Olive Tree is one of the best iPhone Bible apps available.  I gave it a test drive back in my Windows Mobile days, but was not really excited about it back then. I can’t say how their WinMo app is today because I don’t have one. But the iPhone app is top notch.

I did a review of the program for Christian Computing Magazine awhile back. In that review I rated it as one of the four best apps for Bible study on the platform. To be honest there is little difference in quality among the four (Laridian, Logos, MantisBible are the other three). But since that time there have been a couple of unique developments that I wanted to share with you.

As you can see it is a very simple interface. The Title bar reveals the current book or Bible translation that is open. The Library icon opens up to reveal your installed library, favorite books list, the store where you can download many new add on books and Bibles, your available downloads from both iTunes and the OT store, as well as the more screen where you can show books by authors/contributors.

One of the new features in 4.10 is the ability to buy and download books from within the Library screen’s store menu. Apple has not yet approved all that OT has submitted for download. But when it does it will make buying add-ons much easier.

Back to the main screen (shown to the left) you can see the Verse button. Tap it and it lets you go to a specific reference in the Bible or location in your book. For all books besides Bibles it will say Conents.

On the lower toolbar there are arrows for going back and forth in the history of opened books and locations.  The Plus button is where you add bookmarks, notes, and copy verses to paste in other apps.

The second new feature I wish to highlight is the notes in OT 4.10.  Unlike almost any other Bible app, they sync very nicely to Evernote. You can add notes here or by tapping and holding a verse number.  The popup menu gives you the option to add notes to a verse.  Then, when you go into the Notes list you can sync your notes manually with Evernote. They show up either in Evernote’s online notes application or in the desktop/iPhone app in a special folder created by OT.  You can find your notes by tapping the toolbar icon furthers to the right with the box and arrow.  There you can sync them, read them and delete them. Notice in the picture above (lower right in the set of four) there is a line that says “Pull Down to Sync Notes”.  That is how you do it.  With wi-fi or 3G it happens pretty quickly.

Another new feature that I wish to highlight is the Olive Tree University, which is their built in help system.  You access it from the same menu where you find your notes list. It has At the top (not pictured) you see “What’s New in 4.10” It will play a YouTube video that highlights the new features in the app. In the screenshot to the right you can see the next section which is the internal help system showing the Basics and the Advanced Topics.  Below that is a section that includes a link to the In-App Bookstore, User Reviews and OT’s Forums page from their web site.  Below that (not pictured) are links to allow you to interact with OT people view a newsletters signup, the company blog, and a link to the official OT Twitter page.

The OT University is well done. It may be one of the best and easiest to learn help systems in any of the Bible apps I’ve reviewed. Laridian is a close second, but they keeping true to their emphasis on simple interface, only have text. The videos and images in OT help are nice.

The best new feature in OT 4.10 are the original language tools. In the upper left screenshot of the four shots together above, you see the popup that shows the Greek information. This is the NA27 Greek New Testament. Each word is a link that opens a popup.  In the popup you get the parsing and definitions from UBS Dictionary.  The Hebrew OT uses BHS and the BDB Dictionary for its definitions. Also available are tools for studying the LXX.

This is a significant advance for OT and for iPhone Bible study ease.  Previously Mantis had the easiest Original Language tools with the hyperlinked Complete Word Study Bible.  The two programs use different approaches. Either one is a great solution for doing language study. Olive Tree is ahead in one area – split screen viewing. You can move a bar to share the screen between two books. It has a handle to adjust it so you can show a small window for one and a larger for the other. Or just split the screen in half. Of course one feature that is lacking in OT is the ability to track your devotional readings.  Mantis lets you open one of its many reading plans and when you click the link to that passage, read it, then return to the reading plan and the passage is automatically checked off.

In my original review of Olive Tree (4.08) I gave said:

The BR’s split screen mode, pop-ups, and the ability to add notes along with its large library makes it a very attractive choice. If you are already an Olive Tree customer, most of your books will transfer to the iPhone app. Using the iPhone App store rating system, I would give it 4 ½ stars. Just a few minor things like the lack of a comprehensive help system drop it down from a five star app.

Notice that the major downfall was the lack of a comprehensive help system. With Olive Tree University that is no longer a problem. However, there is still the issue of no devotional reading tracking like Mantis has. So I will not change my rating yet. But if that is added, I will have to give OT a 5 star rating.