World English Bible

Editions of the World English Bible

Other than the spelling of words like neighbor/neighbour and the handling of God's proper name in the Old Testament, these are all the same. See the WEB FAQ for more information.

Edition	Dialect	יְהוָ֥ה
Classic	U. S. A.	Yahweh
Updated	U. S. A.	LORD
British/International	British	LORD

Denominations and Subsets

The World English Bible is suitable for use by all true Christians in all denominations. While we seek to promote and preserve Christian unity, we also recognize that there are disagreements regarding what exactly belongs in the Holy Bible. We don't pretend to have an authoritative answer, but we offer choices and leave it up to you and the Holy Spirit Himself to decide what these things mean to you. You are free to read and listen to as much or as little of the full ecumenical set of books as you please. Here is our understanding of the status of each in some representative denominations. Not everyone in each of these categories of denominatios agrees, but this is still a useful reference.

Books	Evangelical	Catholic	Orthodox	Comment
66 books of the Old and New Testaments	Canon	Canon	Canon	These are reliable as a basis of faith.
Tobit, Judith, Greek additions to Esther and Daniel, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees	Apocrypha	Deuterocanon	Deuterocanon	History of God's interaction with His people.
1 Esdras, Prayer of Manasses, Psalm 151, 3 Maccabees	Apocrypha	Apocrypha	Deuterocanon	More history of God's interaction with His people.
2 Esdras, 4 Maccabees	Apocrypha	Apocrypha	Apocrypha	Of possible scholarly interest, but not as source of doctrine.

About the 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 a combination of the original ASV source text choices 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. The World English Bible classic is currently completed and the text is stable. No changes will be made except correcting verified typos or significant errors. The World English Bible Updated is still open to well-justified language updates. The original World English Bible in American English updated the ASV "Jehovah" to "Yahweh". The British Edition, Catholic Edition, and World English Bible Updated shifted to using "LORD", or when used with Lord from "Adonai", "GOD" (all caps) for Yahweh, aligning with tradition. Footnotes make it clear where this was done so that no information was lost. 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 classic 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.

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, using only the Esther and Daniel with additions translated from the Greek Septuagint, and omits books not recognized as canonical or deuterocanonical by the Roman Catholic Church. It also uses "LORD" or "GOD" in place of "Yahweh", in deference to common Catholic practice in worship services. The Catholic edition is currently only available with U. S. A. spelling.

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.

Abbreviation	Title
WEBP	World English Bible
WEBC	World English Bible (Catholic)
WEBPB	World English Bible British Edition
WEBBE	World English Bible British Edition with Deuterocanon
WEB	World English Bible Classic
WEBU	World English Bible Updated
WMB	World Messianic Bible
WMBB	World Messianic Bible British Edition

"World English Bible" is a trademark. Permission is granted to use the name "World English Bible" and its logo only to identify faithful copies of the Public Domain translation of the Holy Bible of that name published at eBible.org, WorldEnglish.Bible, and WorldEnglishBible.org. The World English Bible is not copyrighted. The domain names WorldEnglishBible.org, eBible.org, WorldEnglish.Bible, MLJohnson.org, mpj.us, and mpj.cx are trademarks of Michael Paul Johnson and eBible.org.

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