Guides

Public-Domain Bible Translations Explained

November 9, 2026

Most modern English Bibles, such as the NIV, ESV and NLT, are under copyright. You can read them freely, and their publishers usually allow you to quote a limited number of verses with a credit line. Copying whole books, printing your own edition or building them into software needs permission, and often a licence fee.

A public-domain translation has no such limits. Anyone can read, quote, copy, print, set to music, translate or publish it, in any amount, without asking. This guide explains which English translations are in the public domain, how they came to be, and how they differ.

How a Bible becomes public domain

There are two ways.

• Its copyright runs out. In the United States, works published before 1931 are now in the public domain. That covers the great translations of the past: the King James Version, Webster’s revision, Young’s Literal Translation, the Darby translation and the American Standard Version. Other countries have different rules, so a translation that is free in one country may not be in another.
• Its makers give it away. Some modern translations were dedicated to the public domain by the people who made them. The World English Bible was made to be public domain from the start, and the Berean Standard Bible was dedicated to the public domain on April 30, 2023.

One exception is worth knowing. The King James Version is public domain in most of the world, but in the United Kingdom the Crown still holds rights to it under letters patent, and printing it there is restricted.

One verse in seven translations

Hebrews 11:1 shows how much the translations differ in wording while agreeing in meaning. Each line is copied from the public-domain text.

• KJV (1769 text): Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
• Webster (1833): Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
• Darby (1890): Now faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
• Young’s Literal (1898): And faith is of things hoped for a confidence, of matters not seen a conviction,
• ASV (1901): Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.
• WEB: Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.
• BSB: Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.

The older translations say faith is the “substance” of what we hope for. The later ones say “assurance”, a meaning of the Greek word that became clearer as more ancient documents were studied. Young’s keeps the Greek word order, which is why it reads so oddly.

The translations

King James Version (1611, revised 1769)

The most influential English Bible. The text most people read today is the 1769 revision, with standardized spelling. Its language is formal and archaic, with “thee”, “thou” and verbs ending in “-eth”, and its rhythm is the reason so many verses are memorized in its wording. It is translated from the Greek New Testament texts available in the early 1600s.

Good for: reading aloud, memorization, and understanding older hymns, books and sermons that quote it.

Webster Bible (1833)

Noah Webster, of the dictionary, revised the KJV to replace words that had changed meaning or become offensive by his time. Most of the text is the KJV unchanged, as Hebrews 11:1 shows.

Good for: KJV readers who want a few of its harder words updated.

Darby Translation (1890)

A careful, fairly literal translation by John Nelson Darby, made from the Hebrew and Greek. Darby paid close attention to the manuscripts and to consistency of wording.

Good for: a literal second opinion in older English.

Young’s Literal Translation (1898 edition)

Robert Young tried to render each Hebrew and Greek word, and each verb tense, as exactly as English would allow. The result is often awkward to read, but it shows the shape of the original in a way no other English Bible does.

Good for: checking how a sentence is built in the original. Not for reading straight through.

American Standard Version (1901)

An American edition of the English Revised Version, which revised the KJV using manuscripts discovered in the nineteenth century. It is very literal and was long respected for accuracy. It is the basis of several later translations, including the World English Bible.

Good for: close study in a formal, literal style.

World English Bible

A modern update of the ASV, revised against the Hebrew and Greek and made public domain from the start. It uses everyday English, including contractions such as “don’t”. “World English Bible” is a trademark, but the text itself is free.

Good for: plain modern reading, including reading aloud to children and new readers.

Berean Standard Bible

A recent translation from the Hebrew and Greek, first published as the Berean Study Bible and dedicated to the public domain in 2023. It aims to be accurate and readable at once, and capitalizes pronouns that refer to God. Of the free translations, it reads most like the modern copyrighted ones.

Good for: everyday reading and study in modern English.

Others worth knowing

Several other historical translations are public domain, including the Geneva Bible of 1599, the Bible of the Reformers and of many early Puritans, and the Douay-Rheims Bible in Challoner’s revision, the traditional English Catholic translation.

Which to read

• For everyday reading: the BSB or WEB.
• For familiar wording and memorization: the KJV.
• For close study of the original wording: the ASV, Darby or Young’s, beside a modern translation.

Reading two side by side is often better than choosing one. Our guides to the KJV, BSB and WEB and to parallel Bible reading go further.

What public domain lets you do

• Quote as much as you like, in a sermon, a book, a website or a song, with no permission or credit line required. Naming the translation is still good practice, so readers can check it.
• Print your own edition, a single gospel or a booklet of psalms for a class.
• Build the text into an app, a study tool or a dataset.
• Use it as the starting point for a new translation into another language.

Reliable free copies of all of these are published by eBible.org, among others, in formats that Bible software can read.

All seven in Carrell

Carrell includes all seven of the translations above: KJV, WEB, BSB, ASV, YLT, Darby and Webster, built in and free. The quotations on this page come from the texts Carrell ships. They need no connection once you are signed in.

• Parallel columns on the Mac and Linux show translations side by side, aligned verse by verse.
• Compare shows one verse in every translation at once, on every platform.
• Import translations you own on the Mac and Linux, in USFM, OSIS, Zefania and SWORD formats. Licensed translations such as the NIV and ESV are not built in today.

Carrell is free for reading, the bundled Bibles, search, highlights and notes, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Linux, and it is in beta. Download Carrell or see everything it does.