The SBT is a modern English translation built verse by verse from the trusted translation tradition — clear enough for a first-time reader, careful enough for study, and free for anyone to read, quote, and share.
We wanted a Bible that is both — modern and free. So we built one.
Most of today's best-known Bibles restrict how much you may quote and where. Sharing Scripture shouldn't require a licensing agreement.
The translations anyone may freely use are beautiful — and full of thee, thou, and hath. That distance keeps people from reading.
Clear, natural modern English that a fifteen-year-old can understand, built entirely from sources no one owns — so the result stays free.
Every SBT verse goes through the same four steps. Nothing is copied from a copyrighted Bible at any point.
Every verse begins with the trusted translations that trace directly to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek — the King James, the American Standard, the World English Bible, and Young's Literal Translation, which follows the original languages word for word. All of them are public domain: no one's copyright is touched.
From those sources we produce a fresh rendering in clear, natural modern English — plain enough for a fifteen-year-old, with the theological weight intact. Words like grace, righteousness, covenant, and salvation stay. Thee, thou, and hath don't.
The draft is checked against respected modern translations to confirm the meaning hasn't drifted. This is a meaning check only: if something drifted, only the specific words needed to restore accuracy change. No phrasing is ever taken from a copyrighted translation.
Every SBT verse is stored with its full record — which sources informed it, what the first draft said, and any adjustment made along the way. The translation can always show its work.
Four public-domain witnesses go in — and they don't all agree. The Greek word monogenēs divides translators: only begotten, or one and only?
Where the witnesses split, the SBT weighs the original Greek. Monogenēs means "one of a kind" — unique — not "begotten" in the biological sense, so the SBT reads "one and only" while preserving everything the verse claims about the Son. The rendering is drafted fresh from the public-domain witnesses, then verified for meaning against established modern translations before it is approved.
Accuracy and integrity have to travel together. Here's how the SBT honors both.
The raw material for every verse is exclusively public-domain text. Copyrighted Bibles are never used as source material for the SBT's wording.
Established modern translations are consulted solely to confirm that the meaning is preserved. Their wording never enters the SBT — a fact we can demonstrate, because every verse keeps its production record.
Quote the SBT in your sermon, your post, your paper, or your book. No verse limits, no license requests — just note it as "SBT" so others can find it.
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