Copyrighting the Gospel

The written word is powerful but tone of voice can be hard to convey. The following is an attempt at humor and is not meant to be critical in any way.

I recently purchased a new Bible. I was looking through it to see where it was made. It was relatively inexpensive so I will just admit right now that I was assuming it was not made in the USA. And that thought in and of itself is sad. How easy I forget that the body of Christ is not my church or my city or state or country. It's the whole world.

Anyway as I was looking for this information I came across some copyright information. I guess I found that kinda pretentious on the part of the publisher and sorta funny. I have always believed that the Bible was written by..........umm.........not the publisher! What, are they sending royalty checks to Moses and David and Paul and......

Okay, I guess business is business and my thoughts are over simplified, but it all struck me as funny. You might enjoy it too. Here are a few of the statements......and I quote:

"The NIV text may be quoted in any form (written, visual, electronic or audio), up to and inclusive of five hundred (500) verses without express written permission of the publisher, providing the verses quoted do not amount to a complete book of the Bible nor do the verses quoted account for 25 percent or more of the total text of the work in which they are quoted."

"When quotations from the NIV text are used in non-saleable media, such as church bulletins, orders of service, posters, transparencies or similar media, a complete copyright notice is not required, but the initials (NIV) must appear at the end of each quotation."

"Any commentary or other Biblical reference work produced for commercial sale that uses the New International Version must obtain written permission for use of the NIV text."