Why this Bible lets you copy-paste
Have you ever tried to copy a verse from a Bible website or app and found that you couldn’t — the text won’t select, or it pastes as a jumble, or it’s simply blocked? It’s a small thing that quietly gets in the way of study, teaching, and sharing. On this site, the Geʽez and English text is yours to select, copy, and paste freely. Here’s why, and how.
Why so many Bibles lock the text
It’s usually not malice — it’s licensing and habit. Most modern Bible translations are copyrighted, and their licenses limit how much you may copy, so apps disable selection to stay safe. Others block copying to discourage scraping, or because a mobile app simply isn’t built to let you select text. The result is the same: the reader is locked out of the words.
Why this one is different
The scripture here is transcribed from public-domain manuscripts — no restrictive license sits between you and the text. So there is nothing to lock. The reader is built to make copying clean and easy:
- The Geʽez and the English are real, selectable text (proper Unicode), not images — so they paste correctly into any document, search, or message.
- The little verse numbers sit in a margin that is not selected, so when you copy a passage you get clean scripture, not numbers tangled through the words.
- Every chapter has a “Copy Geʽez” and “Copy English” button — one tap puts the whole chapter on your clipboard.
How to copy a passage
Open any chapter in the reader and either:
- Drag to select the verses you want, then press Ctrl+C (or ⌘+C on a Mac) — the verse numbers stay behind; or
- Tap Copy Geʽez or Copy English to take the whole chapter at once.
Paste it wherever you study, teach, or share.
Free to share
The conviction behind it is simple: the words of scripture should be easy to carry into the world, not fenced off. The text on this site is free to read, free to copy, and free to share — no paywall, no account, no tracking. If you’d like to know where it comes from, see about the Geʽez Bible reader; if you’re curious about the wider canon, see the 81 books of the Ethiopian Bible.