Bible Reader What's in the app
Bibles and references
Everything the app reads from is on the device. Most of it is public domain: dictionaries, commentaries and concordances old enough that no one owns them. A few newer datasets are shared freely under a Creative Commons licence, and one under a BSD licence. Each is credited inside the app under Settings › About › Sources & Licenses, which also notes what this edition changed. Any of them can be exported from there as a plain text file.
1. The King James Bible
Free. The page you read, its chapter summaries, and what helps it read aloud.
| Work | Year | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| King James Version — the text you read, with the words of Christ in red if you want them | 1611, in the 1769 text | Public domain in the United States |
| Chapter summaries (choose one in Settings) | ||
| Matthew Henry's section outlines, from his Concise Commentary — fuller, for 792 of the 1,189 chapters | 1706–1721 | Public domain |
| The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge chapter headings — close to the King James headings, for 1,172 chapters | c. 1880 | Public domain |
| Reading aloud | ||
| The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary — how to say the names | 1993–2015 | BSD |
2. Built in for the Margin and Ask
The study aids, an optional in-app purchase. These come with the app; nothing to download.
| Work | Year | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| Dictionaries and encyclopedia | ||
| Easton's Bible Dictionary | 1897 | Public domain |
| Smith's Bible Dictionary | 1884 | Public domain |
| International Standard Bible Encyclopedia | 1915 | Public domain |
| Topics | ||
| Nave's Topical Bible | 1897 | Public domain |
| Torrey's New Topical Textbook | 1897 | Public domain |
| Commentary | ||
| Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary | 1706–1721 | Public domain |
| The Hebrew and Greek behind the English | ||
| Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries | 1890 | Public domain |
| STEP Bible's Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament word data (Tyndale House, Cambridge) | 2021– | CC BY 4.0 |
| People and places | ||
| STEP Bible's names of people and places (Tyndale House, Cambridge) | 2021– | CC BY 4.0 |
| Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary — what the names mean | 1869 | Public domain |
| Cross-references | ||
| Bible Cross References, openbible.info | 2011– | CC BY 4.0 |
| Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — the word each reference hangs on | c. 1880 | Public domain |
| Old words and today's English | ||
| Plain meanings of old words — written for this app | 2026 | CC0 |
| Berean Standard Bible — a modern English translation, beside the King James | 2023 | Public domain, dedicated by its translators |
On iPads that can't write their own answers, Ask shows a short summary of the chapter instead, prepared ahead of time from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary by a language model on our own Mac. It is labelled as prepared, and it cites the entries it was written from.
3. Five more commentaries, to download
The larger commentaries are a single download of about 157 MB, from Settings, so a reader who never opens one doesn't have to carry them. The app is complete without them, and you can remove them again. (The privacy page explains what the download does and doesn't send.)
| Commentary | Year | Covers | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, complete | 1706–1721 | Whole Bible | Public domain |
| Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible | 1810–1826 | Whole Bible | Public domain |
| Jamieson, Fausset and Brown | 1871 | Whole Bible | Public domain |
| Barnes' Notes | 1832–1872 | New Testament only | Public domain |
| The Treasury of David, Charles H. Spurgeon | 1869–1885 | Psalms only | Public domain |
Barnes wrote on the Old Testament too, but we haven't found those volumes in a form the app can use. If a clean edition turns up, it will be added.
4. Five more Bibles, to download
One download of about 28 MB, from Settings › Bibles. Check the ones you want, and each appears beside the King James in the Margin, under Parallel Translations. Speak reads the Spanish and Chinese in a voice for that language. Where one numbers a verse differently, or joins two verses, the card says so.
| Bible | Language | Year | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| World English Bible | English | 2020 | Public domain |
| Reina-Valera 1909 | Spanish | 1909 | Public domain |
| Biblica® Open Nueva Biblia Viva™ — a paraphrase | Spanish | 2008 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
| Chinese Union Version (和合本) | Chinese | 1919 | Public domain |
| Biblica® Open Chinese Contemporary Bible™ (Simplified) | Chinese | 2022 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |