Translation policy update

Corrected: NKJV snippets are allowed

The earlier blanket restriction was too absolute. Speak Scripture publishes complete BSB text, supports carefully reviewed short NKJV comparison excerpts, and retains WEB as another unrestricted option.

Published August 20, 2026Release 2026.08.19.6Updated August 20, 2026
Correction: NKJV snippets are allowed by reviewed exception. The project does not treat the ordinary quotation limits as blanket permission for a bulk NKJV biblical-reference corpus.

What was corrected

Thomas Nelson’s ordinary NKJV quotation policy permits qualifying works to quote no more than 500 verses when Scripture is no more than 25% of the work, no complete Bible book is reproduced, the quotations are properly cited, and the product is otherwise covered by the policy.

Those ordinary gratis terms exclude commentary and other biblical-reference works, and Thomas Nelson separately asks developers of smartphone applications and related digital products to request permission. Because Speak Scripture is a searchable biblical-reference library that also feeds an Android application, the project does not treat the general 500-verse allowance as blanket authorization for a bulk NKJV corpus.

The correction is therefore precise: NKJV snippets are allowed by reviewed exception; systematic NKJV storage remains permission-gated.

BSB

Berean Standard Bible — complete published text

The canonical website and Android snapshot publish the Berean Standard Bible as the complete modern-English Scripture text.

The official BSB terms dedicate the text to the public domain, freely permit all uses, and expressly permit reproduction, integration, adaptation, apps, audio, video, print, and commentaries when the official wording and identity are handled faithfully.

Every canonical selection records its translation, public-domain rights status, verse count, text status, official source URL, and pinned source edition.

Official BSB terms →

NKJV

New King James Version — preferred comparison edition

NKJV remains the owner’s preferred comparison translation. Short excerpts are supported through the separate translationExcerpts[] lane and never replace or masquerade as canonical BSB text.

An excerpt must be short, selected, clearly labeled, carry the exact registered copyright notice, include a verse count, and include a documented review basis, reviewer, date, scope, and evidence reference.

The validator rejects an unreviewed NKJV excerpt, an incorrect notice, or limited-rights wording placed into the canonical Scripture field.

Official Thomas Nelson permissions policy →

WEB

World English Bible — unrestricted alternative

The World English Bible remains registered as another public-domain modern-English option.

Its official terms permit copying, publishing, proclaiming, distributing, broadcasting, printing, incorporating into software, and quoting without verse or percentage limits. If the official wording is changed, the modified result must not continue to be represented as the World English Bible.

Official WEB copyright and use statement →

Current production release

The original implementation note contained earlier launch totals. This published page reports the current canonical release instead.

Published proclamations46
Categories19
Active needs70
Scripture selections179
BSB verse instances533
Guided collections8
Weekly rotation7 days
Unreviewed NKJV excerpts0

Required for every NKJV comparison excerpt

  • A short selected excerpt rather than systematic passage storage
  • Clear NKJV labeling separate from canonical BSB text
  • The exact registered NKJV copyright notice
  • A positive verse count and selected-excerpt status
  • An approved written-permission or documented fair-use-review basis
  • Reviewer, review date, defined scope, and evidence reference

Completed implementation

  • All canonical Scripture selections use verified BSB wording imported from the pinned official source.
  • The importer stops when the official source checksum changes, requiring a deliberate edition review before replacement.
  • The public site, canonical JSON, CSV export, and Android snapshot are generated from one repository source.
  • The Android reader supports offline search, categories, guided collections, a seven-day rotation, copy/share, actions, guardrails, source metadata, and optional reviewed comparison excerpts.
  • No unreviewed NKJV wording is published.

Publishing and canonical hosting

  • The canonical host is https://speakscripture.org.
  • Cloudflare Pages builds the private GitHub main branch with npm run check and publishes the tested dist directory.
  • The www hostname, Cloudflare project and preview hostnames, and the Netlify recovery hostname permanently redirect to the canonical domain.

Full modern Bible text: BSB. Carefully reviewed comparison snippets: NKJV. Additional unrestricted alternative: WEB.