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Hindi O.V. Bible: which Hindi Bible text Yeshu Vachan uses, and why

यीशु वचन (Yeshu Vachan) · Updated 2026-10-02

What the text is

The Hindi O.V. is the older, traditional wording of the Hindi Bible, the phrasing read in many Hindi-speaking churches and the one many believers know by heart:

आदि में वचन था, और वचन परमेश्वर के साथ था, और वचन परमेश्वर था।यूहन्ना 1:1 (John 1:1)

क्योंकि परमेश्वर ने जगत से ऐसा प्रेम रखा कि उस ने अपना एकलौता पुत्र दे दिया, ताकि जो कोई उस पर विश्वास करे, वह नाश न हो, परन्तु अनन्त जीवन पाए।यूहन्ना 3:16 (John 3:16)

यहोवा मेरा चरवाहा है, मुझे कुछ घटी न होगी।भजन संहिता 23:1 (Psalms 23:1)

The app’s name comes from this text too: “Yeshu Vachan”, Jesus the Word (John 1:1, 14).

Where it comes from, and what we know

The digital text is the “Hindi Holy Bible” in the public-domain-bible-translations collection on GitHub (FordhamRamFan), which lists it as a public-domain text and labels it the 1911 Hindi O.V. The app is built from one fixed version of those files, so every rebuild produces exactly the same text.

What we have not confirmed, plainly: the edition history of this digital text. We do not know which printing it was typed from, or how it relates to later printed Hindi Bibles. “1911” is the date the source gives; we repeat it as the source’s label, not as a date we have verified. For the public-domain status we likewise rely on the source’s listing, which is what you would expect for a text of that age. If you know the history of this edition, please write to sunil.soundarapandian@gmail.com.

What was proofread

The digital copy had the kind of errors that come from converting old, pre-Unicode Hindi fonts. These were fixed:

• Duplicated verses removed (Judges 10, Micah 3:13).
• Two chapters repaired that had been garbled by a legacy-font conversion (Exodus 3, 1 Chronicles 25).
• Misplaced marks put back throughout: a reph (र्) that had landed after the next syllable, the ि vowel sign on the wrong letter, and a nukta that had drifted.
• 177 run-together words split and 896 typing errors corrected, found by checking every rare word that is one letter away from a common one and judging it in its verse.

The wording was not edited or modernised; only clear typing slips were fixed. The proofreading is not finished: it was done without a second source. A verse-by-verse comparison with another copy, and spot checks against a printed Bible, are still to come, and the hardest errors to catch are the ones that make another real word (ओर typed for और). If a verse does not match your printed Bible, email sunil.soundarapandian@gmail.com with the reference.

Why the app uses it

• It is public domain. The text can be bundled inside the app and given away. There is no licence fee to recover, which is why the app can be free with no ads, and why the whole Bible can sit on your phone rather than being streamed from a server.
• It is the familiar text. Many memory verses are in this wording.
• It is complete. Every book from उत्पत्ति (Genesis) to प्रकाशितवाक्य (Revelation): 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New.

There is one text in the app at present, so there is no version picker. The Hindi / Hinglish switch in the reader changes the alphabet the same words are shown in, not the translation.

Book names

Books are listed under the Hindi names this text uses, and under English names in Hinglish mode. A few: निर्गमन is Exodus, व्यवस्थाविवरण is Deuteronomy, भजन संहिता is Psalms, नीतिवचन is Proverbs, सभोपदेशक is Ecclesiastes, प्रेरितों के काम is Acts. Typing a reference such as “John 3:16” or “John 3:16” into search jumps straight to the chapter.