

Down Clicking on this button takes you to the next chapter.


Information on the World English Bible


Why create yet another English translation of the Holy Bible?

That is a good question. There are many good English translations of the Holy Bible. Unfortunately, all of them are either (1) archaic (like the KJV and ASV of 1901), or (2) covered by copyright restrictions that prevent unrestricted free posting on the internet or other media (like the NIV and NASB). The Bible in Basic English (BBE) was in the Public Domain in the USA (but not all countries) for a while, but its copyrighted status was restored by GATT. (The BBE used a rather restricted subset of English, anyway, limiting its accuracy and readability.) In other words, there is NO OTHER complete translation of the Holy Bible in normal Modern English that can be freely copied (except for some limited "fair use") without written permission from the publisher and (usually) payment of royalties. This is the vacuum that the World English Bible is filling.

Why is the copyright such a big deal?

The copyright laws of most nations and the international treaties that support them are a mixed blessing. By granting authors and translators a legal monopoly (for a limited, but very long, time) on the right of copying and "first sale" of their works, the law makers have made writing and translating very profitable for some people whose works are in great demand. This has, no doubt, been a factor in the creation of many of the good Modern English translations of the Holy Bible that we now enjoy. The problem with this system, with respect to the Holy Bible, is that it has had the effect of limiting distribution of God's Word in modern languages. For example, I cannot legally post copies of the entire New International Version of the Holy Bible on my web site in a downloadable, searchable, and readily copyable format without the permission of the International Bible Society and Zondervan (copyright owner and publisher). Zondervan won't grant such permission unless they get a significant royalty (they quoted me $10,000 + $10/copy distributed) and unless I convince them that my Bible search software is "good enough" for them. Needless to say, the Bible search software that I am writing with the intention of distributing as donorware will not come with the NIV.

The problem of copyright protection of Modern English translations of the Holy Bible is not just significant on the Internet and various electronic information services. It also affects people who want to quote significant portions of Scripture in books, audio tapes, and other media. This drives up the price of preaching the Gospel. Basic economics tells us that this is not a good thing when our goal is to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). For example, the "free" Bibles that the Gideons place cost more if they use a modern version, like Thomas-Nelson's New King James Version, than if they use the (more difficult to read) King James Version.

Naturally, I'm not suggesting that we abolish the copyright law or that existing Modern English translations be immediately released to the Public Domain. I understand the way that the profits from the sales of the NIV, for example, help fund other language translations at the International Bible Society (as well as helping to enrich some folks at Zondervan). I also understand that the business of Bible sales has helped establish a good supply of Bibles in many parts of the world, in a variety of formats, sizes, styles, and colors. What we are doing is liberating at least one Modern English translation of the Holy Bible from all copyright restrictions -- a translation that is trustworthy, accurate, and useful for evangelism and discipleship.

Another concern where copyright restrictions come into play is in translation and creating derivative works. For example, the copyright notice of the NASB expressly forbids making translations or derivative works based on the NASB without getting permission from the Lockman Foundation. I don't know if they would make this easy or hard, expensive or cheap, but I do know that there will be no need to even ask when using the WEB.

What original language texts are you using?

Since this is primarily an update of the 1901 edition, the choices made by the original 50 or so Evangelical scholars that made this translation hold unless reference is made to the original languages to help with places where the Elizabethan English is not clear, or where major textual variants are known to exist. In this case, we are using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, also called The Stuttgart Bible, in the Old Testament, and the Byzantine Majority Text as published for use with The Online Bible in the New Testament (M-Text). This choice of Greek text is very close to what the KJV translators used, but does take advantage of some more recently discovered manuscripts. Although there are good scholarly arguments both for and against using the Byzantine Majority Text over the "Alexandrian" text based on the dating and critical editing work of Nestle and Aland and published by the United Bible Societies (UBS), we find the following to be compelling reasons:

WEB Contact Information

Rainbow Missions
PO BOX 1151
LONGMONT CO 80502-1151
USA
https://www.ebible.org
mpj@ebible.org

Modifications to the WEB By SpiritAndTruth.org

SpiritAndTruth.org is not actively involved in the WEB Bible project, but is greatful for the use of this non-copyrighted modern English text of the Bible. The WEB Bible presented here has been slightly modified to facilitate its usage within WordLinks.
  1. Verses which exist in the KJV, but which do not appear in the WEB are denoted by "(This verse does not appear in the WEB Bible.)" These occur at Luke 17:36 and Rom. 16:25-27.

    This was done to facilitate parallel viewing of the WEB with the KJV.

  2. Topics within the WEB text have been linked to Nave's Topical Bible and the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.

Please send corrections of this HTML-version of the World English Bible to:
contact@SpiritAndTruth.org
https://www.SpiritAndTruth.org