Webster Bible, The

Noah Webster has been called “America’s Schoolmaster” by one of his biographers, and it seems a very apt title for him.

Today Webster’s revision of the King James Version continues to be useful, for those who wish to use a Bible version that reproduces largely the familiar and traditional words of the King James Bible, with only the most difficult expressions modernized and corrected. Webster took up this project as an educator. In his day the Bible was often used in schools, as a text for practice in reading; but the version in common use did not always suit the needs of teachers and students very well. Its grammar was not always correct, it contained many obsolete usages, and in it there were some expressions “so offensive, especially to females, as to create a reluctance in young persons to attend Bible classes and schools, in which they are required to read passages which cannot be repeated without a blush,” as he says in his Introduction. His purpose was to clear away these obstacles to the use of the Bible as a model of correct and decent English usage in American schools and homes.

The Webster Bible
• Translator: Noah Webster
• Text of the 1833 version