About
Translation Philosophy & Methodology
Every decision documented. Nothing hidden. Built for scholars, developers, and anyone who needs a free, modern English Bible they can actually use.
Why This Exists
Modern English Bible translations — the NIV, ESV, NASB, NLT — are under active copyright. Displaying them on websites, in apps, or in educational materials requires licensing fees or explicit permission. For most independent developers, educators, and researchers, that's a wall.
The KJV is in the public domain, but its 17th-century English is a barrier for general readers and unsuitable for modern study tools. For over 400 years, there has been no serious, free, modern-English alternative that anyone can use without restriction.
The Covenant Rendering exists to fill that gap: a rigorous, formal-equivalence translation from the original Hebrew, released under CC-BY-4.0 — free to use, quote, distribute, and build on, with attribution.
Source Text
The Covenant Rendering is translated from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC) — the same authoritative Masoretic text used as the Hebrew source for the ESV, NASB, and most other modern translations. The WLC preserves the full vowel pointing (niqqud) and cantillation marks of the medieval Masoretic tradition, representing the most carefully transmitted form of the Hebrew text.
All Hebrew displayed on this site uses the WLC text with full Masoretic pointing. The KJV is provided alongside each verse as a reference comparison — not as a translation source, but as a familiar benchmark for readers who grew up with it.
Translation Philosophy
Formal Equivalence
TCR prioritizes word-for-word correspondence to the Hebrew wherever natural English allows. This approach preserves the structure of the original text and enables readers to trace translation decisions back to specific Hebrew words. Where the Hebrew is ambiguous, TCR renders the most defensible reading and documents alternatives in the translator notes.
Reading Level
Target reading level is 9th–10th grade, comparable to the ESV. TCR does not simplify to increase accessibility at the expense of precision. If a concept requires a specific term, that term is used and explained in the key terms section. Readers should expect to learn, not be protected from the text.
Theological Neutrality
TCR is not affiliated with any denomination or theological tradition. Where the Hebrew text is genuinely ambiguous — and in the Hebrew Bible, that is often — both readings are presented and the tension is named. TCR does not resolve interpretive disputes in favor of any confession; it documents them.
Full Documentation
Every verse includes translator notes explaining significant lexical choices, grammatical decisions, and points of scholarly debate. Key terms carry their Hebrew original, transliteration, semantic range, and a note on how the word is used in context. Nothing is assumed; nothing is hidden.
AI Generation & Methodology
Full Disclosure
The Covenant Rendering was generated using Claude (claude-opus-4-6, Anthropic) via a carefully designed translation prompt. This is disclosed fully and without apology. The prompt, methodology, and generation parameters are available in the GitHub repository.
The use of AI does not diminish the scholarship. The translation was generated against the Westminster Leningrad Codex with explicit instructions for formal equivalence, transparency about interpretive decisions, and documentation of every significant lexical choice. The output was reviewed and the methodology evaluated.
AI-assisted translation is a new frontier, and TCR is one of the first serious attempts to apply it systematically to a biblical corpus with full methodological disclosure. The precedent matters: scholarship requires transparency, not mystification.
License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
You are free to share (copy and redistribute in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) for any purpose, including commercial, as long as you give appropriate credit to The Covenant Rendering and indicate if changes were made.
Attribution requirement: "The Covenant Rendering, thecovenantrendering.com, CC-BY-4.0" is sufficient. You may use any reasonable format.
Note on the source text: The Westminster Leningrad Codex is in the public domain. The translation text (the English rendering, translator notes, and key term analysis) is the original content licensed under CC-BY-4.0.
Status & Roadmap
Open Source
The full translation data (JSON), generation prompt, and methodology are available on GitHub. Contributions, corrections, and forks are welcome.
View on GitHub →