This week the Atlantic noticed something that readers of my blog have known for quite some time. The iPad is a great tool for Bible study. According to the site, Olive Tree cracked the top 100 highest grossing book applications for the first time. They are citing Drew Heninger, CEO of Olive Tree.

The huge selection of Bible apps actually has one affect that likely waters down the overall figures. Since there is likely only going to be a few apps that will sell popular books from NY Times best selling authors, those sails will rise. The latest Dan Brown or John Grisham can be bough from two or three at the most. But the Bible can be had in more than a dozen different iPad apps. This dilutes their impact. If you could combine all of the Bible app sales and rank them against all the sales of each of the other titles in all their various outlets like Kindle, iBooks, etc., I would bet the Bible dwarfs most books. But despite the dilution, the Bible is  breaking into the top 100.

The Atlantic is trying to say this somehow gives us a hint at who iPad users are. I doubt that. But it does show that the most popular book in human history is popular even as an eBook too!

Bible.Is is a new iPhone Bible app that reads the Bible to you. It is not like many of the Bible apps that have introduced audio. Instead of computer generated Bible reading, it uses dramatized Bible readings. They get the audio from Faith Comes By Hearing, a ministry that supplies the Bible in 400 languages and free for download. Thanks to Bible.is you get it on your iPhone or iPad. It is also available on other platforms, like Android and hopefully Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Symbian OS in the near future. Until then you can subscribe to the SMS version which sends a text message with links to the MP3 of that day’s reading. They say it will take you 40 days to listen to the entire New Testament.

I really like the iPhone app and think it is well worth the price, which is Free. But it would be worth it if it costs even more. Below is a video of the app reading from 1 Kings.

As you can hear it is high quality dramatized Bible reading. But that is not all Bible.is can do. You can of course read from a few different translations, including the ESV, one of my favorites. It doesn’t have as many modern translations as some apps, but it is free.

The app also lets you highlight text, take notes, and bookmark your favorite verses. Notice from the screen shots below that you can listen to the Bible by simply opening to a verse and hitting the play button. You choose to read from several English translations including ASV, BBE, CEV, ESV, KJV and NRSV. The audio is available only for some translations and sometimes only for the NT.

Dramatized Available: ESV OT & NT, KJV OT & NT, NRSV NT only

Non Dramatized Available: KJV NT only, NRSV NT only

These will have to be downloaded via the More option in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen (see bottom left row of screen shots).

If you want to get through the NT in just 40 days there is an audio listening program available for that (see above right).

You can search the Bible and add bookmarks, highlights, and notes. To add these just tap and hold the verse and the screen above center will appear. Tap the first icon on the top toolbar to add a bookmark. The center icon brings up the highlighting color options. And the third icon is for sharing the verse on Facebook. I wish it had Twitter, but maybe in a future release.

Once the verse is highlighted it will look like the upper left screen shot. The bookmarks list is in the center above and the right is for changing the text size or the language.

Below you will see the More screen options. Share is for sending verses via email. The settings screen is the one on the upper right. Download is for adding translations and audio Bibles. Support and About are what you would expect. The screen shot below on the right is for changing the toolbar icons. You can change the default to include other things as you wish.

I think Bible.is is a great Bible listening app. My only complaints are that it doesn’t have my favorite translations, the HCSB and it doesn’t share via Twitter.  Other than that it is a wonderful app well worth your time to download and use to listen to God’s word. I plan to listen to the program on the go via my car stereo (cassette adapter).

Tecarta produces a very capable Bible reader that is so good it is almost ready to compete with the more powerful Bible study apps from the likes of Logos, Mantis, Olive Tree and Laridian. But I still chose to keep it among the Bible reader apps since it is not quite as advanced as those apps.

Tecarta has a lot to offer including in translation purchases of more modern translations like the NIV, The Message, NLT and NKJV. They are all $5.99 extra. If you want you can just buy the NIV version outright instead of this one. The NIV version is also $5.99.

The video review highlights the features, but some of the nicer ones include note taking which works as a window along the right side or can be expanded to fill the whole screen. There is a parallel view for showing multiple translations. You can also get content out via email or copying to other apps. It also has a night mode, which many readers do not. Other features include bookmarks and red letter in the NIV and TNIV.

My only complaint is that the parallel modes do not sync up with one another so that if you scroll in one the other translation follows it. But it is a very good reader app for not a lot of money.

