Bible study on the cheap

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There was some discussion of learning Greek and Hebrew in the Seminary Students forum. As mentioned there, the premiere Bible study software to have is Logos, but most of the study materials come with a pretty steep price tag. It also only runs on Windows or Mac and I use Linux most of the time.

I've managed to cobble together what I think is a pretty good set of tools such that I rarely miss the Logos resources that I've paid for and no longer pine for the ones that I haven't.

I'm going to start posting links to and descriptions of packages that I use, but if anyone else has anything to say or questions to ask, I'd be quite pleased if this managed to turn into a discussion.

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The free books for Logos and Verbum (the Catholic version of Logos) are the Anchor Yale Bible volumes for Ruth and Philemon.

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Credo Courses occasionally offers some of its audio or video courses for free. I just got an email that the trinitarianism course is free in both audio-only and video versions at the moment. Since this is a recurring debate topic, I thought somebody here might find it interesting. It's ten sessions, each between an hour and an hour-and-a-half. Sign-up and going through the checkout process is required, but marketing email from them is limited and there's an opt out.

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One of the biggest challenges with Unique Bible App is getting it installed. You need to practically be a professional programmer to get it working, esp if you hit any installation snags. To make it easier to install, I've tried creating a binary version, but there's too many issues with it. The main blocker is virus checkers flag it for issues. I've also been playing with Portable Python and it does somewhat work, but it's also complicated to get that working. So, I've been working on creating a React/Next app to make it super easy to use. You can check it out at Simple Unique Bible Viewer. Functionality is minimalistic, but at least it can run anywhere and it's easy to install. If using an iPhone, open Safari and go to uniquebibleapp.com. After you load the app, click on the share button at the very bottom of the screen. Scroll up and select “Add to Home Screen” to install a shortcut on your home screen. On Android, open Chrome and go to uniquebibleapp.com. Click on 3 dot menu on top right. Click “Install as app” to install a shortcut on your home screen.

[Difflugia]

One of the biggest challenges with Unique Bible App is getting it installed.

I just upgraded my Ubuntu installation, perhaps unwisely, from 22.04 to 24.04. Unique Bible App stopped working for a bit and I fixed it, but the reasons weren't obvious to me at first. It turns out that somewhere along the line, Ubuntu changed how Python packages are handled and pip no longer works the way it used to. I had to create a Python virtual environment ("venv") for Unique Bible so that pip would work correctly. The problem is that pip balks at installing packages globally in Ubuntu 24.04, but simply creating a virtual environment and running UniqueBible within it is enough to satisfy pip.

Distutils has apparently been deprecated as well, so Unique Bible's attempt to install it failed. Manually installing "setuptools" instead solved the problem.

It's working fine again, but it took me a couple of hours of poking at it to find the relatively simple solution. Hopefully, I can save you or someone else the headache.

[Difflugia]

The landscape isn't quite what it used to be and most free Bibles now require an active internet connection to use, but I prefer offline Bibles. I've linked most of these before, but it's been a while and some of the links have changed. There was also a recent mention that someone couldn't find a particular Bible, so I thought I'd link the ones I know about.

It is just I don't have a resource that have NWT.

NWT and Watchtower resources:

There's a page with links to a number of Bibles in various formats: Watchtower Library Bibles

The NWT 1984, 2013, and Study editions can be downloaded as PDF. A number of others can be downloaded as JWPUB, readable in the JW Library App. There are directions and links at that page to download for Windows, Android, and iOS. The Kingdom Interlinear is available as a JWPUB, in case you want a Greek interlinear.

The Watchtower Library software for Windows is still available. It includes Bibles and text versions of most Watchtower publications, including The Watchtower and Awake back to 1950.

Mormon resources:

The Mormons offer downloadable versions of Scripture, including the King James Bible. Here's the Scripture downloads landing page. I find their site irritating to navigate, so here are a few direct links:

King James Version:

• PDF
• epub

"Quad" (KJV, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants):

• PDF
• epub

There are other combinations available, including individual books (Book of Mormon, D&C, Topical Guide, etc.) if you want to navigate their menus, but the links above will get most people what they want.

KJV Only:

Most hardcore KJV-only proponents limit their KJV to the "Pure Cambridge Edition." If you want to be on the same page as a KJV-onlyist, you can download a decent PDF of the KJV-PCE produced by an Australian guy that has dubbed himself the Bible Protector. Here's a direct link to the PDF.

ASV:

Like the KJV, the ASV is in the US public domain. A number of versions are available online, but they're based on a source with a lot of typos, they lack translators' footnotes, and verses missing from the critical source text have been moved from footnotes back into the main text. A few years ago, I created an epub version that I intended to more closely match original published versions. It includes original footnotes, including verses that were removed from the main text. I uploaded it to Mobileread Forums.

ESV:

The ESV has always been offered free by Crossway in some format, but there are no longer direct download links. It's still available as a cost-free, DRM-free epub if you're willing to create an account at their online store and "buy" it for $0.00.

It doesn't appear using Crossway's search, but it still exists in the online store: ESV Classic Reference Bible and ESV Global Study Bible. After adding them to your cart, you can complete your purchase without a credit card. Then go to your account and click the link to your library, where you can download a number of formats. The latest "ePub" version will work on most devices and in most ereader software.

Greek New Testament:

The Society for Biblical Languages (SBL) has a critical version of the Greek New Testament available for free download. Multiple formats are available, including PDF. There's also a "reverse interlinear" at that page, which is like a normal Greek-English interlinear, but in translated English word order instead of Greek.

Ereader software:

Last I knew, Windows still doesn't ship with software that will read epub documents. I use Calibre to manage and read ebooks on my PC. There are versions for Windows, Linux, and Mac. You can also use Adobe Digital Editions. It's available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.

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I was goofing around with Google and managed to find a PDF of a CSB pew Bible downloadable directly from Holman's CSB site. It's actually a pre-press PDF with trim marks along the sides. There's also an "outreach version" that lacks footnotes and pericope headings. It kind of looks like maybe it was made public by mistake, so grab it sooner rather than later if you're interested.

Another interesting resource that I've been watching is The Center for New Testament Restoration. The goal of the organization is to generate a critical text of the New Testament via automated, statistical means to avoid as much human bias as possible in determining a most likely original text. The site has electronic transcriptions of every New Testament manuscript and fragment through the end of the fourth century. From those, the organization has generated its own critical text. I'm not sure how useful it is except as the founder's hobby horse, since variants that I know off the top of my head aren't included in either the text or the apparatus, but I find it interesting nonetheless. Here is a direct link to the PDF.