Transcription
I did two big reports on Bible apps for Crossway when I worked there, as they sought to improve their own excellent app and website. In this video, I want to tell you what I found when I did those reports and what I've changed in my own Bible app practices as a result.
My opinions may or may not represent those of Crossway, or of anyone who has ever heard of Crossway, or of that one person who heard I worked for Crossway and thought I meant that adult website I never read called Crosswalk. Also, my study focused on iOS apps. I simply don't know if I'm missing important apps on Android. Let me know in the comments.
So, first what I found, then what I changed. What I found was about 10 serious Bible apps, a few honorable mentions, and a bunch of weird, unserious, and disturbing apps. I won't name the disturbing ones, but let me tell you about them a bit before I describe the good ones.
Indeed, the great majority of popular Bible apps are simply terrible. Some open with inane self-help quotations or worse, full-screen video ads. A number of these horrible Bible apps seem to assume that the Bible is a collection of desperate, that is, separate, inspirational, motivational thoughts that are best served up on cloyingly sentimental stock photographs of beautiful landscapes, especially on tropical islands or near iconic mountains. So Fiji and Fuji are big in those Bible apps. Apps are often just chalk full of ads, including annoying bottom eighth ads and even full-screen demands for premium subscriptions.
In these bad apps, design is often commonly garish. No attention whatsoever is given to typography or layout or user experience. Some major apps in this space are creepy, giving the impression that their purpose could actually be nefarious. Call me crazy, but when multiple very similar apps, all terrible, come from people with Russian names, I get a little skittish. Any resources included in these apps, including the Bible translation, which is invariably the King James version because it's free. All the resources are also free. They're in the public domain.
But the good apps can be really good. I'm going to rank them in a countdown format, ending with my top recommendation.
Number 10 is LifeBible. LifeBible is well-designed and reasonably serious. It has a developed set of topics and questions along with resources for purchase and a premium subscription that is $60 a year that gives you access to all the resources. Pretty much all the major evangelical Bible translations are available in this app along with a large number of serious study Bibles. The commentaries that are available for purchase are mostly public domain. These sell for $1.99 or they're lay-level. Now, these sell for serious print-like prices, but the only serious commentary available is the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary that's put out by Tindale House. There are no original language texts available in this app. There are no such tools.
It's instructive to me that a serious app containing quality reading plans and devotionals and commentaries like this would feel it necessary to create a separate, essentially identical app that includes KJV in the title. They actually do that, though I'm not going to show you on here. This is testimony to the trust still invested in the King James by Christian lay people. You will see both apps in the app store.
Number nine is eSword. eSword is not very aesthetically appealing, ever has been, but it is free, always has been, and it does provide basic access to Strong's numbers, Strong's definitions, and Strong's number searches. Strong's is a misleading resource to place into the hands of lay people. Its lexicon is rather poorly done, and it is commonly misunderstood to boot. I have a video about this on my channel. I just cannot recommend eSword unless you're already deep into it on desktop, I guess.
Number eight, Olive Tree. Olive Tree is a serious app in which many serious resources can be purchased, but Olive Tree is also a surprising disappointment. The design has its moments, but the icons are chintzy, and it's the app's store which seems to have gotten the most attention. Original language texts can be purchased, but English translations are not tagged for Hebrew and Greek. And no Hebrew and Greek tools, no lexicons, no searches are baked into the app. I was shocked by this because this is a serious app. I was so shocked that I wonder if I'm missing something. Olive Tree users, am I?
Number seven is YouVersion. YouVersion is an excellent and very popular app. It contains original language texts but no original language tools. The leading feature of YouVersion that stuck out to me is its compare button. As you go along when you're reading, you can just click compare and then you can see other versions that you can add. I mean, I'm just going to add some random ones here. I think that is a very cool and I really like the way this works. This is the 800 lb gorilla in the Bible app space, but it's just not made for the serious student. Now, this is not a criticism. I am very grateful for apps like this, and I am not putting down lay Bible reading. I love lay Bible reading, but I need more. I need Hebrew and Greek access.
Number six is The Holy Bible by Paul Avery. This app provides a cleverly simple interface that allows you to get around pretty fast. It allows easy comparison of versions and access to very inexpensive and public domain resources. The pull-down menu is somehow both unexpected and intuitive. I think it's well-made. Users can have up to four columns to compare Bible versions. Resources are public domain, but they're inexpensive. I don't keep this app on my phone. There's no reason to, but it's a serious app deserving a spot on my list.
