About the Berean Standard Bible
Every passage on this site — the daily verse, the devotionals, the studies, the chapter reader — comes from the Berean Standard Bible, usually shortened to BSB. If you haven't run across it before, here is where it came from and why we use it.
Where the name comes from
It comes from a single verse in the book of Acts. When Paul preached in the town of Berea, Luke made a point of writing down how the people there received him.
That is a fitting name for this translation, because more than most, it invites you to check its work.
Who made it
It was published by Bible Hub, a Bible study site that has put reference tools online free of charge for years. The translation first appeared in 2016 as the Berean Study Bible and was renamed the Berean Standard Bible in 2022. It has been revised since, so the wording of a verse here and there may differ slightly from one printing to the next.
What makes it unusual is that it was not built alone. It was produced alongside a companion interlinear and a strictly literal edition, and all of them are published side by side. That means you can take any verse, look straight through to the Hebrew or Greek word behind each English word, see how that word is used elsewhere, and compare how other translations handled the same line. Most translations ask you to trust the finished product. This one shows its work.
What it was translated from
The Old Testament comes from the Masoretic Hebrew text, the same foundation used by nearly every English Bible, with the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ancient Greek Septuagint consulted where the Hebrew is difficult to read. The New Testament comes from a Greek text assembled by weighing the major modern editions against one another, with significant differences noted rather than quietly set aside.
How it reads
It aims for the middle ground: close enough to the original wording to be trustworthy for study, plain enough in English to be read aloud without stumbling. Where a familiar phrase is also an accurate one, the BSB tends to keep it, so a good many verses sound close to what you grew up hearing.
Why this site uses it
Along with being a sound translation, the BSB is free to share. Most modern Bibles are copyrighted, and a website that wants to publish whole chapters, daily devotionals, and study guides has to ask permission and stay inside a word count. The BSB carries no such restriction. That means the Scripture on this site can be read, copied, printed, and passed along freely, which is how it ought to be.
A word about other translations
No translation is perfect, and this one is younger than most. If a verse reads differently here than in the Bible on your nightstand, that is nearly always the translators making a different judgment about a Hebrew or Greek word, not anyone changing Scripture. Reading more than one translation side by side is a good habit and it will teach you a great deal. It is also, come to think of it, exactly what the Bereans were commended for.