Is the bible under copyright?

Question

I am asking about all versions in general.

I do not believe the King James version is but I may be wrong. What other versions do you know about? are they under copyright?

Also, If I was to read a bible verse, record it and sell it publicly would I have to obtain copyright and or other legal lincensure to be able to do so?

Or is there a legal loophole here because its not technically being physically published.

I really need your help.

Thanks ahead of time
Merry Christmas
-GarySomers

To all,

So now I do know that the King James version of the bible is not copy written.

so what about any of the other renderings/translations of the bible IE: NIV, LIV

Do I have to obtain copyright permission to be able to record those and sell them?

Or is permission not required because I am only reading them and recording the spoken words?

Answer 1

In the NIV (New International Version) it says that the text may be quoted in any form (written, visual, electronic or audio), up to and inclusive of five hundred (500) verses without express written permission of the publisher, providing the verses quoted do not amount to a complete book of the Bible nor do the verses quoted account for 25 percent or more of the total text of the work in which they are quoted. It also says that when quotations are used in non-saleable media, such as church bulletins, orders of service, posters, transparencies, or similar media, a complete copyright notice is not required but the initials (NIV) must appear at the end of each quotation. Any commentary or other biblical reference work produced for commercial salesthat uses the New Internation Version must obtain written permission for use of the NIV.

In the New Centuary Version it says that it can be quoted or reprinted without prior written permission with the following qualifications: Up to and including one thousand verses may be quoted, except (a) the verses being quoted may not comprise as much as 50 percent of the work in which they are quoted and/or (b) the verses quoted may not comprise an entire book of the Bible when quoted. Quotations from the New Centuart Version Bible may be identified in written form with the abbreviation 'NCV Aglicised Edition' in less formal documents such as bulletins, newsletters, curriculum, media pieces, posters, transparncies and where space is limited.

I hope this has helped you as you can kind of get the jist of the copyright rules but as you can see, both of these BIbles have slightly different rules and so other BIbles will probably be the same (I would strongly reccomend that you read the copyright page/s of the Bible you are wishing use to record and publically sell verses from.)

Merry Christmas too!

-Cheeky Chick-

Answer 2

In general the KJV is not under copyright because it is so old, however you need to be careful you are not using a newer edition that someone has put together.

As for most modern translations (NIV, NASB, ESV, etc), these are under copyright and permission is needed. You can usually find permission information on the translations website.

Usually, even when it is spoken instead of written, it is still considered copyright infringement to duplicate it.

Answer 3

The newer versions are copyright. I know Lockman that has the rights to the NASB is very strict on using their version. Zondervan which holds the rights to the NIV is not so tight and allows more usage without consent than Lockman. We wanted to use NASB on a computer program and they required that we type it out, we were not able to scan it.

Answer 4

No they tried but it was found not to be an original work.largely influence with later addition.

New Testerment It is based on Aristotle and Plato who were pagans. look it up St Thomas was responsible and St Augustine.


100 s people collaborated and took out the 13 Gnostic Testerments

It is a registered trademark in Israel

they also tried to patent it, with the Vatican but church split and they could not decide on royalties

Answer 5

Some are. Anything published since 1920 is under copyright; older versions are public domain.

Answer 6

No. Public Domain.
I Cr 13;8a,
12-17-6

Answer 7

The King James Version has with good reason been termed 'the noblest monument of English prose.' Its revisers in 1881 expressed admiration of 'its simplicity, its dignity, its power, its happy turns of express... the music of its cadences, and the felicities of its rhythm.' It entered, as no other book has, into the making of the personal character and the public institutions of the English-speaking peoples. We owe to it an incalculable debt."

"Yet the King James Version has grave defects. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the development of Biblical studies and the discovery of many manuscripts more ancient than those upon which the King James Version was based, made it manifest that these defects are so many and so serious as to call for a revision of the English translation. The task was undertaken, by authority of the Church of England, in 1870. The English Revised Version of the Bibles was published in 1881-1885; and the American Standard Version, its variant embodying the preferences of the American scholars associated in the work, was published in 1901."