WorldBible as a Bible reader app is a mixed bag. It has some nice features and actually includes more modern translations than most of the simple Bible reader apps. But it has a couple of glaring problems. For that reason I cannot recommend it.

The first thing you notice when you open it is that the interface is very attractive. It is simple. In fact too simple. Look at the screen shot below and tell me if you can see anything missing in this Bible reader app.

If you said verse numbers then give yourself a cookie. Now I can stand not having verse numbers as an option. But this app has no option to turn them on.

The screen shot above has the options tool open. You get there by tapping on the paper clip in the upper right corner. It has some nice options. You can access the books of the Bible. See below.

You will also notice that WorldBible has some nice modern translations like NIV, NASB, and the Amplified Bible. Most of them are international versions.

WorldBible lets you change the font. But what in the world is this (see below)? Why would you want this font? I can only image. There are some nice options but some totally unthinkable options. Clearly this is put together by someone who doesn’t even use the Bible.

The fact is when you visit the WorldBible’s web site you see some questionable apps there. At least one would be offensive to most people who revere the Christian scriptures. It is clear that this app is made by people who don’t really use the Bible daily or even much at all. So I cannot recommend it.

Below is my video review saying much the same thing. At least you can see for yourself.

I’m not going to bother with a list of pros and cons. Just don’t bother. Get one of the other apps.

TouchBible Loaded is another Bible reader app for the Apple iPad. It has some nice feature, but unfortunately it falls down in one big one.

The interface is simple with the ability to pinch to zoom, scrolling within a chapter, and advancing or going back a chapter at a time using swiping or the arrow keys.

Of course you can search using basic search functionality in the OT or NT only and searching by word, any words or exact phrases.

It is a little limited in content with only the NET, KJV, WEB, BBE, ASV, YLT, Darby, and Webster.

Some of the nicer features included is the ability to have parallel translations and adding notes and highlighted.

Below is my video review and then the Pros and Cons of the app after that:

Pros:

• Simple
• Has parallel version mode
• Can add notes, bookmarks, highlights
• Pinch to zoom
• Night mode
• Dial-a-verse which loads on random verse each time starts
• Paragraph and verse per line mode

Cons:

• Slow to respond
• Few translations
• Help, Reading plan for daily bible reading, maps are Internet only features

The TouchBible Loaded that I reviewed in this video is $4.99 in the app store. There is also a free version and version for the iPod Touch/iPhone.

I’ve been preaching with my iPad for a few weeks now. I open the sermon in Pages and preach from it each Sunday and Wednesday. Now the Roman Catholic Church has an app for their priests to use to lead the mass in multiple languages. It is called iBreviary. Who says the church is out of touch with modern life?

As some of you may know, I wrote an article for iPhone Life that was released earlier this year. They are offering a free issue of the magazine this summer which you can get by clicking the icon.

BibleXpress is another Bible reader for the iPad. It is a simple reader that has little more than a few translations and a dictionary. Below is a video review of the app with some screen shots.

I like that it has bookmarks, a couple of modern translations like the ESV. And you can highlight favorite verses. There is no Bible reading tracking, or lowlight mode.

Above is the screenshot of the Bookmarks feature. Tap the plus sign in the upper left of the Bible window and you will be able to add bookmarks.

Above you see the dictionary, which you access via the left hand tools window. Notice the Dictionary button which is the right most button in that left hand window.

One of the distinguishing features of BibleXpress is the Prayer list tracking.

This is BibleXpress in portrait mode. Instead of the left hand window, you only have the toolbar which gives access to the various features available there like bookmarks, prayer lists, searching, and dictionary lookup. Also notice the margin notes along the left of the Bible text.

Notice the note window in this screenshot above. You access it via the button in the upper right above the Bible text. It lists all the verses in the current chapter and you tap the verse you want to annotate and start typing.

BibleXpress is a nice app. Of all the Bible readers it is one of few with a modern translation. However, it does come at a cost. There are two versions. One with the with copyrighted translations for $30. The light version is only $3. It is available for both the iPad and the iPhone/iPod Touch in the App store.

Holy Bible HD is another simple Bible reader app that has some very nice features.

When you open the app you will see the beautiful splash screen that goes away quickly on the iPad due to the device’s speed. It opens in a simple reader mode but can be used in dual pane mode, as you see below.

