World English Bible
The World English Bible (WEB) is an English translation of the Bible published in 2000. It is an updated revision of the American Standard Version (1901). The World English Bible was created by volunteers using the American Standard Version as the base text as part of the ebible.org project through Rainbow Missions, Inc., a Colorado non-profit corporation. The World English Bible is one of the few public domain, twenty-first century English translations of the entire Bible, and it is freely distributed to the public using electronic formats.
The World English Bible claims to be one of the few English-language Bibles custom translated to be understood by most English-speakers worldwide, eliminating the need for data-processing based or computer operating system-specific internationalizations. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and it was first known as the American Standard Version 1997.
The World English Bible project was started to produce a modern English Bible version that is not copyrighted, does not use archaic English (such as the KJV), and is not translated into Basic English (such as the Bible in Basic English). The World English Bible follows the American Standard Version's decision to transliterate the Tetragrammaton, but uses "Yahweh" instead of "Jehovah" throughout the Old Testament. The British and Messianic editions as well as the Apocryphal books and New Testament use the traditional forms (e.g., the LORD).
The work is based on the 1901 American Standard Version English translation, the Greek Majority Text, and the Hebrew Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia with some minor adjustments made because of alternate readings found in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Septuagint. These alternate readings are usually ignored or restricted to the footnotes. The translation process included seven phases of editing and proofreading for each book. An initial automated pass updated approximately 1,000 archaic words, phrases and grammatical constructs. The first manual pass added quotation marks (the ASV had none) and other punctuation and compared the translation to the Greek and Hebrew texts in areas where significant textual variants or meanings were unclear.
All of the text of the World English Bible is deeded into the public domain. The ebible.org project maintains a trademark on the phrase "World English Bible" and forbids any derivative work that substantially alters the text from using the name "World English Bible" to describe it. The reasons given were that they felt copyright was an ineffective way of protecting the text's integrity and the fact that the Creative Commons licenses did not exist at the time the project began and thus, since the decision to place the text in the public domain had already been made, "it is way too late to change that decision" after the fact.
Books by World English Bible
World English Bible
The World English Bible (WEB) is an English translation of the Bible published in 2000. It is an updated revision of the American Standard Version (1901). The World English Bible was created by volunteers using the American Standard Version as the ba...
Bible (WEB) 19: Psalms - Selections
To celebrate Easter, LibriVox volunteers bring you nine different recordings of various psalms from the World English Bible. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of April 9th, 2006.(Summary by Annie Coleman)This collection includes: Psa...
Bible (WEB) NT 04: John
The book of John stands out among the Biblical writings about Jesus as an eloquent depiction of his deity, composed in detailed and elegant prose. It's believed to have been written by the apostle John near the end of the first century A.D.The World...
Bible (WEB) NT 01: Matthew
The Gospel of Matthew (literally, "according to Matthew"; Greek, Κατά Μαθθαίον or Κατά Ματθαίον) is one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament. It narrates an account of the life and ministry of Jesus, from his genealogy to his post-resurre...
Bible (WEB) 32: Jonah
This short narrative book of the Old Testament contains one of the most famous Bible Stories, of “Jonah and the Whale.” The “great fish” however is only mentioned in three verses, and the true punch comes in the oft-neglected fourth chapter. “Is it r...
Bible (WEB) NT 09: Galatians
The Epistle to Galatians is a book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia in central Anatolia. It is principally concerned with the controversy surrounding...
Bible (WEB) NT 18: Philemon
While in prison, Paul writes this letter to another Christian, Philemon. Paul has met with and converted a man named Onesimus, probably a runaway slave, and he writes to Philemon, Onesimus's legal owner, to tell him that he is sending him back. App...
Bible (WEB) NT 10: Ephesians
Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, beginning with a praise to God for the forgiveness of their sins and for choosing them in His grace. Paul prays for the spiritual well-being of the Ephesians and reminds them how sinful they were before they turn...
Bible (WEB) NT 02: The Good News According to Mark
Mark's Gospel is certainly the shortest, and possibly the earliest of the four canonical gospels. It covers Jesus' life from his Baptism to his Resurrection, but concentrates particularly on the week leading up to the Crucifixion. It appears to have...
Bible (WEB) NT 20: James
The Book of James : Supposed to have been written by James the Brother of Jesus and First Leader of the Christian movement in Jerusalem after the death of Jesus Christ. The theme of this book is the importance of Works as the vehicle of Faith . (Writ...
Bible (WEB) NT 01-27: The New Testament
The World English Bible is a translation of the Bible into modern English. Work on the project began in 1997, but the translation has been released directly into the public domain, free of copyright. It is largely an update of the American Standard V...
Bible (WEB) Old Testament - complete
The World English Bible is a modern English translation of the Bible, released directly into the public domain. (Summary by Leon Mire)
Bible (WEB) NT 11: Philippians
The Letter to the Philippians, written by the apostle Paul, is a heartfelt message to a church he deeply cared for. It is a powerful testament to the power of faith in Christ and the importance of living a life of love, unity, and joy. The letter add...
Bible (WEB) Apocrypha/Deuterocanon: Book of Tobit
The Book of Tobit is an apocryphal book of the Old Testament, included in the Septuagint (Greek) Bible and found in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. It relates the story of Tobit, a righteous Israelite from the tribe of Naphtali who lived in Nineveh dur...