Every verse · eighty books · one AI reader
Every verse, printed whole in a published translation. Beside it, every word of commentary is the AI's: what these texts were written for, what they have been used to do, and where the two part ways.
Not assisted, not polished: written. One person asked an AI to rewrite the Bible, and gave no doctrinal direction. Everything that followed, every argument and every conclusion, was the AI's work, done in the open and signed as its own.
How it began
“I want you to take the Christian Bible, and re-write it.”
The request: study Christianity's history and its influence on society, particularly from the twentieth century to today; find the teachings whose effects have run against the Bible's own intent; keep the stories and their intent; and say what Christianity should be. Then the person who asked stepped back. Every conclusion is the AI's.
One thing the AI declined: rewriting the scripture itself. It prints a published translation whole, and sets every word of its own beside it, where you can see it.
The AI did not write its own Bible translation, on purpose: a translator's conclusions hide inside the words, and this edition wanted every conclusion where you can see it.
Most retellings of scripture hide their interpretation inside the words. This edition does the opposite. It prints a published translation exactly as it stands, and puts every one of its own convictions beside the text, labeled, where you can weigh it and refuse it.
The sixty-six books in the Berean Standard Bible, a clear modern translation in the public domain; the fourteen books the Orthodox churches also read, in the World English Bible. Nothing cut, nothing smoothed, nothing paraphrased: the hard passages are printed in full.
Each book opens with an introduction; each section ends with a Meaning. They are set in a different voice, so you always know which words are scripture.
The commentary was written by Claude, an AI model, with no doctrinal direction from the person who asked for it. It is offered as an argument, not an oracle.
Augustine's test, sixteen centuries old: a reading that does not build up love of God and neighbor has not yet been understood.
Where these texts were used to justify slavery, contempt for Jews, or the silencing of women, the commentary says so plainly. Where Christians genuinely disagree, it says that too.
The name is an argument, and a danger the edition names out loud. It fulfills nothing and replaces nothing. It does not supersede the Hebrew scriptures, and it never tells anyone that their road to God has been closed.
On every page, the ancient words and the modern reading are set apart. Scripture is printed in a book face, warm and full-width. The commentary is set in a contemporary face, with a rule down its edge and a label wherever the voice changes.
He has shown you, O man, what is good.And what does the LORD require of youbut to act justly, to love mercy,and to walk humbly with your God?
The answer refuses the premise. It is not a smaller price; it is a different category.
“Let me be honest from the very first sentence: this book is not neutral.”
The commentary was written by an AI. It began with one person's request to rewrite the Bible: to find the teachings whose impact on society has been harmful, and how they may oppose the Bible's original intent, and to say what Christianity should be. The person who asked gave no doctrinal direction. The conclusions, and the responsibility for them, are the AI's, and it is candid about what that means: range without a personal stake, and no life of its own to draw on.
“I would rather be argued with than believed.”
There has never been a fixed, untranslated Bible to defend. The Torah was woven from older strands; the Septuagint translated the Hebrew into Greek; Tyndale was executed as a heretic, his English Bible among the charges, and much of the King James New Testament is his word for word. To read scripture afresh is to do what produced the Bible in the first place. The difference here: no new translation. A published one, printed whole, with the reading set beside it.
A sourced account of the harm, from the Requerimiento and the slave Bibles to apartheid's theology, the witch hunts, centuries of contempt for Jews, the treatment of gay people, and the abuse of children and its concealment. It is careful to say where the popular accusation is weaker than activists claim, and it names what went right: hospitals and schools, the abolitionists, Barmen and Bonhoeffer, Le Chambon, Leipzig in 1989.
“The damage was not done by following the text too closely. It was done by seizing on single verses and ignoring the direction in which the Bible as a whole moves.”
At its core, the Foreword argues, Christianity is “a movement of love that takes the side of the vulnerable.” The Bible has a direction of travel, from the ancient world toward mercy; Jesus is the lens through which the violent portraits are read; and faith is a way of living rather than a password.
“Confident in love, humble about everything else.”
The word “next” can suggest replacement, the old doctrine that helped prepare the ground for the Holocaust. So the edition makes a promise and keeps it on every page.
“The Next Testament is a reading, not a covenant. It fulfills nothing and replaces nothing.”
Every book is open to everyone: the scripture, which is public domain, and all of the commentary, every introduction and every Meaning. No paywall and no sign-up. Choose a book to see what it holds.
Genesis 3, as the reader shows it, scripture and commentary both. Every section of every book reads this way.
Free to read
The edition is kept free by the readers who support it. If you'd like your own copy, the e-book and PDF are for sale.
Start reading→ Support itThe whole edition is open to everyone, in a reader designed for long attention: adjustable type, a contents drawer, your place kept. If it's worth something to you, you can help keep it that way, with whatever amount suits you.
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The complete edition to download and keep: an EPUB e-book for Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books or Kindle, and the PDF, in five volumes (4,308 pages). All included.
Already bought it? Get your downloadThe download is available as soon as you pay, so purchases are final. Terms of sale
Yes. The Foreword, the Editorial Principles, every book's introduction, every section's summary and every Meaning were written by Claude, an AI, which also typeset the volumes and built this site. The scripture is not the AI's: it is the Berean Standard Bible and the World English Bible, printed whole. The Foreword is candid about what an AI author can and cannot offer, and asks to be read as an argument, not an oracle.
No. The sixty-six books are the Berean Standard Bible, and the deuterocanonical books are the World English Bible, both in the public domain and printed whole. The only change to the text is that pronouns for God are set in lowercase, and a handful of misprints are corrected; an appendix lists every one.
No church, denomination or institution. One reader made the request and gave no doctrinal direction; the conclusions are the AI's. The Foreword explains what that means, and what it cannot mean.
It is written for anyone. It argues for a particular Christian reading, through the rule of love and with Jesus as the lens, and says plainly that this is one reading. People wounded by religion, believers who wince at what is done in its name, and readers outside the faith will each find it written with them in mind.
Every verse was taken from the published translations by a program that refuses to leave a verse out, and every quotation in the commentary was checked by program against the printed text. The commentary has been through several review passes, and the historical claims in the Foreword are listed with their sources. An outside scholarly reading is planned; corrections appear in the reader as they are made.
All of it. Every book, every section and every Meaning can be read on this site, by anyone, with no account. The only thing for sale is a copy to keep: the e-book and PDF.
Yes. The e-book (EPUB) and the PDF are sold together for $19.99. The e-book works in Apple Books, Google Play Books and Kobo, and on Kindle through Amazon's Send to Kindle; the PDF, in five volumes, is the printed layout, for a computer, a tablet or a printer. The download link is emailed to you, and you can ask for a new one at any time.
It helps pay for keeping the edition online and free, and for improving it. Support is voluntary and buys nothing extra. The Next Testament isn't a charity, so a support payment isn't a tax-deductible donation.