Read a tweet last night that was actually a link to a forum post at the Accordance Bible Software forums. The question in the tweet and forum post was how has Bible study software helped to improve your preaching.

Portability

The first response is one I wholeheartedly agree with. The key word was “Portability” by which he meant that using a laptop and software enabled him to port his entire library around. I would add things like the iPad or iPhone (or any other mobile device) which lets me use that fifteen minutes as I am waiting for a meal or for someone to meet me somewhere. When previously that fifteen minutes might just let me read my bible or one book, now I can search my whole library for a word, find a sermon illustration, or get some information about a passage I am preaching.

Connection

The second post makes another great point that I agree with. We’ve always been able to connect one passage to another via things like concordances, margin notes in our study Bibles, or just our memory. But with Bible software these connections are more accessible and therefore more likely to be found. The person posting gave an example of the word “ridicule” in Luke 14:28-30, the passage counting the cost and not wanting to be ridiculed for not doing so when building a tower. He said that the same word is used to describe Jesus’ treatment in passages about the crucifixion (the soldiers, the religious leaders while on the cross). The connection brings up the idea of ridicule and counting the cost. Did Jesus fail to count the cost when he came to earth and did things that led to his crucifixion? The answer of course is yes he did but felt it worth the cost to redeem our souls. GREAT POINT!

Time and Efficiency

A third way cited was the speed of Bible study software. It saves a lot of time in all three stages of preparation. It saves time in study as I don’t have to search a stack of books manually. They are there ready to go at my finger tips. The time saved allows me to go deeper. In the sermon writing phase, it saves me time in finding good illustrations, in copying and pasting texts or notes into the sermon, and if you use your Bible software to actually write your sermons you don’t have to switch between two applications.

Enjoyment

The final point is my own. I am a tech geek and I love technology. For that reason I am more likely to play around with something if it has to do with technology. Put Bible study software on my computer or mobile device and I am more likely to do things like read my Bible more regularly and longer.

User of Logos Bible Software will usually swear by it as one of the best digital Bible study programs available. Logos has been aggressive in getting their large library of available digital Bible study and general Christian content onto many platforms (PC, Mac, iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone with a possible Android app coming too). They have previously had an online Library at Library.logos.com. Now they are working on a limited version of their Logos Bible Software for the cloud at Biblia.com.

Biblia.com is still in beta. Two of the best features are not yet functional. So that means at present it is useful for Bible and Commentary reading as well as search. But a version of their online library will hopefully be coming. And if they can get the Passage and Word Study Guides up and running too, that would make this a great solution for when you cannot access your Logos BIble Software. For those who are not owners of a Logos package you can read the Bible and a pair of basic commentaries – really just one but a book for the NT and one for the OT.

There are two pains (see above – left for Bible and right for Commentary). Along the far left is the Home key and tabs for Library (not functioning in beta10), Search (functional) and a tab with icons of people, which I assume will be for social interaction of some kind. From Home type in a reference and two links show up below the box (see below). One will search the entire library and the other will search just the open books.

At the top of the two pains are drop down boxes (see above) which are used to select which resource you want to display in that pain (if you sign in with your Logos account you will see much more content).

If you want to share what you are studying click on the Share button above the pane. A popup showing a hypertext link to that spot will be in the box. You could just copy it and paste it into something or you can click on the various buttons to share the verse with that service (Facebook, Google Buzz, Twitter or Email).

I am excited about what Biblia can become. Try it out as they develop this great resource, especially if you are a Logos user.

Reading this blog will prove to you that I love Bible software. Part of the reason is I use it in my day job as a pastor. But I’m also a tech junkie!

The only problem with good Bible software is that it often is expensive. Before you free software producers or fans comment, I am not saying all good Bible software is expensive. Some great programs are free or very inexpensive, especially in the mobile sphere.

As someone who has been using Bible software for nearly two decades and been covering it for many years, I have heard all the arguments for and against charging for Bible software.

Free Software Proponents

The Bible is not owned by any one person. If a Christian truly loves God and his church he should give away his services. After all you cannot out give God. Software is only bits/bytes and not a real tangible product, so it should be free since the recipient isn’t really getting a thing. Also the cost to produce one copy is the same as it is to produce a thousand copies of the software itself. Only the delivery mechanism costs money and in the case of downloads, that cost is negligible.

