Biblica Bibles in Majority Languages

Most people in the world speak at least two languages - their mother tongue and a majority language. They need the second language to learn at school, haggle in the market and (often) to read their Bible. We'd like to give everyone a Bible in their mother tongue, but in the mean time, everyone can read it in an up-to-date version of their majority language - thanks to Biblica.

Majority Languages 

Biblica, the International Bible Society, is working with STEPBible to include their majority-language Bibles in STEPBible to augment other traditional Bibles already available in these languages. These are currently available through the free website at www.stepbible.org and will later be available for the downloaded STEPBible offline version for those that have limited or no Internet service. This is especially important in the disadvantaged world which is STEPBible's primary target. STEPBible's free distribution policy coheres with Biblica's aim to make their Bibles available to all who wish to read them, especially new generations who have not yet discovered Jesus

Biblica owns and curates the NIV to ensure it keeps up with research and language changes. They aim to translate the Bible as accurately and idiomatically as a United Nations translator. For example, the NIV recently changed the word 'booty' to 'plunder', and 'aliens' to ‘landless immigrants’. 

Biblica also supports about a hundred translation committees in other languages. These committees work on Bibles in 'majority' languages - i.e., the languages understood by the majority of people in the world. Those who speak minority languages are usually bilingual - they have to be - because they also need to know a majority language. So these majority languages are closer to being their ‘own’ language than a second language normally is.

These translations now available in STEPBible, like the NIV, are written in a contemporary version of the language, without confusing out-of-date terminology. Often a strict word-to-word translation is useful when studying the underlying Hebrew or Greek. At other times it is useful to read a contemporary language translation that is straightforward to help to understand a Bible passage. STEPBible can show both types of Bibles side by side, with links to the original vocabulary they are translating, and tools to investigate them deeply. 

The best of all Bible reading experiences is therefore now freely available in STEPBible. Everyone can read an easy-to-understand Bible in a majority language accessible to them, alongside translations that reflect word order and language traits of the underlying Hebrew and Greek. This mixture is the best way to read the Bible you love, and you can study words in depth when you come across something intriguing. 

We would love to learn about how you are use STEPBible. Your feedback will help us to develop and enhance its capabilities. Please email STEPBibleATgmail with a note on how you use STEPBible.  What ideas do you have to make STEPBible better? Do you know missionaries, church communities or others who would benefit from STEPBible?  If you haven't already, please tell them about this resource.  Would you like to help mature STEPBible?  Let us know what you're good at.  We particularly need help with translations of the interface into other languages.

 

Every blessing

 

David Instone-Brewer and the rest of the STEPBible team.

 

Try out the new Bibles at: www.STEPBible.org

New Amharic Standard Bible  2001

New Arabic Version  2012

Cebuano Contemporary Bible  2014

Czech Living Bible  2012

Kurdish Sorani Standard Version 2020

Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified Script) 2011

Chinese Contemporary Bible (Traditional Script) 2012

The Bible in Everyday Danish  2015

Ewé Contemporary Version  2006

Gbagyi New Testament  1997

Hausa Contemporary New Testament 2009

“The Way” Hebrew Living NT  2020

Hiligaynon Bible 2011

Hindi Contemporary Version  2019

The Book of Christ, in Croatian   2000

Igbo Contemporary Bible, New Testament 2019

Indonesian: Firman Allah Yang Hidup  2020

The Holy Word of God, in Gikuyu, Kikuyu  2013

Korean Living Bible  1985

Luganda Contemporary Bible  2019

Malayalam Contemporary Version  2017

Ndebele Standard Bible 2006

New International Readers Version 2014

New International Version 2011

New International Version, UK spelling  2011

Het Boek, in Dutch, Flemish 2007

The Word of God, in Contemporary Chichewa  2016

Persian Contemporary Bible, in Farsi  2020

Polish Living New Testament  2016

Nova Versão Internacional, in Brazilian Portuguese  2011

New Romanian Translation  2016

Central Asian Russian Scriptures  2013

Central Asian Russian Scriptures (with 'Allah')  2013

Central Asian Russian Scriptures, in Tajik  2013

New Russian Translation  2014

Slovenian Living New Testament  2014

Shona Contemporary Bible  2018

Nueva Versión Internacional, in Castilian Spanish 2017

Kiswahili Contemporary Version  2015

Tagalog Contemporary Bible  2015

Thai New Contemporary Version 2007

The Word: Living Tswana New Testament 1993

Akuapem Twi Contemporary Bible 2020  2020

Vietnamese Contemporary Bible  2015

Kiyombe Contemporary Version  2002

Yoruba Contemporary Bible  2019

See them all here.

Bibles in much-loved languages

I saw a grown man cry when he first saw a Bible in his mother tongue. STEPBible now has a bundle of new and partly finished Bibles in new languages from Wycliffe/Unfolding Word, as well as some important Spanish Bibles from Lockman.  

New Minority Languages

Wycliffe Associates have created new tools for translating the Bible by non-specialists. They recognise the value of experts and the wonderful tools that already exist for highly trained specialists, but there are many communities who want to communicate the Bible quickly to their generation. These believers are looking forward to 'real' translations by trained translators teamed up with Bible scholars to check their work, but such projects take many years. And these believers want to reach their generation - and quickly.

Their frustration was well-expressed by a small group of former Islamic terrorists who were so excited with their new-found faith that they wanted to devote their time to translating the Bible into their local tongue. They were sent on a course in preparation for learning how to translate the Bible and, first of all, how to use computers. They quietly did all the exercises for several days, as they were introduced to the concepts of word-processing, making backups, looking up information etc, and then they spoke up. "Look, this is taking too long", one said. "A few months ago we were hacking into the Pentagon - we really don't need these lessons!"  They were quickly moved on to a more appropriate stream.

Bibles and partial Bibles have already been produced in many languages with more on the way. They are based on the Unlocked Literal Bible or the Unlocked Dynamic Bible - two English Bibles that have been specially translated to create a basis for re-translation. As a Biblical scholar, I am somewhat reluctant to admit that this is necessary, because it is far from ideal. But these believers want to reach their friends, and they don't mind that their translation will be superceded in a few years time when a better translation is made. They need something now!

STEPBible now has several of these new Bibles. Go to www.STEPBible.org and type "ULB", then click on "more..". Some of the Bibles are complete, but others are still being translated. To see which books are available, click on the Copyright notice at the bottom of the page. Interestingly, the book that most Bibles have finished is Galatians - perhaps because this is a brief letter that is great for preaching the Gospel. Others, such as the Lopit language, spoken by 50,000 people in Sudan, started with Luke. This is the Gospel that most population groups come across for the first time, thanks to the massive translation work of the Jesus Film project - but even this is unavailable in Lopit.

The translations with exotic ancient scripts look the most interesting, but actually the most exciting languages are those using a plain latin font - because this usually indicates they had no written language before Bible translators came along. A Kalahari bushman who is now a Bible scholar came to Tyndale House, and I took him to the Bible Society repository in Cambridge. There he was shown a Bible written in his own mother tongue - the seTlhaping dialect of seTswana. He had never seen this language written down, but it was in a latin script, so he could pronounce the words. As he mouthed the words to himself, his eyes filled with tears: this was God's words in the language he spoke at home! He said he had heard of a man once who owned this Bible, but it was lost. The Bible Society has now made it into an electronic Sechuana Tlhaping Bible, so hopefully we'll be able to add this to STEPBible.

Lockman Foundation Bibles

I was excited to hear recently that the Lockman Foundation have generously allowed their Bibles to be distributed freely in non-commercial software. This includes 

• New American Standard Bible (NASB)
• La Biblia de las Américas (LBLA)
• Nueva Biblia de las Américas (NBLA) 

STEPBible already had the NASB (thanks to their generosity to us) which is especially useful because it is fully tagged to Greek & Hebrew. All their Bibles have a superb set of cross-references, and all follow a philosophy that tries to translate word-by-word. This makes them ideal for reading alongside the originals in STEPBible. 

David Instone-Brewer, 

Tyndale House, Cambridge

The Ideal Bible Translation

The ideal translation is a multitude of Bibles - because there is no one exact way to express the original. STEPBible has so many good translations that it is difficult to know which to use. Here a couple of my favourite powerful and interesting versions that you may not have tried.  



