God's Word Is Not Bound: Copyright & the Stewardship of Scripture

Can the Word of God be owned and restricted by man? In the modern world, Scripture is often controlled by copyright. Bible translations, manuscript images, and critical texts are legally protected and treated as proprietary works. But can these systems be reconciled with the Bible's own teaching about the nature of God's Word? God's Word Is Not Bound examines the theology, history, and ethics of how Scripture is distributed and stewarded today. Drawing on biblical exegesis, church history, and sound reason, the contributors ask whether contemporary practices surrounding Bible publishing truly reflect faithful stewardship of God's revelation. This volume explores questions such as: • Does Scripture forbid commercializing the Word of God? • Are Bible translations fundamentally different from the original text? • Who owns biblical manuscripts and digital reproductions? • Does copyright actually protect Scripture from corruption? • How did modern Bible publishing come to control access to Scripture? Featuring essays and a formal debate on the morality of licensing Bible translations, this book invites readers to reconsider assumptions that many Christians have never examined. If Scripture is truly a gift entrusted to the Church, how should it be shared with the world? Some of the material in this volume was first delivered at Doreancon 2025, a conference hosted by Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church in Sunnyvale, California.

Andrew Case grew up on the mission field in Oaxaca, Mexico, and is a graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Canada Institute of Linguistics. He and his wife Bethany serve in Bible translation and training, helping make the Bible available in different languages of Mexico and Equatorial Guinea, and teaching Hebrew to the world over at freehebrew.online. Andrew's fiction and nonfiction writing, along with the music he creates can be found on his website hismagnificence.com. His podcast on Bible translation is called Working for the Word. Visit workingfortheword.com to find out more.