Well, I didn’t do anything about this at first, but it is time that I did. When I first started posting Bible verses to this site using the English Standard Version of the Bible, I knew in the back of my head that I wouldn’t be able to do it for very long before I came up against the citation limits in their copyright permissions. I actually avoided looking up those particular limits, even though I knew that they were there. I encountered the articulation of those limits in my web explorations today, my conscience was tweaked, and I decided to change what version I quote from.
So I looked into it a little further, and found that there are a few translations of the Bible that have no copyright restrictions on them. Of these, the King James Version (KJV) was published in 1611, and the American Standard Version (ASV) was posted in 1901. These versions are good enough as they are, I’m sure, but they can be a bit difficult for the contemporary reader to read and comprehend. I was resigned to use one of these versions, but then I found the World English Bible (delightfully abbreviated as “WEB”). It’s based on the ASV, and it’s the only other copyright-free version of the Bible out there, and by most accounts, it’s either just been completed, or it’s very close to being complete. For information about this translation, see the FAQ.
So from here on out, as the updated footer for this site indicates, I’ll be using the World English Bible for my scripture posts. One more thing: The name of the organization behind the World English Bible? Rainbow Missions.
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