"Because of the unhappy experience with unauthorized publications in the two decades between 1881 and 1901, which tampered with the text of the English Revised Version in the supposed interest of the American public, the American Standard Version was copyrighted, to protect the text from unauthorized changes. In 1928 this copyright was acquired by the International Council of Religious Education, and thus passed into the ownership of the churches of the United States and Canada which were associated in this Council through their boards of education and publication."

".... decision was reached that there is need for a thorough revision of the version of 1901..""In 1937 the revision was authorized by vote of the Council."

"Thirty-two scholars have served as members of the Committee charged with making the revision, and they have secured the review and counsel of an Advisory Board of fifty representatives of the co-operating denominations."

"Each section has submitted its work to the scrutiny of the members of the charter of the Committee requires that all changes be agreed upon by a two-thirds vote of the total membership of the Committee."

"The problem of establishing the correct Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Old testament is very different from the corresponding problem in the New Testament."

"For the New Testament we have a large number of Greek manuscripts, preserving many variant forms of the text. Some of them were made only two or three centuries later than the original composition of the books."

"For the Old Testament only late manuscripts survive, all (with the exception of the Dead Sea Texts of Isaiah and Habakkuk and some fragments of other books) based on a standardized form of the text established many centuries after the books were written."

"The present revision is based on the consonantal Hebrew and Aramaic text as fixed early in the Christian era and revised by Jewish scholars (the 'Masoretes') of the sixth to ninth centuries. The vowel signs, which were added by the Masoretes, are accepted also in the main, but where a more probable and convincing reading can be obtained by assuming different vowels, this has been done."

"... vowel points are less ancient and [less] reliable than the consonants."

"Departures from the consonantal text of the best manuscripts have been made only where it seems clear that errors in copying had been made before the text was standardized."

"Most of the corrections adopted are based on the ancient versions [translations into Greek Aramaic, Syriac, and Latin], which were made before the time of the Masoretic revision and therefore reflect earlier forms of the text."

"Sometimes it is evident that the text has suffered in transmission, but none of the versions provides a satisfactory restoration. Here we can only follow the best judgment of competent scholars as to the most probable reconstruction of the original text."

"Many difficulties and obscurities, of course, remain."

"Where the choice between two meanings is particularly difficult or doubtful, we have given an alternative rendering in a footnote."

"If in the judgment of the Committee the meaning of a passage is quite uncertain or obscure, either because of corruption in the text or because of the inadequacy of our present knowledge of the language, that fact is indicated by a note."

"It should not be assumed, however, that the Committee was entirely sure or unanimous concerning every rendering not so indicated."

"To record all minority views was obviously out of the question."

"The King James Version of the New Testament was based upon a Greek text that was marred by mistakes, containing the accumulated errors of fourteen centuries of manuscript copying."

"It was essentially the Greek text of the New Testament as edited by Beza, 1589, who closely followed that published by Erasmus, 1516-1535, which was based upon a few medieval manuscripts."

"The earliest and best of the eight manuscripts which Erasmus consulted was from the tenth century, and [yet] he made the least use of it because it differed most from the commonly received text; Beza had access to two manuscripts of great value, dating from the fifth and sixth centuries, but he made very little use of them because they differed from the text published by Erasmus."

"We now possess many more ancient manuscripts of the new Testament, and are far better equipped to seek to recover the original wording of the Greek text. The evidence for the text of the books of the New Testament is better that for any other ancient book, both in the number of extant manuscripts and in the nearness of the date of some of these manuscripts to the date when the book was originally written."

Answer 8

in a way all of them are, though god gets no royalty from them. most churches and religions self fund themselves partially through the sale of bibles and prayer books, hymn books etc.

Answer 9

It already been changed

Answer 10

look here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible