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 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 from the source rather than from the rendering above it, because simplifying a simplification compounds every small drift the first pass introduced.
A younger reading may carry less detail. None of them may say something the source does not say. Simplification removes; it never invents.
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.