The Sermon on the Mount commentary, versions of the English Bible used
Permitted use
Publishers have a variety of policies on the use of text from their translations. Most provide default permission for quotation within certain limits. In not for profit use situations, church bulletins etc., there is usually a caveat that a recognised acronym must appear following the quotation. There are exceedingly few publishers that provide both a modern English version and default permission to quote to the extent required on this site.
A wide range of translations were consulted during the preparation of this site (including, but not limited to, AV, KJV 1900, NKJV, ESV, NRSV, NIV, NET, NIV84, NASB95, GNT, YLT, LES, LEB). For the purpose of citations the WEB, or the HNV have been used most frequently, but the LEB would now seem to offer a better copyright-friendly alternative to the WEB (but not the HNV), so ongoing work can be expected to make more use of it. This is a pragmatic approach to avoiding copyright issues. However, occasionally other versions with particularly pertinent wording have been quoted. Rather than attempt the impossible and try to find one version that suits all users of this site, it has been assumed that users with a strong preference for a particular version will refer to the text in their preferred translation before deciding on the validity of the points made in the commentary. The provider of one of the widely used modern texts was approached with a view to using it more widely on this site, but they have failed to respond and without their consent that version cannot be used.
This page provides a list of the versions used (and considered). For each, the key points of their citation policy are summarised (please review these yourself before relying on them). Any required copyright statement is then reproduced. Were the number of permitted quotations is limited.
GNT
The Holy Bible : The Good news Translation (2nd edition). New York: American Bible Society, 1992.
Grants permission to quote up to 1,000 verses provided a whole book is not quoted and the quotations do not comprises more than 50% of the derivative work.
Requires the verbatim copyright statement
“The Good News Translation Bible text used in this product is being used by permission. Copyright © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.”
ESV
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001.
Grants permission to quote up to 1,000 verses provided a whole book is not quoted and the quotations do not comprises more than 50% of the derivative work. Commentaries or reference works produced for commercial sale require written permission.
Requires a verbatim copyright statement appropriate to context, in this case
“Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
KJV
The Holy Bible : King James Version. (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version.) Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995.
Placed in the Public Domain by the authors by an appropriate statement published to that effect, as follows:
“Copyright
In the “About” listing for this resource.
Public Domain.”
Note however that, as at 2014, within the United Kingdom the right to print the KJV is a Royal Prerogative and is expected to remain so, under transitional arrangements, for some time.
LEB
W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).
The Lexham English Bible can be given away, but can’t be sold on it on its own. Additional restrictions apply if a work using it is sold (see the front-matter of the publication). As this work uses longer quotations and may use over 100 verses the following statement is required:
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2013 Lexham Press. Lexham Press is a registered trademark of Faithlife Corporation.
NET
The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible. (2006; 2006). Biblical Studies Press.
Grants permission to quote up to 500 verses provided a whole book is not quoted and the quotations do not comprises more than 25% of the derivative work. However, quotation in reference works or commentaries is prohibited without formal approval. This has been sought but no response was forthcoming, so although the author may refer to the NET, its text cannot be reproduced here.
NRSV
The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989.
Grants permission to quote up to 500 verses provided a whole book is not quoted and the quotations do not comprises more than 50% of the derivative work. Requires the verbatim copyright statement
“The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.”
Note: although not all scriptures on this site are from the NRSV, as suggested by the above statement, the default permission to cite from the NRSV requires the text to be quoted verbatim as shown above.
WEB
World English Bible. Rainbow Missions Inc. 10 April 2005.
Placed in the Public Domain by the authors by an appropriate statement published to that effect, as follows:
“This translation is in the Public Domain, so feel free to copy, publish (for free or for a price), and use it. You don’t need to pay any royalties or even to ask for any additional permission. You already have permission to publish, copy, and distribute the World English Bible as much as you want to in any form (spoken, written, paper, electronic, etc.). We do ask that you update your copy that you publish periodically until the World English Bible editing is done, as a courtesy to your readers (and not as a requirement). If you make any changes to the text of the World English Bible, we do ask that you not call it the World English Bible any more, to avoid confusion, unless you get specific permission from us to do so.”
http://www.ebible.org/bible/web/ (accessed 6 Aug 2009). Unlimited quotation permitted.
HNV
World English Bible; Hebrew Names Version. Rainbow Missions Inc. Aka. World English Bible; Messianic Edition.
Placed in the Public Domain by the authors by an appropriate statement published to that effect, as follows:
“This translation is in the Public Domain, so feel free to copy, publish (for free or for a price), and use it.”
http://ebible.org/bible/hnv/ (accessed 6 Aug 2009). Unlimited quotation permitted.
LES
Lexham English Septuagint. Lexham Press.
Electronic edition is copyright 2012 Lexham Press, but its Title Page states:
“You may use brief quotations from this content in presentations, books, or articles.” . . . “You may use LES or Lexham English Septuagint to refer to the Lexham English Septuagint”
Small quotation's permitted.
WEB audio
World English Bible Audio. Rainbow Missions Inc.
Placed in the Public Domain by the authors by an appropriate statement published to that effect, as follows:
http://ebible.org/webaudio/ (accessed 6 Aug 2009).“The above audio recordings of the World English Bible recorded by Michael Paul Johnson are in the Public Domain. They are not copyrighted. Please feel free to download, copy, mirror, and share these files.”
Other versions
For those interested in the Sermon on the Mount's translation in other versions, the text of many may be found on-line at the Bible Gateway.