The Aquifer contains a curated collection of the most useful Biblical resources suitable for both studying the Bible and translating it.  The resources are free to use and are, or will be, accessible in the most spoken gateway languages.

Yes, consistent with the desires of its partners and ETEN, all resources in the Aquifer are openly licensed under one of the following Creative Commons license types:

• CC BY

• CC BY-SA

• CC0

There are many other types of Creative Commons licenses as well as “All Rights Reserved” licenses, but only the three license types selected for the Aquifer 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.

The Aquifer is accessed by apps using Aquifer Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to pull in content and present it in chosen languages to users. APIs allow different software systems to interact and share data or functionalities, making it easier to integrate and expand the capabilities of applications.

One such app is Bible Well. Using apps like Bible Well, church translation teams can interact with translation guides and other Biblical resources in a gateway language they understand. 

Bible Well is also open source under the MIT license and developers may use it as a reference app. To explore whether your app might benefit from tapping the Aquifer, generate an Aquifer API key.

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

• Openly licensed only (free to use with no restrictions)

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, 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: 9 gateway languages currently, 25 eventually

• For Bibles: all openly licensed Bibles

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 filled with resources from many publishing organizations, such as SRV Partners, Tyndale, United Bible Society (UBS), Berean Standard Bible, Biblica, ETEN (Every Tribe Every Nation) and its Innovation Lab, and unfoldingWord. In partnership and with help from Wycliffe Global Partnerships, we are actively translating resources. Bridge Connectivity Solutions, Spoken Worldwide, Davar Audio Bibles, and Logos Bible Software are also valued content providers 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.

To accelerate translation of Biblical resources, the Aquifer team has created a new AI-assisted program for community reviewers who can translate resources in English to other gateway languages. If you are being called to participate, or want to inquire about the Community Reviewers Project, please complete the form here.

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.