World English Bible

The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible. That means that you may freely copy it in any form, including electronic and print formats. The World English Bible is based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament. The companion Deuterocanon/Apocrypha is derived from the Revised Version Apocrypha and the Brenton translation of the Septuagint into English. It is in draft form, and currently being edited for accuracy and readability. The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are essentially completed, although some proofreading comments are still being accepted when they improve accuracy, readability, and consistency. The Deuterocanon/Apocrypha still contains some archaic grammar that will be revised. For more information, please see the World English Bible Frequently Asked Questions and the legal and status page.

The World English Bible British Edition is the same as the World English Bible, except (1) God's Proper Name in the Old Testament is translated "LORD" or "GOD" (all capitals) instead of "Yahweh", and (2) British spelling instead of American spelling is used. We avoid words and phrases that have different meaning in these two dialects, and use punctuation acceptable for both. It is our hope that picking the version that uses the spelling conventions of your own country will lead to smoother reading with fewer distractions due to spelling differences.

The Ecumenical (standard), Protestant, and Catholic editions are all the same except for the selection of which books are included and their order of presentation. The standard Ecumenical edition contains all of the books of the Bible used by a large variety of Christian denominations, arranged in the order of the canonical Old Testament of 39 books, a collection of Deuterocanon/Apocrypha books, then the 27 books of the New Testament. The Protestant editions just omit the middle section, leaving only the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. The Catholic edition presents the books in the traditional Catholic book order, substitutes Esther translated from the Greek Septuagint for Esther translated from the traditional Hebrew, and omits books not recognized as canonical or deuterocanonical by the Roman Catholic Church. Otherwise, they are all the same.

You are free to quote, publish, print, proclaim, memorize, preach, teach, and share the World English Bible as much as you like. There is no royalty charge or any hassles. If you wish to support the work of the World English Bible translation and distribution, as well as Bible distribution work in many other languages, you may do so by supporting the senior editor, but this is not required.

The table below lists various editions of the World English Bible, plus some other English Bible translations that you might want to compare.