The World English Bible (WEB) is a modern English translation of the Bible that is based on the 1901 American Standard Version (ASV). The WEB was created in the late 1990s and early 2000s by Rainbow Missions, Inc. with the goal of producing an updated and accessible English translation that is faithful to the original biblical texts.
Some key features of the World English Bible include:
- It is a public domain translation, meaning it can be freely copied and distributed without copyright restrictions.
- It uses simpler, more modern English while remaining faithful to the meaning of the original texts.
- It aims to be highly readable and understandable for a global English-speaking audience.
- It is based on the ASV, with some updates to grammar, vocabulary and punctuation.
- The translators made a minimal number of changes, focusing on updating language rather than interpreting the text.
- It uses God’s name “Yahweh” in place of LORD/GOD in the Old Testament, following the ASV precedent.
- It contains the Deuterocanonical/Apocryphal books in between the Old and New Testaments.
Translation Philosophy and Approach
The World English Bible was translated with the aim of balancing faithfulness to the original texts and readability in contemporary English. The translators adhered to a “formal equivalence” or “word-for-word” translation philosophy, attempting to translate each word and phrase as accurately as possible while still producing natural-sounding English. This distinguishes it from thought-for-thought or paraphrase translations.
The textual basis for the WEB comes from the Hebrew Masoretic text of the Old Testament and the Greek Majority Text for the New Testament. The translators referred to other editions and manuscripts when needed to resolve ambiguities in the text. The translation process involved updating archaic words and grammar from the ASV while preserving meaning and stylistic features such as repetition and parallelism present in the biblical languages.
While seeking to be literal and transparent to the original texts, the WEB translators did employ minor punctuation and paragraph adjustments to aid readability in English. Proper names were also anglicized when it would not harm comprehension. The result is a translation that aims to strike a optimal balance between word-for-word precision and understandable English.
History of the World English Bible
The World English Bible project was initiated in 1997 by Rainbow Missions, Inc., a nonprofit corporation based in Rainbow, Texas. Their stated mission was to provide updated public domain Bible translations that are faithful to the original texts and accessible for speakers of modern English around the world.
The starting point for the World English Bible was the 1901 American Standard Version (ASV). The ASV was well-regarded for its literalness to the original biblical languages but contained outdated English vocabulary and grammar. The WEB translators sought to retain the ASV’s accuracy while updating its English to be more understandable for a contemporary global audience.
The New Testament of the World English Bible was completed in 2000 and released alongside the ASV for comparison. This allowed readers to easily see the updates made to language while preserving meaning. The entire Bible was finished in 2003, taking around 6 years to complete. Additional minor revisions were made in later editions leading up to the current 2021 edition.
From the beginning, Rainbow Missions placed the WEB in the public domain. This allowed it to be freely reproduced and distributed worldwide without any copyright restrictions. Public domain status was essential to achieving their goal of creating an accessible English Bible translation.
Since its completion, the World English Bible has gained steady popularity due to its transparent translation method and free availability. It continues to be used for personal study, church teaching, and online distribution of Bibles worldwide.
Readability of the World English Bible
The WEB’s use of simplified, modern English makes it one of the more readable literal English Bible translations. Sentence structure and vocabulary were updated from the ASV to align with contemporary English while preserving accuracy to the original texts.
Examples of how the WEB improves readability include:
- Replacing “thee/thou/thy” with “you/your”
- Changing archaic verb endings like “speaketh” to “speaks”
- Using common words and phrases instead of obscure terms
- Shortened sentence length for better comprehension
- Formatting dialogue and poetry for clarity
- Eliminating redundancies in phrasing
The result is a translation that flows smoothly when read aloud while remaining faithful in meaning to the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek source texts. The vocabulary sits at around a secondary school reading level. The WEB provides a readable alternative for those wanting an accurate, literal translation without constant stumbling over outdated grammatical constructions.