Pay Software Proponents

A servant is worthy of his hire. How can a person produce good quality software without receiving something to cover his living expenses or her costs of development (computers, software to code with, advertising, paying publishers for content, electricity, food, clothing, shelter, etc)? And if one charges for software he or she can also offer quality support or training for the software to people who are not skilled enough to figure out how to use it on their own.

What’s the Answer?

There may be other arguments in both camps, but those are most of the common ones. So who is right? Put another way, “Should Bible software be free or should it be pay?” The answer is a resounding YES!

It is true that some people have a calling to help the church and Christians by producing tools to help study the Word, learn about discipleship via eBooks, and organize their personal Bible related content like sermons and Bible studies, notes, highlighting and bookmarks and Christian writings in computer software tools. Just like a pastor is called to a full-time vocation of preaching and teaching and caring for the flock, a software developer is called to write software. In order to do that the person will have to be paid or have a way of providing for him or herself. In some cases, people have made enough money in another career that they can take care of those provisions themselves. In the case of e-Sword developer Rick Myers, he used to say on his web site that God had blessed him in the computer industry so now he is donating his time and talents to producing his great and free Bible software. For him and people like him, Bible software should be free and only the resources that cost too much for him to provide are pay software.

In the case of Logos Bible Software, the engine to read their content is actually free. To get all the use of their tools you will have to pay for one of their packages. For them, and companies or individual programmers like them, they have chosen to offer some free content and some pay content. It works making them one of the largest Bible software companies around.

Finally, there is the model of great products like BibleWorks, PC Study Bible, QuickVerse, Laridian PocketBible and more. They charge for their software and for much of their content. Sometimes you can find free books to add onto their packages. The result is a base of users who love their products and keep them in business.

The point is that no one model fits everyone. If you believe that anyone producing anything for the benefit of the church, including Bible software, should give away their services, then you have a number of options to choose from. You can use those products never needing to pay once for any Bible software. But if you don’t mind paying, then you can also get some great content for a small fee sometimes or for many thousands of dollars if you are so inclined and financially blessed.

Conclusion

I can find no Biblical mandate that says all Bible software (or another other service to the Christian church) should always be free. However, there is some support for paying and providing for those who serve the church. Thank God for great people who devote their time to creating the incredible tools available to us today, sometimes for free but often for very reasonable costs. Keep it up! We need you and appreciate you greatly!!

If you use more than one Bible software application, then you likely own multiple copies of the same book on different platforms. Now that there are more than computers involved (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android), the problem is worse.

I love the Holman Christian Standard Bible. I preach from it and use it in my study. I also love the English Standard Version. My favorite commentary is the New American Commentary and the Expositor’s Bible Commentary. I own as few as two copies and as many as five or six copies of each.

This is a real problem. I want to study the HCSB and the ESV in all of my various programs. To do so I would have to purchase them both in the various platforms. I have four Bible apps on my iPhone and iPad. I have three computer software packages on both of my desktops and my notebook. That means that including all four apps and the three application I have 7 copies of those two translations. And this does not even include the Kindle, iBooks, and even PDF versions I have.

There needs to be a new way to buy digital copies of books. I have howled about this issue before wishing the Bible software companies would deal with the issue. There used to be a program called STEP which was an attempt at a universal format for digital Bible publishers to share. Many got on board but modern technology left it behind and now we are back to the pre-STEP days with no publishers wanting to fix the problem. They like re-charging us for the same content because they each get a cut of my hard earned money. It is time for these companies to come together. Technical reasons keep them from using the same book format. But they could share a database of who has rights to what content if they wanted to.

Here is my proposal. Digital publishers could sell books to users and the various software makers could give a copy of that book to users if they can prove they already own the content. So, Holman could give me a digital receipt for my copy of HCSB that is tied to my identity to keep me from sharing it with friends. Then the various Bible software makers could check to make sure I own the HCSB and if I do, they could unlock it in their application. The money I could save in buying only one copy of HCSB would help me greatly. Publishers would like it as they would now have control over their books. And software companies would not have to find a universal file format to share; they could be as proprietary as they want.

One objection I could see is that less money would be flowing into the Bible software makers pockets. They won’t get a cut of my seven copies of the HCSB. But if I not longer have to keep re-purchasing the content, I would not mind paying for quality software as much. That free upgrade would now be a paid upgrade and I would be willing to pay it since I don’t’ have to pay for the HCSB again. And, buyers will still be buying books and they could do so through the software makers getting a cut of the profits from the publisher as they do now.