The Holman Christian Study Bible is a useful mix of conservative theology with modern translation. It is, like the ESV, a revision of the RSV, which is a revision of the RV, which revised the KJV. This means the easiest way to see the distinctiveness of this translation is to compare it with the ESV at STEPBible. This comparison view turns everything to lower case in order to highlight differences in the translation. These viewpoint quickly found some interesting examples of distinctive translation:
·        Psa.1.1         How happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path of sinners or join a group of mockers!
·        Ps 8:5          You made him little less than God  
(“God” in ESV: “the heavenly beings”; in KJV: “angels”)
·         Psa.8.9        Yahweh, our Lord, how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth!
(“Yahweh” is only used when the ‘name’ is important in context)
·        Ps 23:4        Even when I go through the darkest valley…
(ESV/KJV: “… valley of the shadow of death” – italic words come from LXX)
·        Ps 23:6        Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.
(“as long as I live” in ESV: “… forever”. Word-by-word: “to-length-of days”)
·        Matt 6:9-13  Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy.  …but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.] ^{Other mss omit bracketed text}
·        Rom 2:11     There is no favoritism with God.         
(ESV:  “shows no partiality”)
·        1Cor 5:6      … a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough 
(ESV:  “a little leaven leavens the whole lump”)

You are no-doubt interested in the contentious issue of gendered text. The HCSB generally follows the ESV model of translating “brothers” then adding the note: “The Greek word adelphoi can be used as a reference to males only or to groups that include males and females. It is the context of each usage that determines the proper meaning.” There are occasional departures from this e.g.:
·        1Cor.6.6 Instead, believer ^{Lit brothers} goes to court against believer, and that before unbelievers! … 8…– and you do this to believers!
(each underlined word translates adelphos, ‘brother’)
One striking characteristic of HCSB is the everyday feel of modern English, which is particularly evident in reported speech, and when there is sexual content, e.g.:
·        Gen 19:5      “… send them out to us so we can have sex with them!”
·        Gen 19:8      “Look , I’ve got two daughters who haven’t had sexual relations with a man.”
·        Gen 34:2-3   Shechem …. took her and raped her…he became infatuated with Dinah
But it doesn’t go too far, e.g.:
·        Matt 1:25     but did not know her intimately until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.

I find the HCSB to be a good, accurate translation which has done its best to use plain modern English which often makes the meaning much clearer, e.g. Psa.2.12:
ESV:  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.  Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
HCSB:  Pay homage to the Son or He will be angry, and you will perish in your rebellion, for His anger may ignite at any moment. All those who take refuge in Him are happy.

HCSB on STEPBible is fully tagged – so you can see it interlinear with Hebrew/Greek or with other tagged translations. 

The Berean Study Bible is so new that it isn’t fully proof-read yet, but it is so valuable that STEPBible wanted to have it as soon as possible. It seeks to express the text in the most literal way possible, while using normal English. This has, of course, been claimed by many translation teams, but this attempt has gone one step further: it has been tagged to the Greek and Hebrew from the ground up.

The result is that the translation attempts to follow the word order of the original, though not to the point of making an un-English translation. The electronic marking with each Hebrew and Greek word isn’t new – the same is done for all of STEP’s interlinear Bibles – but I think this is the first time the marking has been added while translating rather than afterwards. This means the translators are always aware that each Hebrew and Greek word should be represented in the English if possible, and it discourages them from adding English words that are additional to the original.

I was very surprised by the fluency of the translation that this produced. I was expecting something strange like the Young’s Literal Translation, or something hopelessly wooden. Instead, I found real English – and yet it follows the Hebrew and Greek like a well-trained dog keeping to heel. This makes it perfect as an interlinear Bible.

Like most Bibles it uses the Leningrad Codex for the OT and Nestle Aland edition of the NT, but it is up-front about times when it departs from them. Like the NIV, it makes a rule of always noting any departure. It puts the extra words in square brackets, for example the words that Cain speaks to Abel which aren’t in the Hebrew but are found in Samaritan, Greek, Latin and Syriac:
·        Gen.4:8  Then Cain said to his brother Abel, [“Let us go out to the field.”]  And while they were in the field….  Note: SP, LXX, Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew does not include "Let us go out to the field"

The BSB comes from BibleHub.com which is a great site for studying the Bible. One useful feature that they have (which STEPBible doesn’t) is looking at a single verse in a large number of Bibles – see e.g. Gen.1:1 and Matt.1:1.


