Banal na Bibliya (ULB)

The Banal na Bibliya (Tagalog Unlocked Literal Bible, ULB) is a translation of the Scriptures into Tagalog, the principal language of the Philippines and the basis of official Filipino. Published in its current form in 2018, it is part of the Door43 / unfoldingWord project, an international initiative dedicated to producing open and free Bible translations for languages around the world, especially for national translation communities.

The ULB's translation philosophy is deliberately literal: the text seeks to preserve the forms, structures, and vocabulary of the original Hebrew and Greek, even when this results in less natural constructions in the target language. The aim is not necessarily fluent devotional reading, but to serve as a reliable textual base for local translators producing versions for smaller languages of the Philippines and Asia, offering exegetical transparency and morphosyntactic fidelity.

The Philippine context is distinctive: a majority-Christian nation with a strong Catholic tradition and a growing evangelical presence, it has dozens of regional languages besides Tagalog. The ULB Tagalog meets the need for an open and revisable textual base, allowing missionary organizations, local churches, and community translators to work over a common, licensable text. It complements established translations such as the Magandang Balita Biblia and the Ang Biblia, offering a free-use alternative.

The text is distributed under a Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license, allowing free reproduction, modification, and redistribution, provided that appropriate attribution and an equivalent license are maintained in derivative works. This open model is an essential part of the unfoldingWord project's mission.