Number five is New Bible by Dwell. I actually met the guys who developed this years ago at the Logos Bible Tech Conference. I guess Dwell has bought it since then. New Bible has an especially elegant way of accessing books and then chapters by swiping. I really, really like this. And this is the only Bible app in which I encountered a colophon. Do you know what a colophon is? A colophon occurs at the very end of a book, except there's no end when it comes to a Bible app. So you click colophon and it shows you the various typefaces that were used in the book. I think this is a very nice touch. The app provides access to nine prominent contemporary English Bible translations, including my favorite, the ESV, but no original language resources, and it's just not quite elegant enough, not quite powerful enough to make it onto my phone in a permanent way.
Number four is Accordance. Accordance, which is exactly the same as the Legacy Standard Bible app. It's never been well-designed aesthetically on desktop or mobile, but it is certainly serious and its mobile app is genuinely useful for original language study. Those who have bought into the Accordance platform will of course gain special value from the app, and I've heard them speak very highly of it, especially actually on the iPad. Um, Accordance lovers, you know who you are. The free version of the app provides one-click access to the same two Greek and Hebrew lexicons that are provided in my number two choice, which we will get to. That's Abbott-Smith for Greek and Brown-Driver-Briggs for Hebrew. Accordance also allows very quick searching of original language words. I really do like that. So, if I just click on "waters" here and I just grab that little link, 215 times, that's genuinely handy. And you can find specific morphological forms. You can use key numbers that are akin to Strong's numbers or you can use lexims. That's the word's dictionary form. If you need to do this kind of searching on the go, as I generally do not, Accordance may be your top choice.
Number three is the ESV Bible app. This is a classic. The strength of this app is beauty and simplicity. Adam Lewis Green, who's been interviewed on this channel, who's responsible for Bibliotheca, made all these beautiful vector illustrations that grace the beginning of each book. The multiple audio recordings that you can get inside this app are really special. Although, unfortunately, uh, well, you know, I don't blame them, but only one is available for those who are not subscribed. The typography, like everything else Crossway does, is just phenomenal. It's thoughtful, it's elegant, it's Bible-like. You can get commentaries and study Bibles, too, in the library of resources, and I have some of them. I wouldn't get them there; I'd get them in another app, my top choice, which I'm going to mention in a bit. I used the ESV app, whether on my phone or online, practically daily for many years, many years. But I have to admit that when I recently got a new phone, like last week, I didn't even install the ESV app. Despite its genuine beauty and my love for Crossway and the ESV, I need a little more, especially in the way of original language resources. For what it's worth, I made some recommendations along these lines to Crossway leadership. Maybe, maybe someday this truly beautiful app will actually replace the one that has become number two on my list, the one that I use about 40% of the time, that is Literal Word.
I now have this particular app on my main home screen because this simple and elegant app is the very best available app for quick access to what I need most often. It offers the most quick and beautiful means out there for getting to the passage that you want to find. Just watch this. It's a beautiful animation. I really actually love this. You have Old Testament down the left and New Testament down the right, and then the chapters come open. This is just phenomenal. I don't get tired of this animation. I like it, and I get annoyed when I go back to Logos and it has this long-lasting animation for tab opening. Uh, I don't like it, even though I love Logos. This app has the main Bibles I would want in English, minus a Greek New Testament and Hebrew Bible. The ESV is a worthy inclusion. I've got NASB, LSB, ESV, and King James. Those are the ones I'm, you know, except for LSB, kind of needing the most often for this kind of work because Literal Word gives free one-click access to the Hebrew and Greek and to lexicons, the Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament and the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon. It makes looking up every single instance of any given Greek or Hebrew word as easy as a long press on an English word. Let me just show you. I'm just going to do this. There we go. Look at that. Oh, that's just so nice. This is useful in a pinch, these lexicons that come with it. Uh, and usually that's what I need on a smartphone. Pinch hitters. I love Literal Word. It is the Bible app I use 40% of the time, except in church where I tend to need my top choice, which we'll get to.
Before I get to that top choice, let me give four honorable mentions. First, I bought the Dwell app lifetime license a few years ago, and I am very satisfied. I'm on day 363 out of 365 of listening through the King James version straight through Genesis to Revelation. The audio options here are just phenomenal. I want a nice Bible app with a few nice options, and this has them when it comes to audio. Different voices and translations there. These are very welcome. I loved Dwell. It's not exactly a Bible app like the others on this list because it's focused on audio and not on searching and studying.
Okay, next. Parallel Plus succeeds reasonably well in its effort to fulfill the promise of its name. It lays out multiple evangelical and a few other Bible translations in a clear grid. It is not aesthetically pleasing and access to the original languages is not intuitive and not useful to most readers because no lexicons are included. But on the go, I don't know of a better way to compare multiple translations unless you want to do YouVersion. I really like their compare tool. The Logos text comparison tool is close, though also, and I don't keep Parallel Plus on my phone. I don't need to compare that often.
