If you’re looking for Bible Applications for your Android phone/tablet/device, and especially if you are in the market for Greek/Hebrew applications, then check out this post.
The folks at Crossway want you to have a very Merry Christmas and so just now released a beta version of their popular ESV app for Android. I’ve been doing a little poking around on it and it’s almost identical to the very nice iPhone version. Search the Android Market and you’ll find it (Crossway is the publisher, so don’t get distracted by 3rd patty apps).
Check out the official announcement here: http://www.crossway.org/blog/2010/12/esv-bible-android-0-9-beta/
Here’s a handy trick when you want to look up some bible verses in a snap.
For those who don’t know, Google’s Chrome Browser allows you to search popular sites straight from the address bar. Many sites provide search functionality by default, and Chrome automatically adds those sites to its database. But any site that is searchable can be added to Google Chrome. Here’s how to do it for the ESV Bible online.
- First, go to the ESV website here.
- Right click on Chrome’s address bar and then click on “Edit Search Engines…”
- This will bring to a new dialog box. Click “Add…”
- This will bring up yet another box, with three text boxes. For “Name” type something like “ESV Bible.” For “Shortcut” type in something short and memorable, like “b” or “esv” or “bible.” Then the real magic, for the “URL” box copy and paste the following text:
http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=%s
- Click “OK” and you’re ready to go.
- Now try it out. Open up a new tab and click on the URL bar. Type the keyword you entered in the previous step and then press “TAB.” Now type in what you want to search. The result should be like the picture below. Pressing return will load up the ESV Bible webpage with the results of your search.
- For Firefox: You can do the same in Firefox, but the process is slightly simpler. Just go to the ESV website here. Then in your search box click on the left hand side drop-down arrow. You will see a list of search options, at the bottom of which will be “Add ESV Bible.” Click on that and it will be added. You can now search the esv by selecting it in the search bar. To search from the URL bar you need to set a shortcut. Click on the search engine dropdown, then “Manage Search Engines,” then select “ESV Bible,” then “Edit Keyword,” and set that to your keyword of choice. Now type the keyword in the address bar, then your search, then return. Easy!
- If you’re interested in this sort of thing, check out my posts on adding the Westminster Bookstore and Westminster Library to your search bar.
I often find it helpful to have a Bible Atlas near me when I’m reading through large chunks of the Bible. I have been unable to find a real good online version, but here is a pretty decent offering from the Access Foundation. It is listed on Scribd as licensed under the Creative Commons non-Commercial Attribution license.

The full set of images and text from Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest complete copy of the entire NT, is now online. Check out their webpage. The interface is pretty slick, allowing you to change lighting options, zoom in and out, and bookmark and print pages. It also includes a transcription and translation. Anyone interested should definitely check this out.
Update: The always intriguing ReadWriteWeb has also posted a story on this, with a little analysis and some extra technical details. Read that here.

Every once-and-a-while I have an edifying experience in the course of grading. It’s rare, but it happens. In the course of reading over Luke 8:10, which my Greek students had to translate for their exam, I was forced to ask (and answer) a basic question. The question is begged by the Greek, but not by the English. Here is the verse:
Ὑμῖν δέδοται γνῶναι τὰ μυστήρια τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ, τοῖς δὲ λοιποῖς ἐν παραβολαῖς,
The question is: What has been left out of the second phrase, which is an incomplete idea? What has been elided from τοῖς δὲ λοιποῖς ἐν παραβολαῖς? Or, to put the same question another way: what are Jesus’s parable about? Are they morality tales? Proverbial remarks? Timeless truths?
The answer lies in the parallel between the two clauses, and, in particular, between their prominent datives (notice that the datives come first in each clause).
So the first phrase is “to you”, that is, to the disciples (and those who trust in the traditions they teach: Jude 20-23). The second phrase is about “the others.” The first phrase lacks a propositional phrase, the second a direct object. So the disciples are given something, but the others, though given the same thing, receive it through an indirect medium, the parable.
So what are Jesus’s parable about? If you had to put the central message of Jesus’s parable into a few words, what would those words be?
The answer lies in the question posed by the second clause of our Greek sentence. What is given to the others ἐν παραβολαῖς? The answer: τὰ μυστήρια τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ.
Mysteries about God’s Kingdom.
Copies of Westcott/Hort and Tischendorf have long been available online in digital form. Tragelles’s Greek New Testament predates both of these and is now available as a digital (Unicode!) text. Even better: the text is open licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license, which means you can use it, modify it, and distribute it to your heart’s content; just don’t try to make money off it!
You can download the digital text here. More information is available here and here.
Michael Hanel already has a Bibleworks version ready for download here. And this is a great candidate for an eBook, so I will begin working on that soon (hopefully).
I’ve mentioned BibleArc before. Apparently it has recently received a major upgrade with some new features, including automatic parsing of Greek words, the inclusion of the Hebrew OT, and enhanced sharing capabilities. Check it out.
Don’t know what arcing is? Check out this video from John Piper on how he uses this tool. If you are interested in arcing and other linguistic concepts as they apply to biblical studies, check out Cotterell’s Linguistics and Biblical Interpretation

- Image via Wikipedia
Mourning the loss of Zhubert? Me too, and I will have an update on the copyright discussions soon, and a new eBook of the GNT as well.
In the mean time there is an excellent new reader’s Bible available that is based on Tischendorf‘s Greek New Testament. Check that out here. It features handy footnotes and popups. You will need Google Gears for it to work, but that’s an easy install.
HT: Justin Taylor
Update:David Stark points out that the site also displays the OT, with notes for both Hebrew and Aramaic.