Another Bible I’m loving at the moment is the Cambodian Khmer Christian Bible. You may not want to use this, but it is noteworthy – partly because the font it is so pretty, but mostly because these translators have tagged the text to Greek. This is very unusual for a non-English translation, and it is a great example to follow. It gives users that extra level of confidence in their translation. And it means that anyone can see what the words words mean. It also helps to separate the words, because Khmer is written like ancient Greek manuscripts - without spaces between the words! See it here.

David Instone-Brewer, 

Tyndale House, Cambridge

NET Bible with 60,000 notes

The NET Bible is a fresh scholarly translation in modern English with an important and unique feature: notes that record the translators' decisions. STEPBible has these notes in full, so that when we wonder “What’s behind that translation?” the answer is at hand. It even gives new clues about the reason why, for Mary and Joseph, there was no place in Bethlehem.  

(If you just want  to read about the Christmas mystery, skip to the end)

The NET Bible won my heart as soon as the project started in the 1990s because its aim was to create a Bible in modern English that could be used on the internet for free. The rather banal name “New English Translation” was chosen in order to produce the acronym “NET”, because the publishers recognised that the interNET was where the future lay — and they were right!

The project was audacious. The Bible was translated by a team of 25 international scholars, mostly from Dallas Theological Seminary, but also from different colleges, countries and religious backgrounds — including a few Catholic and Jewish ones. These scholars had to produce a readable English Bible, with academic rigour, and as close to the original text as modern English would allow.

For the first time on a project like this, the public was invited to join in. The initial round of translations were put on the web for “beta testing” and anyone could email in to say “I don't know any Hebrew, but this English doesn’t make sense to me,” or “I’m an expert on this passage and I’d like to point out...”. Knowing the world was looking over their shoulders must have concentrated the minds of the translation committee, because what emerged was a version that stood apart from any one particular denomination. They knew there would be immediate push back if they didn’t produce a text that a wide range of believers could accept.

The other unique feature of the NET Bible is the extensive notes. There are more than 60,000, which averages about 50 notes per chapter, or about two per verse. Some notes explain the background context and lifestyle information needed to understand the text, rather like a study Bible. Others point out when different manuscripts would produce a slightly different translation. The bulk of the notes explain why the text is translated as it is.

Translation always involves some interpretation, and usually the reader just has to trust the experts. This was the first edition that required the translators to explain themselves. If they missed out a word or added one, they had to say why. And if commentators pointed out that something is ambiguous, they had to say why they’d chosen that option — or simply say that it could be understood differently. In many instances the notes simply help to explain aspects of the text which are difficult to express in English. In such cases the notes bring you as close as possible to the original, in English.

The Lumina interface at netbible.org/bible is a great way to view all the notes at a glance and even to search them. It also gives access to the large library of articles and answers to questions that have accumulated on the Bible.org site during several years of interaction over the internet.

At STEPBible.org you can see all the notes, without them getting in the way of the text. Where there is a note about the translation this is indicated with a symbol at the correct point in the text. If you hover over the symbol, the corresponding note appears at the bottom of the screen. You also have access to all the other facilities of STEPBible, such as the verse vocabulary with instant lookup for all instances of the original word.

S.
STEPBible.org includes Bibles in all kinds of languages, with interfaces in all the major ones, so it is perfect for someone reading the Bible in a disadvantaged context. Unfortunately, other languages don’t have as many tools as English readers have, so using NET Bible alongside their own Bible helps those who use English as a second language.

So what about the reason Jesus was born in an animal shed? Imagine a girl about to give birth, turning up at a hotel. Who wouldn't give up their room for her? In a gregarious society like the one in ancient Israel, everyone would soon hear about it, so why didn't anyone help her? A note in the NET Bible at Luke 2:7 gives one possible explanation, where it points out that the word translated “inn” (kataluma) usually means a “guest room”. It tells us that various scholars conclude that Joseph went to his family home, and it was his parents who told them: “There’s no place for you in the guest room.”

 Joseph’s family may well have lived in Bethlehem because he was registering for taxation there. The Gospels use this fact to point out Joseph’s Davidic ancestry, but Romans weren’t interested in genealogy. They only wanted to know which door to hammer on when taxes were due.

