About This Text
The Plain Bible is the King James Bible with a plain-English reading beside every verse, written for readers who have opened this book before and bounced off the language.
The Scripture
The scripture text is the King James Version of 1769, which is in the public domain in the United States. It is reproduced in full and unaltered: every book, every chapter, every verse.
The Plain Reading
The plain-English rendering beside it is an original work, written to be understood. It is not a translation from the original languages and does not claim to be one.
It is not written from the King James alone either. A reading built only from 1611 English inherits every word whose meaning has since drifted, so each verse is written against the sense the passage actually carries.
It is a rendering, not a summary and not a sermon. Every verse is rendered in full. A difficult passage comes out exactly as difficult as it went in, in words a fifth grader can read. Nothing is softened, nothing is sharpened, and no doctrine is added.
Words That Changed Meaning
Where the King James uses a word that has since changed meaning, the plain reading follows what the passage meant, not what the old word looks like today. Several have reversed outright. In Romans 1:13 “let” means hindered, not permitted, so a rendering built carelessly says Paul was allowed to come to Rome when he is saying he was blocked. It reads perfectly naturally and nobody catches it.
The same is true of “prevent” (precede), “conversation” (conduct), “charity” (love), “want” (lack), “meat” (food) and “replenish” (fill).
Four Reading Ages
Each chapter carries a rendering for four age groups: five to eight, nine to twelve, thirteen to seventeen, and adult. Each one is written independently. None is a simplified copy of the one above it.
A younger reading may carry less detail. None of them may say something the source does not say. Simplification removes; it never invents.
How It Is Checked
The rule above is only worth as much as the checking behind it, so every reading is checked before it is published, and checked again against the passage in its original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. A reading that says something the source does not say is treated as an error at every reading age, not as a matter of taste, and it is corrected.
That deeper check is being worked through the Bible book by book rather than all at once, and it is not finished. Where it has run, it has already corrected readings that looked perfectly reasonable in English.
Notes
A note explains language, never theology. They appear where the 1611 wording actively misleads, or where a concrete detail such as a coin, an hour or an object is opaque. Where a verse is absent from the earliest manuscripts, a manuscript note says so.