What we hold, and how we know
Every edition here came from somewhere, and we can tell you where.
What we keep for every edition
For each one we keep three things: the file's own account of what it is, the publisher's licence in their words, and the date it was first published.
We record the exact file we ingested, and we serve from that file. If a publisher revises their text, ours does not change with it. We can check, and nothing changes unless we decide.
What we turned down
A Korean Bible from 1911. Public domain, and the catalogue said it was one chapter short. We checked: sixty-four verses short — one chapter absent, and twenty-five that stop early. A chapter that ends three verses too soon reads as whole.
“The Holy Bible in Korean, 1910 translation” — read 23 August 2026 (archived copy)
An Italian text, listed as a 1927 edition in the public domain. The file called itself a 1990 revision and claimed copyright. We later found a genuine 1927, and that is the one we serve.
“Copyright (c) 1990 Societa Biblica Britiannica & Forestriera Rome, Italy” — read 23 August 2026, at commit d6ba26a8e59d
A Portuguese Bible. Built on a public-domain 1911 text, then altered by a language model and republished under a new copyright claim. The licence would have allowed it — we could have taken the text and credited the author. We turned it down because no translator stands behind the changed words, and we could not have told you what you were reading.
“As Escrituras em português são da JFAAL, Copyright © Marcos Cristiano Alves Ferreira.” — read 23 August 2026, at commit 5d41ae97bbe1
A Japanese translation and a Portuguese one. Both complete. Both public domain. Both describing themselves, on their own pages, as drafts.
“これは翻訳の草案です。” — read 23 August 2026 (archived copy)
“Este é um rascunho de tradução da Bíblia Sagrada e ainda em revisão.” — read 23 August 2026 (archived copy)
A Burmese Bible, listed as public domain because Myanmar has not signed the Berne Convention. Its copyright page read, when we checked it on 23 August 2026, © 2005 Bible Society of Myanmar. Unenforceable somewhere is not the same as free.
“Myanmar is not a member of the Berne Convention treaty, so this copyright does not extend outside of Myanmar.” — read 23 August 2026 (archived copy)
What we cannot say
Our Portuguese has no second witness. Its provenance rests on three things: the file's own statement, its pre-reform spelling, and the count of what it contains.
We hold no complete Korean Bible. The only one available to us is short, and we would rather serve none than serve one that is missing verses without saying so.
Both Chinese editions carry no paragraph or poetry structure. Their source has none. A structured traditional text does exist, but it renders the divine name differently — taking it would change the text for every reader of that script.
We do not show a timeline of when things happened. Where places are concerned we can tell you how sure the scholarship is, because the data we use records that. For dates there is no such record, and the honest answer is that careful people disagree by centuries. A line on a chart would hide that.