If Joseph’s family were in Bethlehem while he was working away in Nazareth, perhaps they didn’t have a say in who he chose as his bride. So when Mary turns up, visibly pregnant after too few months of marriage and Joseph admitting he wasn’t the father, the couple may not have been expecting a warm welcome from Joseph’s parents. It would be understandable if, given the whiff of scandal, his parents refused to let Mary and Joseph into their respectable home — telling them to use the shed instead. If the neighbours didn’t want to cause offence by undermining this decision, the family shed would have been the only place for Mary to have her baby. Living with shame and scandal was yet another burden that Jesus bore for us.

The Bible opens up when you use STEPBible and the NET Bible together. They form a great tool for Bible students, or for anyone who ever asks: “What’s behind that translation?”

David Instone-Brewer, 

Tyndale House, Cambridge

Bibles with confusing verse numbers

At first glance, all Bibles have the same chapters and verses, but actually there is a bewildering variety of small differences that can occur in any Bible. This often results in different verse numbers, and sometimes even different chapter numbers. Two  editions of the same Bible sometimes divide up their chapters differently, resulting in masses of confusing verse numbers. So, if you look up a verse in a commentary, it may refer to a completely different verse in your Bible. The Repository of STEPBible.org now has the data to standardise any Bible with a completely new and simple method. 

Imagine that you are sending a letter of condolence to a Catholic friend. As you finish, you want them to find strength in the words “Even though I walk through the valley…”, so you add at the end of your letter “Psalm 23:4”. However, when they open their Bible, they read: “The innocent in hands, and clean of heart, who hath not … sworn deceitfully to his neighbour”. This is Psalm 24:4 in most English Bibles but it is Psalm 23:4 in traditional Catholic Bibles (use "look inside" at Amazon.co.uk/dp/1935302051). Your friend might conclude that you are hinting at some old grievance!

We tend to think that all Bibles have the same chapters and verses, because most English Bibles do. The standard popularised by the King James Version is widely used, but non-English Bibles display a bewildering variety of numbering. We might dismiss these as irrelevant till we try to follow a commentary. Even commentaries not written in English tend to follow English standard numbering, for commercial reasons. So when a reference is given, in which Bible should we look up the text? Bible scholars have a related problem: whenever they cite a Bible reference, they need to add the Hebrew or Greek reference if it is different.

A recent article by Peter Williams in THink magazine  (see tyndalehouse.com/magazine) summarises the long history of adding verse and chapter numbers to Bibles, from the rabbis who determined where verses ended, to Estienne who divided up the New Testament while riding on horseback. Marking a text while on a bumpy ride may explain why Beza had to make so many corrections in his edition. This means there are about 100 places where Bibles disagree about where precisely a verse divides. However, these differences are minor compared with the Old Testament.

In Hebrew, the tradition about where verses divide was well preserved, so there are only seven verses where versions differ. However, some much bigger problems occur for other reasons: chapters can start in a different place and the titles to Psalms can be given a verse number of their own – both of which mean that every subsequent verse in that chapter or Psalm is different. This affects almost 2,800 verses in the Hebrew Bible. For example, the last verse in most Old Testaments is Malachi 4:6 but in Hebrew Bibles (and some translations) Malachi ends at 3:24, because chapter three continues, instead of ending at v.18.

These Hebrew differences are minor compared with those in Greek and Latin Bibles. Their numbering is important to modern readers because many translations follow the traditions of these ancient translations. Catholic Bibles have traditionally followed the Latin verse numbering, and the Bibles of Orthodox churches tend to follow Greek traditions.

The Psalms are particularly problematic, because Greek and Latin Bibles merge together Psalms 9 and 10. This is sensible, because they do appear to be parts of the same Psalm, but this means that all subsequent Psalms are numbered differently. However, all Bibles end up with 150 Psalms because Bibles that merge Psalms 9 and 10 also split Psalm 147 into two. This means you can’t identify the numbering simply by counting the Psalms. More differences occur within the Psalm because their titles (such as “A Psalm of David”) are often numbered “v. 1”. This means that the contents of the first verse of the actual Psalm becomes “v. 2” and so one. This extra verse occurs in 63 Psalms, though in four of them, the title is long enough to create two extra verses.

If every Bible followed just one tradition — Hebrew, Greek or Latin – we wouldn’t have much of a problem, because there would be only three or four different versions of versification. Unfortunately virtually no Bible follows one particular tradition of numbering throughout the Bible – they all pick and mix.

Even different editions of the same Bible can be divided up differently. For example, most editions of the Spanish Reina-Valera Antigua (i.e. the traditional version which is still popular, like the KJV) is printed with two different sets of verse numbering. This version followed the Hebrew text closely but the verse numbers often departed from it. Sometimes it followed the Latin (as at Job 40:1-19; 1Sam 20:43), or it followed the combined tradition of Hebrew, Latin and Greek when they disagree with the English standard (as at Num 29:39; 1Sam 24:23; 1Ki 22:43; Jon 2:11); and in one place it has completely idiosyncratic numbering (Job 38:38 — 40:6). Fortunately, in most places it follows the English standard, even when this is different to all the ancient traditions (e.g. all through the Psalms, Neh:3:32; 4:23; Ecc 5:20). However, in modern printings of this version, the numbering often conforms to the English standard throughout — though the only way to discover this is by investigating the divergent passages. Both sets of versification are usefully displayed here.

The existence of an English standard for verse numbering has saved us from total confusion. Although it was popularised by the KJV and can be regarded as a “Protestant” tradition, it has been adopted by virtually all modern Bibles. Even modern Catholic and Orthodox English Bibles have abandoned their traditions to join the majority.  The Catholic Jerusalem Bible has a small “V 24” next to Psalm 23 to remind traditional readers that this is Psalm 24 in the Vulgate, but the Catholic NRSV doesn’t even have that. Some Orthodox Bibles (such as Nelson’s Orthodox Study Bible, do follow traditional Greek numbering, but this is now an oddity. However, in the non-English world there is still a great deal of variety.

Till now, the main way to find out what the reference is in a different Bibles was to look it up! Electronic resources often have systems for aligning texts. Some (like BibleWorks) produce separate data for every Bible, while others (such as Sword-based software) produce data for groups of Bibles. However, Bibles can’t be divided into neat groups, so this kind of data is often approximate.

STEPBible.org aims to be available for Bibles in any language or tradition, and seeks to line them up accurately. So we searched for a new solution and developed a powerful though simple new method. We didn’t want to assign Bibles to an approximate group, and we don’t have time to analyse every one of hundreds of Bibles in languages we don’t know. So instead, we compare each Bible to four sets of tradition: the ancient Hebrew, Greek and Latin and the English standard; and we use simple rules to discover which tradition is followed in each chapter.

Bible translators don’t simply make up differences in chapter and verse numbers, but follow an existing tradition. Some will be more influenced by one tradition than another, so when a translation is made by a committee, different sections can end up following different traditions. A modern committee will, of course, be subject to conformity checks, but this wasn’t so easy in previous centuries. As a result, many mixed traditions (as described above for the Spanish RV) were created. Whenever one of these versions became popular, then that peculiar tradition was perpetuated. As a result, many German Bibles have numbering based on Luther’s translation. This means that each Bible tends to have verse numbers which are based on one of those four traditions, though not necessarily the same tradition throughout.

A quick way to analyse Bibles was needed, so we created a test for each section where renumbering can occur. So, for example, if Numbers 17 ends at verse 28, we know that it is following the Hebrew tradition that starts a new chapter after 16:35 instead of continuing to 16:50. So the simple question “What is the last verse number in Numbers 17?” can tell us how to number every verse in those two chapters. Sometimes we have to compare the length of two verses, such as in Psalm 13 where all Bibles have six verses. Hebrew Bibles give the title a verse number, but also merge the last two verses into one, so that the total number of verses remains the same. In that case we can ask “Is verse 1 longer or shorter than verse 3?” If it is longer, then it follows the English standard tradition of including the text of the title within verse 1. Based on the answer to this question, all the verses in the Psalm can be numbered accurately. The specific question is important because the two verses must have sufficiently different lengths for this rule to work in any translation.

