Mac (+ PC) Bible Software

I am a MacUser: first by blood, and then by preference. But I also want some decent Bible study software. So I surveyed the landscape. I here present my findings.

It basically comes down to this: Bible Desktop is the best free application, and Quickverse Bible Study White Box for Mac looks like the best affordable purchasable option.

Free Online Bible Study Tools (Mac + PC):

Bible.org
This site has Bible study tools, Bible search tools, theological essays, lesson helps, and more. It is also home of the New English Translation, or "NET" Bible: a brand new, ground-up translation available for searching, printing and distributing at no charge.

BibleGateway.com
This is primarily a Bible keyword search and passage lookup tool. It is fast and easy to look up and link to individual passages.

Unbound Bible
This is an excellent Bible search tool, which enables you to perform a little bit more complex queries. There are also schedules for you to read through the Bible in a year, and some other related Bible study tools.

FreeBibleSoftware.com
This is the "e4" group's free software website. They give away a lot of free CD's, but request modest donations. You can also simply purchase their software and it's extensions. The software not only provides a platform for Bible study, but for searching and studying other great works by strong historical and contemporary Christian authors. As far as I know, their program and it's modules are only available for PC, but it is worth mentioning for those MacUsers running Boot Camp, VMWare Fusion, or Parallels.

Aside from these search and study tools, you can look up trusted names to get access to some pretty good resources. For example, John Piper's site, DesiringGod.org, has a wealth of insightful and accessible tools, sermons, lesson helps, podcasts, links, and videos.

Free (mostly) Mac Bible Software:

Bible Reader (Mac)
This is an application that you can download for free, along with several (admittedly archaic and obscure) Bible translations. The benefit to this is that you can perform word and passage searches while offline.

MacSword (Mac)
This is the Mac equivalent of PC's eSword. It is another free application that can search free Bible translation downloads. The selection is quite a bit better than Bible Reader's, and it includes lexicons, lessons, concordances, and more (even foreign language Bibles). There are also some premium modules available for purchase.

Bible Desktop (Mac)
This platform reads "Sword" project modules, like eSword and MacSword. It's also free. Of all the free Mac bible applications, I like this one the best, mostly because of the interface, and also because of the convenience of finding and installing modules.

Bible Time (Linux)
This is a Linux Sword Project module reader.

You can find some other information about some of these programs here.

Bible Software For Sale:

Logos (Mac [coming soon] + PC)
Logos needs no introduction. It is probably the most powerful and widely used Bible study software. This bad boy is a behemoth. Apparently they are working on a Mac version.

Bible Works (Mac? + PC)
This is a respected Bible study program (probably second only to Logos), which is apparently only available for PC's (let me know if I am wrong). But again, worth mentioning for you MacUser's running Windows (or you PC owners out there - I don't expect you to name yourselves, you fiends).

Accordance(Mac + PC)
This is a powerful alternative to Logos and Bible Works, and it includes tools for studying the original language, commentaries, searches, and other study tools. It is available for Mac.

GramCord (Mac? + PC)
This looks like a tool primarily for Hebrew and Greek scholars. However it appears as though it would be hugely beneficial for us regular folk, too. I've heard that it is either originally for Mac, and/or that the Mac version is actually better than the PC version, but I can't sort things out by browsing their website. I can't even really tell whether a Mac version still exists. Let me know if you know anything about GramCord for Mac.

iLumina(Mac + PC?)
This looks like a very interesting study tool, including a lot of the standard features with one major exception: it is animated. The site is at least worth a look. And it is available for Mac.


Quickverse (Mac + PC?)
While I have used MacSword in the past, and I have downloaded other free tools, this is the Mac bible software I would eventually like to own personally. The price is fair, it looks pretty powerful and intuitive to operate, and it is fully native and Universal Binary. QuickVerse basically looks like the only full-blown Mac bible software available for purchase and decently priced. The Gold Version of QuickVerse Bible for Mac looks like the best choice for the really serious layman.