The Passion Translation, authored by Brian Simmons, markets itself as a "dynamic equivalence" translation that "reveals the passionate heart of God." Recent discoveries demonstrate, however, that the work rests on a series of deceptions and unethical practices. A video released by Mike Winger and Minor Prophets has uncovered the depth of these practices, and all of the supporting evidence is available in that video.

The deceptions include:

• Simmons claiming that he "translated the New Testament into the language of the Paya-Kuna people," when an official email from Wycliffe Bible Translators confirms he held no official role in that translation.
• Using "Dr." before his name in all early editions, despite a doctorate unrelated to Bible translation and granted by an institution (the Wagner Leadership Institute) that much of the academic community does not regard as legitimate.
• Repeatedly stating that an "angel named Passion" commissioned and assisted him, then later denying he ever said so—a contradiction documented in multiple YouTube videos.

More serious still, the video shows compelling evidence of extensive, unethical copying and plagiarism from other sources without attribution:

• The Passion Translation routinely copies unique phrasing—sometimes 15 to 17 words in a single verse—from existing English single-author paraphrases such as The Message and The Living Bible. This copying often occurs in "batches," where the same source is copied several times in a row; in places, The Message is, at times, copied 7-8 times in a row within a single chapter. Such patterns indicate the copying is deliberate rather than accidental.
• Simmons admitted to Dr. Mark Strauss that he does not read Aramaic—directly contradicting his past claims and the impression created by the translation's footnotes—and that he drew his material from English-language websites.
• Simmons' New Testament "Aramaic" renderings are largely the product of copying other English works by fringe authors who themselves do not possess qualifications to translate. These include David Bauscher's Original Aramaic New Testament, Andrew Gabriel Roth's Aramaic English New Testament, and Victor Alexander's Aramaic New Testament.
• He also reproduces insights from other resources' footnotes in his own footnotes without attribution, in some chapters amounting to nearly half the footnotes. The most frequently copied here are the three works above, along with Francois du Toit's Mirror Bible.

Though the full work has yet to be evaluated, the letters of Paul and the Gospel of Luke alone contain hundreds of clear instances of copying from these sources. Dozens of documented examples are available in the documents linked in the description on the Minor Prophets YouTube channel.

When confronted about these allegations—by Andrew Chapman via email in 2017, and by JonMark Baker in 2026—Simmons and Broadstreet Publishing have refused to engage their substance, shown no repentance, and repeatedly altered the translation to "scrub" the evidence of this conduct.

YouVersion is the most widely used Bible app in the world, and its inclusion of The Passion Translation lends the work a credibility the evidence does not support. In view of this, Bible Gateway already made the decision to remove this problematic work from their platform in 2022.

We are therefore appealing to YouVersion to remove The Passion Translation from its website and app.

 Maintaining a diversity of translations is a worthy goal, but retaining a dishonest and unethical work does not align with YouVersion's stated culture and mission.

Please sign below if you support removing The Passion Translation from the YouVersion app and bible.com.