Readable English Bible

An open-source Bible translation in clear, simple English. Website: https://readable.bible

Use it in your app

The translation text is licensed CC BY 4.0: free for any use, including commercial, with credit. See LICENSE.md.

• Downloads (JSON, CSV, USFM, plain text): https://readable.bible/developers/
• JSON API: https://readable.bible/api/books.json, https://readable.bible/api/{book}.json, https://readable.bible/api/{book}/{chapter}.json

How it works

• data/translation.xlsx is the translation (columns: Reference, Verse, Notes).
• build/build.py turns the spreadsheet into the website in site/.
• Netlify runs the build automatically every time a change is pushed to GitHub (see netlify.toml).

Updating the translation

1. Replace data/translation.xlsx with the new version (keep the same file name and columns).
2. Commit and push. The live site updates within a minute or two.

Verse comments

Readers can click any verse to post an anonymous comment and upvote others (once per browser session). Comments are handled by netlify/functions/feedback.mjs and stored in Netlify Blobs.

• Spam protection: hidden honeypot field and 5 comments per visitor per 10 minutes.
• Blocked words: comments containing anything in netlify/lib/moderation.mjs are rejected.
• Reports: each comment has a Report button. It hides the comment for the reporter right away, and for everyone after 3 reports from different visitors.
• Admin: set an ADMIN_TOKEN environment variable in Netlify, then POST /feedback {"action":"delete" or "restore","book":"john","chapter":3,"id":"<comment id>","token":"<ADMIN_TOKEN>"}. restore un-hides a comment that was reported by mistake.

To test comments locally: npx netlify-cli dev --dir site --functions netlify/functions --port 8888

Previewing locally

pip install -r requirements.txt
python build/build.py
python -m http.server 8790 --directory site

Then open http://localhost:8790