These tests and the resulting verse numbering, are now available on the STEPBible Data Repository so that any software can incorporate them. Actually, STEPBible still relies on the Crosswire-invented method at present, which works fairly well. This means that Tyndale House is offering this data in the realisation that other Bible projects may implement it first. This data took a long time to compile and test, so we are making it publically available to save others the work of duplicating it. The repository is on Github because this provides a public forum where improvements can be suggested and monitored by anyone. Any errors or gaps can be reported, so that the data remains accurate and gradually becomes the work of a wider community.

David Instone-Brewer, 

Tyndale House, Cambridge

Accurate Bible data without restrictions

Accurate STEPBible data is now freely available.  Tyndale House has decided to release their  STEPBible data on a more flexible public licence to make it easier for other free Bible projects to build on accurate information about the Bible text. Inaccurate data can lead to errors and public humiliation - as I'll describe below. 

The software behind STEPBible is available on a public licence (BSD 3-Clause License), so that anyone can make a better version of STEPBible. A couple of teams have used the code to help their own projects. This has also encouraged coders to help maintain and develop STEPBible itself - something we welcome and rely on. So if you have talents in Java and Javascript, with some time to help, do please contact me.

The data behind STEPBible originated with the usual free sources that many enthusiasts have assembled in the past - to whom everone owes huge gratitude. At Tyndale House we set ourselves to test everything and improve its quality, and then feed this back into the community. The Repository of this updated data is on Github at Tyndale.github.io/STEPBible-Data, where anyone can inspect it, suggest corrections, and also download it for their own projects.

The licence (Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0)  allows anyone to use and adapt the data to fit their project. They can also make corrections, though changes should be recorded for users to see, and we'd prefer they check with Tyndale House first, so our experts can verify it. Tyndale House previously posted this data with a "No Development" (ND) restriction, to help ensure the data remains accurate, but this imposed a difficult legal restriction for some projects, so we are using  this different strategy.

Bodies such as the SBL Biblical Humanities Group have campaigned for Bible data to be more open, so that anyone can use it freely, with less duplication of effort, and to encourage the spread of good research. In Copenhagen this year, ETEN facilitated the meeting of representatives from several organisations, including STEPBible, SIL, UBS, ETCBC, Perseus, Door43 and others, to explore how much private data could be made public. This was the Davos of Bible software, and ground-breaking commitments were made there. One of the results is that STEPBible data will now remove the ND restriction.

The concern that previously prevented this, was that errors might accumulate, unintentionally or even maliciously, so that the trustworthy expertise of Tyndale House scholars might be diluted. Legally, any changes should be reported, but of course this doesn't always happen. To ensure continual trustworthyness, the original Tyndale House data will always be available in the STEPBible Repository. This includes accurate Greek and Hebrew texts with variants, tagged with vocabulary and parsing, along with simple and detailed lexicons based on academic publications, as well as other datasets analysing the Bible text.

In the past, free software has relied on older data sets which did contain errors. A few years ago I was preparing for a radio debate about a controvertial book with 'new revelations' about the family of Jesus. The author's conclusions turned out to result from his mixing up of two Greek words. He claimed that tekton (‘artisan’ or ‘carpenter’ in Mat.13.55; Mark 6.3) "is derived from the root Greek word 'timoria'” (‘punishment’). He added that Jesus’ father was ‘a just man’ (Mt.1.19) and concluded that Joseph was a justice of the peace with the power to judge and punish malefactors! He then published a book based on this ‘discovery’.

"5098" in Strong's Index at e.g. TinyURL.com/StrongsTekton

"5088" in the printed edition of Strong's Index

The author wasn't a biblical scholar, but he was nevertheless an intelligent man who was well trained in another profession - so how did he make this embarrassing mistake? After hunting around I traced the source of his error to the commonly distributed electronic version of Strong’s Index, which is used by most free software. Due to an uncorrected typo ('5098' instead of '5088') it said that tekton comes from timoria.

Sitting with him in the studio, before the red "broadcasting" light turned on, I quickly explained what I'd found, and said that I'd only mention it if he mentioned his 'discovery'. This removed my killer point in the debate, and left him little to talk about, but at least it prevented his public humiliation. 

This experience hardened my resolve to develop accurate tools for intelligent people to rely on. Just because someone isn't trained in Biblical Studies shouldn't stop them studying the Bible in as much depth as they want, using information that is checked by scholars and trustworthy. This spurred me to work on STEPBible, and now to make the data available to everyone to use.  

