Bible Software Online
No other book in the history of the world—not the Upanishads or the Koran, not even Chairman Mao’s once-ubiquitous (in China, at least) Little Red Book—can approach the pervasiveness and impact of the Holy Bible. It’s just a fact: the Bible has had a greater impact on civilisation around the globe than any other book.
Think about it: the Bible has transformed countless lives. It has inspired great works of art, music and literature. And it is the basis for much of “civil” society in many parts of the globe.
Studying the Bible is an education in itself: you can learn about ancient history, modern science (its health laws, alone, have yet to be surpassed), and all the dynamics of human relations. The very wealthy have drawn success secrets from its pages; the most poor have found comfort and challenge in its words.
This column is about the Internet, not Scripture, right? Well, not exactly. You see, the same tool that brings us the Internet can also help us delve more deeply into the God’s Word, the Bible. What’s more, some of the best Bible software out there is available free for the downloading.
Now it helps, of course, to have access to a high-speed Internet connection, such as broadband, since the downloads can be quite large. Such service is more and more available, although according to the Sydney Morning Herald of March 29, 2005, Australia lags behind South Korea, Singapore and Belgium in terms of its penetration.
But if you can get a fast enough connection, there are several programs worth looking at, in my view. Most are for the PC, although there is at least one free Bible program for Macintosh and several for Linux. I’ve worked with several of these over the years.
On the PC side, one of the best is
e-Sword, which operates under Microsoft Windows. Created by American programmer Rick Myers, the five-year-old e-Sword has been downloaded more than two million times.
The software has a window that organises Bible versions, commentaries and other reference works into a “workspace” that seems quite logical. You have a wide range of available Bible versions, from the King James to Eugene Peterson’s Message paraphrase, as well as the Contemporary English Version and God’s Word translation, the latter a personal favourite.
Study aids include a range of language tools, Matthew Henry’s commentary and the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. And there’s a window where you can make notes; you can also set up your own “parallel Bible,” to see verses in several translations at once.
Another very good program for the PC is
Theophilos. The free version includes the King James (Authorised) version of the Bible and some study tools; a CD-ROM or download version offers much more in the way of Bibles. What I like about Theophilos is that you can buy a “Scribe” add-on for $US29.95 that lets you convert any electronic text into a module that works with the software. This is a great boon for specialty students and for those seeking to organise materials for a Bible study or classroom group.
Users of non-PC platforms will want to investigate the SWORD Project, which has developed a series of Bible versions (some 200, including many in English), commentaries and related books, which can be accessed through front-end programs that run on Windows, Macs, Linux and even some handhelds. Full details are on the
web site.
Everything offered in the SWORD Project is free, which should make it attractive to many users. There isn’t as much power to organise as found in, for example, e-Sword, but this is a useful set of tools that many will appreciate.
If the Bible is your interest, you don’t have to empty your retirement fund to find good Bible software. The commercial programs have their place, but all of these free alternatives are, in my view, worth investigating.