Critics of the WEB assert that some readability comes at the expense of literal accuracy. The simpler sentence structure occasionally obscures complexities or ambiguities in the original languages. The WEB also contains a moderate amount of Anglicized renderings of units of measurement and monetary values for readability. However, overall the translation achieves strong readability while preserving literal fidelity to the original texts.
Notable Features of the World English Bible
Use of God’s Name
The World English Bible uses the name “Yahweh” for God in the Old Testament, following the precedent of the ASV. Hebrew manuscripts contain the four consonants YHWH, representing God’s personal name, in over 6,500 instances. Most English Bibles render this as “LORD” or a variant, but the WEB translators chose to represent it as “Yahweh” to more closely follow the Hebrew text. Jesus (Yeshua) is left unaltered in the New Testament.
Deuterocanonical Books
The World English Bible includes the books considered Deuterocanonical or Apocryphal by much of Protestant Christianity. These books areinterspersed within the Old Testament as they are ordered in the Greek Septuagint. The Deuterocanonical additions to Esther and Daniel are appended after the original text of those books. These books are seen as profitable for reading, though not fully authoritative Scripture, by advocates of their inclusion.
Textual Basis
The WEB Old Testament is based on the Masoretic Hebrew text while following the Septuagint when it differs substantially. For the New Testament, translators used the Westcott and Hort 1881 Greek text as their starting point but referred to Nestle-Aland variants in places. The result blends eclecticism with favor toward the Byzantine Majority Text tradition, which underlies the KJV New Testament.
Treatment of Poetry
Poetic sections and passages originally written with poetic features are formatted as indented lines in the World English Bible. This includes passages in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Judges, Psalms, Job, and the Prophets, among others. The formatting clarifies where parallelism, meter, rhythm, and other poetic techniques occur in the original languages.
Use of Textual Footnotes
Footnotes appear throughout the WEB text providing alternate manuscript readings, explanations of unclear phrases, and cross-references to similar passages. Translators used this sparingly, however, to avoid cluttering the text. Less substantial textual variants are left without footnote while clarity was achieved primarily through updated wording.
The World English Bible Compared to Other Versions
The World English Bible and the King James Version
The King James Version (KJV) and the WEB are quite different in their approach. The KJV uses formal, archaic English from 1611 that is often difficult for modern readers. The WEB updates the grammar and vocabulary for contemporary English while retaining a fairly literal approach. Readability improves at the cost of some of the poetic cadence of the KJV. The WEB is about two centuries more modern in its language.
Textually, the WEB relies on more recent critical Hebrew and Greek texts than the KJV’s reliance on late manuscripts in the Textus Receptus tradition. The WEB contains minor variations in wording, verse numbering, and inclusion of passages due to textual discrepancies. The biggest difference is of course the restoration of God’s name as Yahweh in the WEB Old Testament.
The World English Bible and the English Standard Version
The English Standard Version (ESV) of 2001 aimed to update the language of the Revised Standard Version from the mid-20th century. The ESV and WEB are quite similar translation philosophies as both adhere closely to formal equivalence. The most notable differences are the WEB’s use of Yahweh for God’s name and its inclusion of the Deuterocanonical books.
The WEB contains somewhat more simplified grammar and vocabulary compared to the ESV’s focus on retaining grammatical features like verb conjugations. The ESV flowed KJV cadences more closely in its updating, where the WEB modernized more thoroughly from the ASV. Overall the two are far more similar than different.
The World English Bible and the New International Version
The New International Version (NIV) utilizes a less literal, more meaning-based translation approach known as dynamic or functional equivalence. It freely alters wording, grammar, and passage ordering to convey ideas thought-for-thought in contemporary English. This results in much freer rendering compared to the more literal WEB.
The WEB emphasizes technical accuracy over ease of reading, while the NIV does the opposite. The NIV contains no use of Yahweh or the Deuterocanonical books. Passages with ambiguity over meaning in the Greek and Hebrew are interpreted and paraphrased in the NIV but left open in the WEB. Readability is a major NIV focus that isn’t primary for the WEB.
The World English Bible and Paraphrase Translations
Paraphrase Bibles like The Living Bible or The Message differ significantly from a literal translation like the WEB. Paraphrases restate passages phrase-by-phrase in an author’s own words to convey ideas dynamically rather than literal form. The WEB adheres closely to the original wording and grammar while adjusting only for English readability as needed.
A paraphrase may convey a passage thought-for-thought but will lose many nuances in the original languages that word-for-word translations like the WEB seek to retain. The WEB contains all of the original content while paraphrases contain an interpretive subset of ideas from each passage rephrased creatively.
Advantages of the World English Bible
Some of the advantages and strengths of using the World English Bible include:
- It uses clear, simple English that is easier to comprehend than older literal translations.
- The public domain status allows free printing, copying, and distribution without restrictions.
- It retains important features of the original biblical texts like parallelism and repetition.
- The consistent use of Yahweh makes God’s personal name prominent.
- The inclusion of the Deuterocanonical books provides their additional perspectives.
- It balances readability and literalness relatively well for a transparent translation.
- The plain English minimizes the need for heavy interpretation by readers.
- It is more accessible for new Bible readers compared to archaic translations.
For these reasons, the WEB serves as an excellent English Bible translation for personal reading, word studies, teaching, and spreading the Scriptures across the world online and in print.
Disadvantages and Criticisms of the World English Bible
There are some potential downsides and criticisms to consider regarding the WEB translation:
- Simplified English grammar occasionally obscures nuances of meaning in the original languages.
- The plain language lacks literary elegance compared to older respected translations.
- It’s unknown and not widely adopted, so lacks popularity of major translations.
- The Deuterocanonical books raise questions of canonicity for some traditions.
- A few passages reflect outdated scholarship and manuscript choices.
- Some readability improvements come at cost of literal accuracy.
- The Anglicized rendering of measures and money values loses historical connections.
- Critics say periodic paraphrasing conceals places where the Hebrew or Greek is ambiguous.
While a solid translation overall, the WEB is not without its downsides. However, it accomplishes its aims of accessibility and readability relatively well compared to similar literal Bible versions.
Significant Editions of the World English Bible
The World English Bible has undergone occasional minor revisions since its initial release. The notable edition milestone are:
- 2000 – New Testament completed and released alongside ASV for comparison
- 2003 – Complete World English Bible finished and released
- 2006 – Minor revisions to around 30 verses’ wording
- 2009 – Additional small fixes to phrasing
- 2021 – Current revised text published after 2010s revisions
Overall, the text has remained quite stable, with only slight updates to word choice, spelling, punctuation, and passage ordering made over time. There are no major differences across editions.
Usage and Reception of the World English Bible
The WEB has steadily gained awareness and adoption since its release in the early 2000s. Its public domain status has allowed wide utilization for various purposes:
- Personal and group Bible study
- Preaching and teaching material
- Bible software and website text
- Audio Bibles and dramatized productions
- Free distribution of print and digital Bibles
- Comparative research alongside other translations
Responses to the WEB have been generally positive regarding its readability and faithfulness. Reviews praise its balanced approach and plain English. Groups who appreciate literal formal equivalence translations and access to God’s name are among the most enthusiastic supporters.
Adoption has been weaker within more traditional Protestant Christianity that prefers traditional names like LORD and excludes the Deuterocanonical books. The WEB’s transparency and simplicity of language are its hallmarks that appeal broadly, especially to English readers with a non-traditional church background.
Conclusion
The World English Bible stands as a unique modern language translation that aims to make the original Hebrew and Greek texts of the Bible comprehensible and accessible to all readers of English. By updating archaic grammar and vocabulary from the 1901 ASV, the WEB provides a public domain Bible that is faithful to the original languages while far more readable than older literal versions.
The WEB balances transparency to the source texts with natural readability in English, though it has received criticism from those preferring more interpretive dynamic equivalence translations. Its use of God’s name Yahweh and inclusion of the Deuterocanonical books also distinctive marks. Though not as widely adopted as some other versions, the WEB fills an important niche for those desiring an open, literal, readable English Bible.