Bible As Written
About
BibleAsWritten.com exists so ordinary Christians can read Scripture aloud and understand it, while staying honest about what specific historical witnesses actually say, including hard images a modern reader would rather smooth over.
On this page
- Why this exists
- What this is not
- The reading layers
- Who it is for
- Where the project is now
- Our process (how Close, Clear, and cross-witness slots work)
Why this exists
Most English Bibles aim for one smooth reading that works in church and in private devotion. That is a real job, and it is useful. However, a single polished paragraph often hides the fact that Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Syriac, Ge’ez, Latin, and later English communities did not always say the same thing in the same place.
BibleAsWritten.com does not start from a modern church Bible and then “fix” it. The work starts from named historical texts, manuscripts, early translations, and carefully labeled editions, then builds English that stays close to what those texts actually say. A Clear English line serves the ear; Close English and originals stay available for named witnesses, plus notes when the witnesses split or when an idiom needs historical context.
What this is not
And that's the rub with a lot of Bible software and study sites. Familiar English editions get treated as if original, or manuscript families get quietly blended into an unlabeled mix and sold as “the Bible.” BibleAsWritten.com refuses both shortcuts.
BibleAsWritten.com does
- Start from named historical texts (witnesses)
- Build Close English per witness
- Build one Clear English from those Closes
- Mark conflicts and context in notes
- Keep King James and World English Bible as labeled English comparison editions
BibleAsWritten.com does not
- Treat one modern church Bible as “the original”
- Silently merge manuscripts into an unlabeled mix
- Invent doctrine or drop negations to sound nicer
- Run a model on every page load to invent a fresh translation
- Feed KJV or WEB into Close production as if Hebrew or Greek
The reading layers
Everything in the reader is meant to stack, not replace. The site shows finished layers. The hard work happens beforehand on the translator side of the project: ingest a witness, lock the wording rules, then assemble English in stages so a page view is never asking a model to invent a Bible on the fly.
1. Originals
Digitized texts tied to a real witness: a scroll fragment, a manuscript tradition, or a carefully labeled diplomatic or critical edition with citation. The Genesis pilot includes the Westminster Leningrad Codex, Dead Sea Scrolls overlaps where scraps survive, the Septuagint, Targum Onqelos, the Peshitta, Ethiopic (Dillmann / HaCohen), and the Vulgate. Unlabeled merges that pretend to be “the Bible” in one language do not get a seat at the table. See the Witnesses page for the dated history and why each one matters here.
2. Close English
One Close English string per witness. The goal is as near as English allows to that witness’s wording: form glosses, light syntax assembly, then careful idiom repair only when the English would otherwise break. Style locks keep names and hard images stable. Egziabher stays Egziabher. Day one stays day one. Uncertainty is marked rather than invented away.
3. Clear English
One contemporary English reading for ordinary Christians to read aloud, labeled BibleAsWritten in English mode. Built from the available Closes in aggregate. Readable does not mean theologically soft. When Closes disagree on meaning, Clear follows a stated rule, and a conflict note carries the minority instead of papering the split over.
4. Notes
Conflict notes mark where witnesses split (created versus made, day one versus first day, and so on). Context notes explain idioms, institutions, and background a contemporary Western reader is likely to miss. Notes support reading. Notes do not rewrite the source.
Who it is for
Readers: Christians who want to hear Scripture clearly without being shielded from what the witnesses say.
Behind the site: BibleAsWritten.com splits two jobs on purpose. The translator / production side prepares glosses, Close drafts, locks, and gates, often with tools and bakeoffs. The reader site only displays approved results. In essence, clicking a verse never calls a translation model.
Where the project is now
This is an early pilot. Genesis is the first book in the reading prototype; Matthew and 1 Enoch are also in the corpus plan. Some witnesses are still labeled secondary, meaning edition dumps rather than named manuscript pages. Rights and better diplomata will sharpen the labels over time, especially for Ge’ez.