Translations
The English Bible — seven windows on the same text
Devine Scripture reads from seven public-domain English translations, spanning four centuries of English. Each one was made for a different generation, from a different family of manuscripts, with a different ear for English. Comparing them is one of the simplest, most rewarding ways to study scripture.
WEB
World English Bible
2000
The World English Bible is a freely-distributable, modern-English revision of the ASV. It keeps the literal, formal-equivalence approach of its parent translation while replacing archaic 'thee/thou' language with contemporary speech.
KJV
King James Version
1611
Commissioned by King James I of England in 1604 and published in 1611, the King James Version (also called the Authorized Version) is the most influential English Bible ever produced. Its rhythms shaped English literature for four centuries.
ASV
American Standard Version
1901
The American Standard Version is the American counterpart to the English Revised Version (1881–1885). It became the most widely-used scholarly translation of the early 20th century and is the parent text of the RSV, NASB, and WEB.
BBE
Bible in Basic English
1949
The Bible in Basic English uses a deliberately small vocabulary so that readers with limited English — children, English-as-a-second-language students, and the visually impaired who rely on read-aloud — can follow the whole biblical narrative without stumbling over rare words.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation
1862
Robert Young's translation is famous for its extreme literalness: Hebrew and Greek verb tenses are mapped onto English continuous and perfect forms even when the result reads strangely. It is a study Bible, not a devotional one — invaluable for tracing what the original languages actually say.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner Revision)
Original
The Douay-Rheims is the historic Catholic English Bible. Translated from the Latin Vulgate by English exiles in France, it predates the King James Version and was the standard Catholic English text for centuries. The widely-read modern form is Bishop Challoner's mid-1700s revision.
DBY
Darby Bible
1867
John Nelson Darby — the founder of the Plymouth Brethren and an influential dispensationalist — produced a careful, scholarly translation aimed at serious students who could not read the original languages. His footnotes are unusually detailed for a single-translator project.