Are you thinking about building a new software, website, or app with the full text of the Bible? For a Bible app to be useful to a larger audience, having popular Bible versions accessible is essential for adoption and on-going Bible engagement.
But some versions and translations of the Bible have copyrights and requires licensing for use in software. It used to be that you would have to contact each copyright holder or publisher one by one to request permission and to discuss terms of use and associated fees. That’s not great use of your time and effort.
Now there’s an easy way to access many popular English Bible versions, whether they have copyrights or not. This is available now in the Digital Bible Library (DBL)!
DBL provides the convenience of accessing and licensing use of multiple Bible versions in one stop and accelerate software development by making the Bible text in a common format for scalability.
At the time of this post, these are the popular Bible versions that are available for use through the DBL:
- Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
- Contemporary English Version (CEV)
- English Standard Version (ESV)
- Good News Translation US 1992 (GNT)
- New Revised Standard Version 1989 (NRSV)
- King James Version (KJV)
- New American Standard Bible (NASB)
- New International Readers Version 2014 (NIRV)
- New International Version 2011 (NIV)
- New International Version® NIV®1984 (NIV84)
- New Living Translation 2007 (NLT)
Yes, you read that right. Look at all of these common acronyms of copyrighted Bible versions are available for your use in the DBL: CSB, CEV, ESV, GNT, NRSV, NASB, NIRV, NIV, NLT. Of course, the KJV is in there too.
Plus, the Bible is for all people and DBL has the potential to reach billions. With over 1300 unique languages in the DBL so far,
To learn more about how to use the Digital Bible Library, go to thedigitalbiblelibrary.org.
About the Digital Bible Library
The Digital Bible Library® (DBL) is an online digital asset and licensing management platform developed and maintained by the United Bible Societies.
DBL gathers, validates, and safeguards a large collection of quality, standardized, digital Scripture texts and publication assets, in hundreds of languages — all contributed by a growing number of partnering translation agencies.
DBL enables the secure licensing and distribution of these resources to approved internal or external ministry partners.