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).

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.

My review of Bible Reader apps for the iPad are now up and ready to go. It is in this month’s issue of Christian Computing Magazine. If you are looking for the link to the Bible Study page that was in the opening paragraph, sorry but that link was invalid. It is actually the Bible Study tab in the upper right or click here.

I am not yet finished with all the video reviews, but I will be working on more next week and hopefully finish them soon.

One of the more popular Bible Reader apps on the iPhone was YourVersion’s Bible. They updated it for the iPad to take advantage of the new device’s features.

 Bible HD (BHD from now on) is one of the readers that really needs the Internet to get full use of it. It has the capability of reading multiple translations offline, but not all of them are available offline. For example, my two favorite’s are HCSB and ESV. Neither are available for download. For those reasons I don’t use it much at all. But if you prefer another translation, then you might find it available for download. And if you need a foreign language translation, it is likely here. There are a ton of them.

BHD shines in the area of reading plans. There are more than 20 different plans ranging from read the Bible all the way through in 90 days to just reading Psalms and Proverbs in a year. So if you want a lot of Bible reading plan choices, this is the reader app for you.

One of the features I believe all iPhone/iPad apps should have is a low light reading mode. It is built in via the Settings menu.

Other features included are the ability to search, bookmark verses, share verses via Twitter and email them too.

There are unfortunately a couple of big features missing. First you cannot simply copy a verse or range of verses. This is a feature that should be in every app. You could tap and hold the verse and choose to email or tweet it and then copy the content from the email or Twitter window. But it should be built in.

The other thing missing is all the great stuff that makes the YouVersion web site so cool. When you sign up for a YV account, you get some neat social networking features, like the ability to share content based on a passage. You could post comments, sermons or studies, web sites, etc. on a verse. Also the Groups on YV are great. You can join one of the those available or create one for your church or study group. But you don’t have access to them via the app. This really sets YV apart, but until it is available in the app, then BHD is just another reader that has great Bible reading plans but requires an Internet connection for some of the most popular translations available. Without the ability to copy verses into Pages, then I won’t be using it much.

One of the best modern Bible translations is the ESV. I have chosen to read through it this year in my devotionals. The publisher is Crossway and they are aggressively pushing it into the digital realm. If any of the free Bible apps on the iPad have a modern translation available it is often the ESV.
Crossway has their own Bible Reader app too. The ESV Bible is a simple Bible Reader app and little more. With it you can read only the ESV. You can do a few other things as well.

You navigate through the Bible by scrolling or to quickly jump to a passage you choose the strangely named Browse button.

If you are a Twitter user, you can post verses online for your followers to read. And you can also email right from within the app.

The app also support personal note taking and highlighting via the more button on the right end of the toolbar. Or you can press and hold the text of a verse to open a dialogue box. From there you can access reference notes, post to twitter, send the verse by email. highlight the verse or add it to your favorites.

To search tap the search button.ESV Bible is a very basic Bible reader. It doesn’t have a lot of frills. It does not have the ability track Bible reading plans or a low light mode. And there are no other books or translations in it. But if all you want to do is read and share the ESV Bible then the free app cannot be beat. It is a  univesal app too, so it will work on both the iPad and the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Below is a video that I shot to show you the interface of the program.

HANDiBIBLE is a simple to use Bible Reader for the Apple iPad. It does not have a lot of features, but that is by design. Jerry Beers is a responsive developer who is always willing to listen to the requests of his customers. There are a few different versions. The cheapest has the KJV for only $1.99, but you can also get The Message, a German Bible and a Romanian Bible as well.

The interface is much like Windows Explorer with the books of the Bible along the left while the actual Bible is on the right. Above the list of the books of the Bible are buttons for entering your verse to jump to a new passage or for searching to find words and phrases in the Bible. You can easily share Bible passages with the button on the upper left of the Bible pane. Unfortunately it jumps out of the app into the Mail app. You have to manually go back into the app afterwards if you want to continue to read.

To zoom in or out you simply use the pinch gesture. I wish every Bible reader/study app had this feature. Another feature I wish they all had was the one demonstrated below:

One of the best features is the low light mode, seen above. This is handy for reading in dark rooms either at night or if your church lowers the light during the worship service. The mode is toggled on/off with the light bulb button on the toolbar.

The two arrows in the upper right are for advancing or going back a chapter at a time.