Holy Bible

The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible. This edition includes the 66 books that all Christians regard as canonical. The deuterocano/apocrypha is available in a separate volume. The text in this volume is all black. "Public Domain" means that you may freely copy it in any form, including electronic and print formats, without having to pay royalties. The World English Bible is a language update of the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, with original language texts diligently compared.

This edition exactly matches the official electronic text of the whole Old and New Testaments of the World English Bible as of September, 2022. This edition uses American English spelling. (Another edition that uses British/International spelling is available.) The new typesetting preserves poetry and prose formatting better than prior editions of the whole World English Bible for improved readability.

So what is different about the World English Bible, besides the freedom to copy it?

The style of the World English Bible, while fairly literally translated, is in informal, spoken English. The World English Bible is designed to sound good and be accurate when read aloud. It is not formal in its language, just as the original Greek of the New Testament was not formal. The WEB uses contractions rather freely.

The World English Bible doesn't capitalize pronouns pertaining to God. The original manuscripts made no such distinction. Hebrew has no such thing as upper and lower case, and the original Greek manuscripts were written in all upper case letters. Attempting to add in such a distinction raises some difficulties in translating dual-meaning Scriptures such as the coronation psalms.

The World English Bible main (American English) edition translates God's Proper Name in the Old Testament as "Yahweh." The British Edition of the World English Bible translates the same name as "LORD" (all capital letters), or when used with "Lord" (mixed case, translated from "Adonai",) GOD. There are solid translational arguments for both traditions.

The World English Bible uses the Majority Text as the basis for the New Testament, but other textual traditions are listed in footnotes where significant.

The order of Matthew 23:13 and 14 is reversed in some translations.

Luke 17:36 and Acts 15:34, which are not found in the majority of the Greek Manuscripts (and are relegated to footnotes in the WEB) may be included in some other translations.

Romans 14:24-26 in the WEB may appear as Romans 16:25-27 in other translations.

1 John 5:7-8 contains an addition in some translations, including the KJV.