Translations
Manage multiple Bible translations with language metadata, variants, and rendering styles.
What Translations Are
A Bible translation in Bosca represents a complete edition of Scripture — for example, the English Standard Version (ESV), the New International Version (NIV), or a local-language translation. Each translation includes its full text organized by book and chapter, along with metadata about the translation itself.
Translation Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The full name of the translation (e.g., "English Standard Version") |
| Name (Local) | The name in the translation's own language |
| Abbreviation | Short code for the translation (e.g., "ESV", "NIV") |
| Description | A summary of the translation's purpose and approach |
| System ID | The external identifier from the Digital Bible Library |
| Styles | Rendering styles for the translation — font weight, alignment, indentation, verse number formatting, red-letter text, and more |
Variants
A single Bible metadata item can contain multiple variants — different editions or text forms of the same translation. For example, a translation might have a standard variant and a study edition variant with additional annotations. One variant is marked as the default.
Language Metadata
Each translation carries detailed language information:
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ISO Code | ISO 639 language code | eng, fra, zho |
| Name | Language name in English | English, French, Chinese |
| Local Name | Language name in its own script | English, Français, 中文 |
| Script | Writing system | Latin, Arabic, Devanagari |
| Direction | Text direction | LTR (left-to-right), RTL (right-to-left) |
Rendering Styles
Each translation includes a style registry extracted from the DBL metadata. Styles control how different elements are rendered:
- Verse numbers — size, weight, and positioning
- Red-letter text — words of Christ highlighted in a distinct color
- Poetry — indentation levels for poetic sections (Psalms, Proverbs)
- Paragraphs — spacing, indentation, and alignment
- Section headings — formatting for chapter and section titles
- Footnotes and cross-references — inline markers and reference formatting
Browsing Translations
The platform provides a list of all available translations with their names, abbreviations, languages, and descriptions. From there, you can navigate into any translation to browse its books and chapters.