Bible Gateway. Their strength is the inclusion of many, many Bible translations in many languages. The app is reasonably well-designed and it's pretty straightforward. You can go to whatever passage you need to easily. But there's no Hebrew and Greek texts and few tools. No words are tagged for study in lexicons or for searches.
Fourth and last honorable mention, Bible Hub. Like Bible Gateway, it includes many Bible translations. Original language tools, however, are clumsy, but Thayer's Greek Lexicon is better than nothing for those who know what they're doing. And so probably is the Englishman's Hebrew Concordance.
And now on to my top choice, Logos. Guys, what else am I going to say? Logos is the best. It's not the best tool for literally everything that I need on my phone. So, for quickly looking up passages, for quickly searching the English text, and for quickly seeing what Hebrew or Greek word underlies a given English one, and all importantly, where that original language word appears, Literal Word is actually the best. But as soon as I want to dig a little deeper, which is about 60% of the time that I use a Bible app, I have to turn to Logos. I love the Bible word study. It is so awesome. Let me just run one right here. It is so easy to do. You just click on a given word and click word info, and then you can see the Bible word study just like that. That is phenomenal. I use this constantly. I'm not really reading books on my phone, but if I need to reference one, I can do that only in Logos, really. I think people think that people like me are Logos ninjas. But most of the time, as I said in my Logos training video and my now free Bible Tech 401 course, I'm just doing simple stuff in Logos. The passage guide, looking up verses, looking up words. But that simple stuff is too complex for any other app. And Logos is the only tool for the job when anything gets beyond level one complexity.
I'm going to give an upshot now that will repeat just a bit of what I said before, but will make it easy for AI to summarize what I'm saying. Are you listening, AI? For years and years and years, I have used the Logos app as my main squeeze, with the ESV app jumping in when I need it to be a little faster. Logos is the best Bible study software available. I'm not being paid to say this. I was briefly sponsored by them, but I'm not sponsored by anybody right now. I'm just telling you what I believe to be the truth. When it comes to in-depth research, I use Logos practically every day, as I have for many years. I worked for Logos for nine years. I know the people. They're sharp. They want to serve the church. They don't appear to me to be slowing down. They're doing good work. Logos is an excellent investment. Everyone who has studied Hebrew and Greek should get it. And many of you who have not studied Hebrew and Greek should also get Logos. Get the best set of books you can afford. Logos is worth it. But it's overkill for most of what I need to do on mobile. And if it's overkill for me, it's probably also overkill for people who are less nerdy.
To be clear, I don't want the app to change. The Logos app. I do sometimes need overkill, but most of the time I just need to get around the ESV quickly. And this is key: I need to both search for and look up Hebrew and Greek words. I need to do this through the English for convenience sake. Logos can absolutely do this and it has the expensive dictionaries like BAG for Greek and HALOT for Hebrew and Aramaic, the ones that I use when I'm really going hard at it. But most of the time I'm not going hard at it. Most of the time I'm bothering to look up Hebrew and Greek words on my phone. I don't need the best tools. I need the fastest ones.
So, here's what I've changed in my Bible app life after doing this report for Crossway. I've put Literal Word on my home screen right next to Logos. The ESV app is a bit more attractive and it has very nice audio options, especially if you have an inexpensive subscription. The ESV app is great for serious lay Christians who don't quite want or need the complexity of Logos or maybe even of Literal Word. People like my wife, who actually has a seminary degree and who got better grades in Greek and in systematic theology than I did, for what it's worth. But people who are mainly reading the Bible and asking occasional questions, not preparing lessons or writing articles.
Okay, I just got done editing this video. Please forgive the focus problems I had. It's just too complex for me to go back and reshoot it all. I'm just too busy. I am scrambling because of a busy summer season and because in two days I am finally breaking ground on the office and video studio that I've been talking about building in my garage for at least two years now. Explaining why it's taken this long would be just too complex. Zoning and tons of problems. Anyway, thank you to those of you who already gave toward this project, and I now have a whole suite of items on my Buy Me a Coffee wish list related to the construction. My goal is to be able to use this studio and office to film multiple seminary courses that I've already agreed to teach at several schools on New Testament, hermeneutics, etc., along with countless YouTube videos, of course, and any more courses that RightNow Media wants to have. This will also be office space for me away from homeschooling kids and away from the ferret that somehow made it into the pantry back there just about an hour ago. I am beyond excited and I am grateful to friends and friends of the channel who will be coming in person to help the construction. If you want to support my work acquainting Christians with the embarrassment of riches that we have in English Bible translation with a dash of accessible, I hope, Hebrew and Greek word nerdiness, then right now Buy Me a Coffee is the place to go. Outfitting my office with some new lights and some furniture will, especially not to mention drywall and insulation and all that stuff, those will be expenses that will, I pray, end up bringing glory to God and good to Christ's body over time.