Why another translation? edit
Most Bible translations are either under copyright or use antiquated language.
The copyright placed on most modern translations limits how people can use them. Normally the holders of these copyrights (i.e. the Bible publishers) allow a certain number of verses to be quoted for free provided it does not constitute more than a certain percentage of the book or website. If an author wants to quote more than that, or if the author wants to create a Bible commentary or annotated edition, then they must pay a licensing fee to the publisher of the translation.
Old translations (e.g. ASV, JPS) are no longer under copyright, but they use an outdated style of English that can make them less accessible to modern readers.
The Wikisource Bible translation is released to the public domain.
Why donate it to the public domain? edit
- A good answer to this question has been provided by WEB.
Why yet another public domain translation edit
There are some other modern translations of the Bible in the public domain, but Wikisource has some advantages that when taken together make it unique.
It is collaborative. It is able to draw on the efforts of a potentially large number of people. Other public domain translations tend to be the work of one individual. And there is good reason for that. If you look at the popular, copyrighted translations, like the NJPS, the NRSV, the NIV, and the ESV, they were done by large committees of scholars. That is an enormous strength of those translations, but it comes at a cost - a literal, financial cost - which makes releasing those translations to the public domain impossible. The wiki format of Wikisource allows us to create a translation that is both collaborative and free.
It can integrate with the Wikimedia ecosystem. It can incorporate hyperlinks to other pages on Wikisource, Wikipedia, and Wiktionary. Eventually (it is hoped) Wikisource will include transcribed copies of every Biblical manuscript, which could be linked from footnotes. Conversely, other Wikimedia projects could use the Wikisource Bible. Courses on Wikiversity could use it as a resource, and articles on Wikipedia could include quotations, all without licensing concerns. The translation is not yet ready for all of this, but it has a lot of potential.
How is this project different to the PBwiki project? edit
The "PBwiki Bible" project was launched in October 2007. The Wiki is configured so that participation is not possible without an invite from the project owner, Doc Burkhart, and authorship of revisions does not appear to be tracked.[1]
A list of "All Pages" shows a number of passages that they have not commenced. Whereas, our project includes works such as 1 Corinthians. The PBwiki project also contains other sources, such as Abraham Lincoln Day of Prayer Proclamation, April 30, 1863, and essays such as "The ACLU 42–Christians 3".
Why not the GFDL? edit
- This answer needs more definition.
Because there are still a lot of problems with the GNU Free Documentation License it was decided by the early translators that, unlike standard WikiSource articles only available under GNU FDL, this project is available in the Public Domain.
Why use a wiki? edit
Two papers written by A. Désilets describe the benefits of using a wiki for collaborative translation:
- "Translation the Wiki Way", 2006
- "Translation Wikified: How will Massive Online Collaboration Impact the World of Translation?", 2007 [Note: As of February 18, 2013, this is a broken link. The PDF can be downloaded from here: http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?action=rtdoc&an=8913226.]
What sources are being used? edit
Each contributor is free to use the sources that are available to them, however every contributor must inform the project which sources are being used for each "claimed" translation portion.
Where there are weaknesses in the sources used for a portion, other contributors with different sources will highlight these as required.