The Aquifer is a curated collection of trustworthy Bibles, study notes, dictionaries, translation guides, images, maps, and videos, suitable for both studying and translating the Bible. It includes 65 resources in 24 languages from more than 15 publishing partners, plus open data, such as Bible alignments and ACAI, that links resources together word by word.

See What's in the Aquifer for the full picture.

Nearly all. Every resource in the Aquifer is free to use, and all but one are openly licensed under one of the following Creative Commons license types:

• CC BY

• CC BY-SA

• CC0

The one exception is Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, which is licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: free for non-commercial use without changes. The license for every resource is listed in the content catalog.

There are many other types of Creative Commons licenses as well as "All Rights Reserved" licenses, but CC BY, CC BY-SA, and CC0 are the license types that provide free usage without restrictions. For users, this provides a clear conscience. For the Bible translation movement, it accelerates progress by eliminating time-consuming, and sometimes expensive, licensing negotiations.

There are four ways to access Aquifer content, depending on how you work:

• Content Catalog: search, read, share, and download resources through a simple web interface. No technical skills needed.

• GitHub: download the full content library as structured files from GitHub for programmatic use and bulk processing.

• API: bring Aquifer content into your application with the Aquifer API. Generate an API key to get started.

• MCP: give AI assistants and generative AI tools access to Aquifer content through the Model Context Protocol at api2.aquifer.bible/mcp.

Apps such as Bible Well also use the Aquifer to put translation guides and other Biblical resources in front of church translation teams in a gateway language they understand. See Get the Content for details on each option.

The Aquifer's Bible resources help church leaders understand key Biblical concepts, reducing the time required for church-based teams to translate the Bible into their heart language.

Bible Aquifer is primarily a curated collection of Biblical resources, though it also includes openly licensed Bibles in audio and text.  The Open.Bible website is an exhaustive collection of text, audio, and video Bibles, not all openly licensed, but all of which are at least Creative Commons licensed and free to download.  The Open.Bible website also includes a limited number of map files.

Developers looking for API access to Bibles, maps, and other Biblical resources, such as FIA, study notes, dictionaries, etc., are likely to find the Aquifer most useful. Individual users seeking to download Bible or map files for their own use will find Open.Bible most useful.  

The Aquifer is primarily a curated collection of Biblical resources, though it also includes openly licensed Bibles in audio and text.  Bible Brain, on the other hand, is an exhaustive collection of audio, text, and video Bible files.  Both solutions are accessible via API.  Bible Brain requires an agreement to access the API, because many of the Bibles have licensing restrictions that must be honored.

For those seeking API access to both Bibles and openly licensed Biblical resources in Gateway languages, Aquifer is likely the best choice.  

For those seeking API access to an exhaustive collection of Bibles, and especially audio Bibles, Bible Brain is a great choice.

While conceptually similar in terms of the resource types they contain, the offerings differ in several important ways:

Resource Types

Bible Aquifer

• Curated library of multimodal Bibles, exegetical resources, translation guides, study notes, dictionaries, lexicons, images, maps, and videos, all aligned to Bibles

Paratext ER/MARBLE

• Curated library of multimodal Bibles, exegetical resources, translation guides, study notes, dictionaries, lexicons, images, maps, and videos, all aligned to Bibles

Resource Licensing

Bible Aquifer

• Free to use; nearly all openly licensed (CC BY, CC BY-SA, or CC0)

Paratext ER/MARBLE

• Mix of rights restricted (free to use for Bible translators, subject to certain restrictions) and openly licensed 

Access

Bible Aquifer

• Via API, GitHub, the web content catalog, and MCP, free to all to build into any application (including Paratext via Platform.Bible extension).

Paratext ER/MARBLE

• For right restricted Bibles and Biblical resources via Paratext, requiring registry user agreements

• For openly licensed Bibles and Biblical resources through the Digital Bible Library web site

Gateway Language Resources

Bible Aquifer

• For Biblical resources: up to 24 languages

• For Bibles: 34 Bibles in 17 languages, including the original Hebrew and Greek

Paratext ER/MARBLE

• For Biblical resources: Primarily English with some French resources

• For Bibles: Bibles in over 1000 languages, including both rights restricted and openly licensed

The Aquifer is a product of ETEN Innovation Lab. It is filled with resources from many publishing organizations, including Tyndale House Publishers, Biblica, unfoldingWord, United Bible Societies (UBS), SIL International, Word Collective, Berean Standard Bible, Bridge Connectivity Solutions, the Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, and the Bible Society of Papua New Guinea. In partnership and with help from Wycliffe Global Partnerships, we are actively translating resources. Spoken Worldwide and Davar Audio Bibles are also valued content and technology partners.

Through the utilization of advanced technologies and radically spreading the message, these organizations support ETEN's All Access Goals that by 2033, 95% of people will have full access to the Bible and everyone will have access to some portion of Scripture.

The Aquifer is a product of ETEN Innovation Lab, funded through the generosity of ETEN, other Bible translation organizations, trusts, and individuals. The open datasets published on GitHub, including ACAI and the Bible alignments, are copyright Mission Mutual.

Questions? Email us at lab@eten.bible.

Providing openly-licensed Biblical resources through an open-source platform like the Aquifer helps ensure that the global church has access to resources it needs to translate Bible materials for every nation, in every language.

If you have openly-licensed Biblical resources that can be included in the Aquifer, please email us at lab@eten.bible. If you’d like more information, please visit the Bible Content Contributors page on our website.