The app has some of the nice features that I believe all apps should include like note taking, highlighting, low light mode, and bookmarking. To get around in the Bible you can scroll through a chapter, move back and forth a chapter at a time using the arrows in the upper right, or you can tap the icon that looks like a Bible with its ribbon hanging out in the upper left. From there you can scroll through the list of books and chapters. You also choose your versions there using the Version Selector.

With the version selector open, you can add a second pain by selecting a version in the second scrolling list. The available versions are mostly public domain works or foreign language.

If you want to add translations, choose the Manage Bibles item. At the top of the window is the list of what you already have installed. Below that are available translations to download and install for free. You won’t find modern translations like the NIV, NASB, ESV, or HCSB. The developer says that they are too expensive to include in a free app and that is understandable.

Finally, to follow a daily Bible reading, open the window using the same icon in the upper left that you use to jump to another book or translation. The calendar icon reveals the Daily Reading window. There you can choose from the list of plans and then keep track of your progress.

If you don’t want to move around using the book and chapter scrolling wheel, then tap the location button which lets you type in a reference to instantly jump there. It is  in the upper left next to the Book/Chapter icon.

On the bottom left are icons to control your bookmarks, view the history of where you have been in the Bible, add or edit chapter notes, search the Bible or control the automatic scrolling mode. More on auto scrolling in a moment.

Bookmarks can be organized into folders. To add a bookmark simple tap and hold the verse number till the popup window appears. That menu lets you do a number of other things too, including copying the verse to the clipboard for pasting into another app. You can also add highlights of different colors and see what verses you have already highlighted.

There is a history button that shows you the list of where you have been in the app. Tap the passage and it takes you there.

To add a note, tap on the pencil icon. Notes are attached to chapters, not verses. You can then email the notes. This could be a handy way to get notes off the iPad and into a desktop app; just email them to yourself. To view a list of all your notes, from the editor, tap the notes list icon in the upper right end of the toolbar.

To search the app, hit the search icon on the toolbar. It has searching in exact mode which finds exact matches or what is called “close” for when you have a good idea of what you want to find but cannot remember the exact word or phrase. That “fuzzy searching” is a nice feature that some desktop apps don’t handle well.

Holy Bible HD has one really cool feature for reading the Bible. It is called the auto scrolling mode. Tap the down arrow button and the content starts scrolling. You can control the speed via the settings menu button on the lower right hand side.

Speaking of the settings, there are a number of nice customizations you can do to the app. They include changing the font and paragraph modes. You can also change the colors of the font and background. This is how you get low light mode. Simple change the background to a dark color and the font to a light one like white. I wish it was a one tap process but at least it is there.

Bible Reader HD is another simple reader app that is not designed for serious Bible reading. It lacks modern translations but it is also free in the app store. Don’t expect modern translations in the future either. The developer says they are not coming. But for the simple reader apps, it has a lot to offer and should be given serious consideration by users who want a free reader app and don’t need anything but public domain translations.

holiwrit for the Apple iPad is another very simple Bible reader app that does one thing nicely. It allows you to read the New English Translation of the Bible. It is not intended for users who need or want more out of a Bible app. The app store description even says, “Are you a pastor? A theologian? A Master of Divinity? This app is not for you.”

As you can see the interface is simple. It only works in Portrait mode. The navigation uses back and forward arrows at the bottom left and right to jump back or forward one chapter in the current book of the Bible. To jump further than a chapter at a time, pull down the Bible screen as if you were going to scroll down and it reveals the Table of Contents which then locks into place with two rows – one for books and one for chapters. There is a small button on the upper left corner to open or close the TOC as well. You will see from the video below that the tabs scroll smoothly and very quickly so it doesn’t take long to go from the beginning to the end of the Bible.

holiwrit allows you to copy and paste verses, which is nice. But it does not have notes, bookmarks or highlighting. And you cannot change to a low light mode either.

One final complaint – the name! I don’t like the lowercase name and I keep wanting to type and say “holiwrite” – with an “e” on the end making it write. You will notice in the video I even spelled it wrong in the opening title. Sorry to the developer for that. That is an incredibly nit picky kind of complaint that likely reveals more about me than the app.

holiwrit costs $3.99 or you can try out the Gospels only version for Free.