Below is a step-by-step guide on how to acquire the “Holy Bible” app on an Apple iPhone or iPad.
1. Click on the “App Store” icon already (somewhere) on one of your screens. If you cannot find it, pull down your home screen to get a search window, then type in the search bar at the top “app store;” the top entry in the category “Applications,” which is found by scrolling down after a “Wikipedia” entry and possibly some of your contents.
2. Once you have opened the App Store icon, you will see five icons at the very bottom your screen. Click on the icon labelled “search.” They click on the search bar at the top of the screen that appears and type in “holy bible,” and click on “search.” Look for an icon that says “Holy Bible,” next to a dark brown and black icon, with the name “Paul Avery” (the developer).
3. Click on the “Get” icon.
4. Once the “Holy Bible” app has downloaded, it will be appear on an available spot on one of your screens. Click on it to open the app.
5. Under the heading of “Bibles” you will find many choices. I would recommend that you select and download the following
- The “NET” Bible (New English Translation), because it is text used in Three Books, and because of a wealth of translation resources should you want to dig deeper into the reading of any given verse.
- The “KJV” (King James Version), because of its great historical importance, and beauty, reverence of expression.
- The “ESV” (English Standard Version), because it is a solid modern, widely-used translation. If you prefer a more formal expression, the “ASV” (American Standard Version”) is an alternative.
- The “YLT” (Young’s Literal Translation), because it seeks to provide a most-literal translation at the sacrifice of smoothness of readability.
One of the many features of this app is the ability to have two translations side by side on a screen. So you can have paired the NET and KJV to compare a modern translation with the classic Shakespearean English translation of 1611. Another pairing could be the ESV or NET with YLT. If you are fluent in a foreign language such as Spanish, French, German, etc., the app has Bibles in these languages as well, and could be paired with any of the English translations discussed above.
A useful pairing of two English translations on one screen would be:
- NET and KJV, comparing a modern translation with the classic English translation.
- NET or ESV and YLT, comparing a modern translation with one that seeks to emphasize literalness.
However, this app (and other such apps) can be wonderfully and simply used by focusing on one translation only, such as the NET or ESV. The app has been useful tools including highlighting, adding notes, bookmarking, Bible word searching, etc.
Finally, this app has many available commentaries including maps and dictionaries. Below are recommended commentaries (in alphabetical order only), with the caution that no book written by men (certainly including Three Books itself) has the reliability of the Bible itself. So, when reading any author’s commentary one should not take such words as the final authority.
- Adam Clarke Commentary
- Albert Barnes’Notes
- Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
- Matthey Henry Commentary
In addition the app has many very useful Bible reading tools, including word searching, bookmarking, highlighting, etc. There are also available many Bible study tools, including commentaries, maps, dictionaries.
(I have no economic or other interest in this app. I am just an user who has found this app particularly useful. Some of the Bibles and study tools are not free. My experience is that the modest cost of these has been well worth the expense, and helps support the missionary effort behind the app’s creation and sustenance*).
*(Paste in from the “Holy Bible” website about the app creator):
Free Bible App
As a fulltime missionary with little free time, I do what I can to keep the app as one of the best. I will always keep the primary content of this app free.
The proceeds of all in-app Study Tools purchases goes to pay for part of my ministry expenses as well as cover server resources (bandwidth, disk space, etc.). All donations via PayPal go to improving Holy Bible and not directly to my missions work. However, the less I have to invest from in-app purchases to Holy Bible helps extend my missionary expenses.