Comparison of Free Bible programs for Apple iPhone, iPod & iPad
by
William Arnold III
WmArnold@gmail.com
Program Free Offline Translations Free Online Translations Free Offline Commentaries & Dictionaries Pocket Sword ASV, ESV, GW, ISV, KJV*, NET, WEB / WH-NA*, TR*, LXX*, HEB+, LAT / RV09 Clarke, Gill, JFB, KD, Lightfoot, RWP, TSK / CBC, Easton, ISBE, LS, Nave, Smith, Strong, TCR, Torrey, Vine You Version ASV, GW, KJV, MES, NCV, NET, NKJV, WEB / RVA AMP, CEV, ESV, HCSB, NASB, NIV, NLT / LBLA, NVI Logos ASV, GNB, KJV, NKJV, NLT ESV, GW, HCSB, NAS95, NCV / WH, TR / LBLA Blue Letter Bible ASV, KJV, NET / GNT, TR, LXX, LAT / RV09 ESV, NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT / RV60 Olive Tree ASV, HCSB, ISV, NET, WEB / LAT / RV09 Avery Holy Bible ASV, KJV, NET, WEB / WH, LXX, LAT / RV09 Bible + 1 KJV AMP, ESV, MES, NASB, NCV, NIV, NKJV, NLT / LBLA, NVI Tecarta Bible KJV AMP, MES, NASB, NCV, NIV, NKJV, NLT / LBLA Laridian Pocket Bible ASV, KJV, WEB JFB, TSK / CBC, Easton, Nave, Torrey Touch Bible ASV, KJV, NET, WEB Mantis KJV Wave Study Bible KJV, NET, WEB / GNT ESV ESV
Comments:
Well, good thing you don't have to pick only one! Pocket Sword definitely offers quite a bit at no cost. I would say it's a good place to start. It was also the only application I could find that had a free Hebrew text, Strong's Numbers, Greek morphology (that worked), and quite a bit of free commentaries & dictionaries. You Version & Logos add to this: the Message, GNB, NCV, NKJV & NLT for offline reading and CEV, NASB, NAS95, NIV, LBLA & NVI for free when you are online. However, by themselves they have no offline Greek or Hebrew texts. The Blue Letter Bible has Greek and Latin, but these are already available in Pocket Sword. Olive Tree's Bible Reader is actually my favorite program to use, meaning I really like the user interface. However, they offer very little for free (not even a KJV!) The others down the list don't offer any free resources that are not already available in the first three.
So, in conclusion, I would recommend a combination of Pocket Sword, You Version & Logos to get the most without spending any money. On the other hand, if you want a nice user interface and don't mind spending some money, Olive Tree is a really nice program. It just bugs me to see Bible software companies charge for public domain texts which cost them nothing, yet they feel the need to profit from them instead of following the principle of our Lord, "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8). Ministry should come first and profit second. Hats off to the Sword Project for making the word of God available without cost!
Notes:
+ has Strong's numbers (morphology forthcoming) / * has Strong's numbers & morphology / bold text indicates a resource unique to that platform
English Bibles: AMP - Amplified Bible, ASV - American Standard Version, CEV - Contemporary English Version, ESV - English Standard Version, GNB - Good News Bible, GW - God's Word, HCSB - Holman Christian Standard Bible, ISV - International Standard Version (NT only), KJV - King James Version, MES - The Message, NASB - New American Standard Bible, NAS95 - New American Standard Bible (1995 update), NCV - New Century Version, NET - New English Translation (limited notes), NIV - New International Version, NKJV - New King James Version, NLT - New Living Translation, WEB - World English Bible
Other Bibles: GNT - Greek New Testament, TR - Textus Receptus Greek New Testament, WH - Westcott & Hort Greek New Testament, WH-NA - Westcott & Hort Greek New Testament with Nestle-Aland 27th Edition Variants, LXX - Septuagint (Greek Old Testament), HEB - Hebrew Old Testament, LAT - Latin Vulgate / LBLA - La Biblia de Las Americas (Spanish NASB), RV09 - Reina-Valera Spanish Bible 1909, RV60 - Reina-Valera Spanish Bible 1960, RVA - Reina-Valera Actualizada, NVI - Nueva Version International (Spanish NIV)
Commentaries & Dictionaries: Clarke - Adam Clarke Commentary, Gill - John Gill Commentary, JFB - Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Commentary, KD - Keil & Delitzsch Commentary, Lightfoot - John Lightfoot Commentary, RWP - A. T. Robertson's Word Pictures, TSK - Treasury of Scripture Knowledge / CBC - Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia, Easton - Easton's Bible Dictionary, ISBE - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1st edition), LS - Liddell-Scott Greek Lexicon, Nave - Nave's Topical Bible, Smith - Smith's Bible Dictionary, Strong - Strong's Greek & Hebrew Dictionaries, TCR - Thompson Chain Topics, Torrey - Torrey's New Topical Textbook, Vine - Vine's Expository Dictionary
This is a comparison of freely available Bible programs for the iPhone and iPod Touch (which should all work on the iPad as well). I have not listed every single resource available for each platform, but only the ones I considered most useful. I have also tried to be accurate, but it is possible that there may be some errors or omissions. (Send corrections to the email above.) This chart is also limited to comparing which resources (Bibles, commentaries & dictionaries) are available for each program and does not get into other features such as search, highlighting, bookmarking, etc.
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