Drift Bible

About Drift Bible

Drift Bible shows what each verse said to the people who first heard it: from the Hebrew and Greek, in its cultural setting, and with the places where English words have drifted from the original meaning marked plainly.

How a study is made

  1. Someone asks for a verse. A study is written the first time a reader opens that verse, then kept for everyone.
  2. It starts from the source text. The writer is given the verse word by word in Hebrew or Greek, with each word's dictionary form, Strong's number and grammar (from STEPBible's tagged Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament), the verses around it, and several public-domain English translations.
  3. An AI model writes it, and says so. Studies are written by Anthropic's Claude models. Every page names the exact model and the date at the top, because the work depends on a model telling the truth about Greek and Hebrew, and you should know who is talking.
  4. A person reviews it. Studies marked Reviewed have been read by a person before they are offered to search engines. Every study can be read here as soon as it is written; reviewed ones say so under the verse.
  5. It is never quietly changed. A study is not edited in place. If one is redone, it becomes a new version and the earlier ones are kept.

What a study covers

The verse in its original language with a literal rendering; the key words, their range of meaning at the time, and how they were used elsewhere in the period; what the verse meant to its first hearers; where common English readings have drifted from the original; how major translations render it; and where scholars disagree, with each view stated fairly and the evidence behind it.

What it is not

  • Not a new translation. It helps you read the translation you already have.
  • Not a denomination's voice. Where traditions read a verse differently, the study lays the readings side by side instead of choosing for you.
  • Not a replacement for your own study, your church, or the scholarship it draws on.

Other ancient texts

Beyond the 66 books, the library includes the books in Catholic, Orthodox and Ethiopian Bibles and other writings from Jesus' world and the early church. Each book page gives the strongest honest case for treating it as scripture and the strongest case against, at equal length, with no verdict.

Sources

  • Hebrew and Greek word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
  • Translations quoted in full: the Berean Standard Bible, King James Version, World English Bible and Young's Literal Translation, all public domain.
  • Other ancient texts: public-domain editions listed in the terms.
  • Copyrighted translations (NIV, ESV and others) are quoted only a few words at a time, for comparison.

Corrections

If a study gets something wrong, say so in the comments on that verse. Corrections are made as a new version, so the record of what changed stays visible.