David Instone-Brewer, 

Tyndale House, Cambridge

Insights into Palm Sunday in STEPBible's Full LSJ.

A good lexicon can open up the Bible in unexpected ways.

The Full Liddel-Scott-Jones Greek lexicon (LSJ) is the most comprehensive guide available for ancient Greek. The version at www.STEPBible.org is much easier to use than the printed version (see a comparison here).

We'll be celebrating Palm Sunday soon, and LSJ provides some interesting insights into this.

STEPBible can help you visualise the scene by understanding the nuances of what the Gospel writers were trying to convey. One thing that stands out is their strange choice of vocabulary.
When you read it in STEPBible, and hover over the word "spread" it tells you something about the materials they spread out for Jesus' donkey to walk on. Matthew and Mark used στρώννυμι (strōnnumi) which is a strange choice because it generally refers to spreading covers on a bed or a couch.

There were other words that would have fitted better. They could have used ἐπιβάλλω (epiballō) “to spread [a covering]” as when you spread a cloth over a table,  (LXX Num.4.7) or over an altar (Num.4.11,13) or a cloth over the whole Tabernacle (Num.4.6). Or they could use διαστρώννυμι (diastrōnnumi) ‘to spread [flooring]’ which is used when spreading carpets on the ground (1Sam.9.25). Or there was even the word διαπετάζω? (diapetazō) “to spread out”, implying that the item was folded (as when a well-hole was hidden by a covering in 2Sam.17.19). Or  ἀναπτύσσω (anaptussō) ‘to unroll’ which was used when Gideon spread his cloak on the ground to collect all the gold ear-rings from the spoils of their battle (Judg.8.25). All of these were suitable for spreading something on the ground or over other surfaces, so why choose something that always implies a bed or a couch?

If you look at how strōnnumi is used in the NT and LXX, it is clearly restricted to covering a bed ready for sleeping in, or a couch ready for dining in the Roman fashion (which Jews deliberately copied at Passover). It is used once of a woman in Ezek.28.7 but the context makes clear that she is being spread out to be ‘bedded’ by soldiers.

We could note the link with Passover couches and leave it there, but the original readers would have seen much more.

If you click on the word "spread", you can see the entry in Liddell+Scott+Jones. This not only takes data from the Bible, but the whole breadth of ancient Greek literature, so it often gives insights that normal Bible lexicons don't have. You'll see a long definition, but go to the end - to the "Related words" and click on "a strewn bed (στρωμνή)". This will take you to the entry:

στρωμνή, 
  Aeolic dialect -α, Doric dialect -ά, ἡ, bed spread or prepared: generally, bed, couch, [Refs 7th c.BC+]; mattress, bedding, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; σ. ἄφθιτος, of the golden fleece, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; στρωνύτω στρωμνάς, of the lectisternium, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

The clue into what the Gospel writers expected their readers to understand lies at the end of this entry – the "lectisternium". A quick look at the Wiktheipedia entry will tell you that this is the ancient Roman way to placate the gods. They spread fine cloths on couches and put them in the streets to make t
he gods welcome, especially at times of crisis, though this also developed into regular festivals. They also did it during Triumphs, when a conquering general marched through the city showing off his captives and trophies.

The crowds were welcoming Jesus like a god or a conquering hero. This wasn’t a preacher’s welcome. It was a welcome fit for a king or a god.

This is something that would be obvious to the original readers, but we don't 'get' it unless we use tools like STEPBible. Other Bible lexicons don’t have this detail, because they neglect literature outside the Bible. And this means that the commentaries tend to miss this too.

Why don't more people use the LSJ lexicon?

Because till now it has been difficult to read and difficult to link up with the Bible.

If you compare the normal LSJ entry, you can see that STEPBible has explained the incomprehensible abbreviations, tidied all the bibliographic details into hover-helps, and then added the date of the earliest of the authors for each example. Another problem using the LSJ is that the NT spells the word differently, so the correct entry is difficult to find. However, there's no problem if you use STEPBible because this has already linked to the correct entries in LSJ for the words of the NT and Septuagint.

With www.STEPBible.org we have easy access to the best classical Greek lexicon for even deeper Bible studies.

David Instone-Brewer