This week I have officially made the switch over to BlueLetterBible.org for all my online reference, linking and reading needs. While this may seem juvenile to some, this is a big deal to me on a number of levels.
- Bible Gateway used to be my choice of reading online but in many ways I feel taken advantage of on their site. I don’t want to be advertised to while I’m reading and studying the Bible. In the past year, Zondervan bought Bible Gateway and is adding it to their machine of products they “can have more impact on the Internet.” I have already mentioned here that I don’t necessarily appreciate Zondervan, so that didn’t help.
- BlueLetterBible has a web ethic I love. “We desire to operate the Blue Letter Bible as a ministry. This is a zero revenue project. There will be no charge for any services, nor are there any banner ads on the website to generate revenue.” While I am not opposed to making revenue through websites (after all, that is my career) I do think that some things should not be used to further a capitalist agenda. So props to you BlueLetterBible.
- BlueLetterBible is just a way better website with more features and real study tools.
- The lexicon is by far the best one I’ve seen online and has helped me in numerous studies. Simply go to your verse normally and click on the C and you get a screen that looks like below. You can click on any of the words and it will take you to a definition along with a list of all the other times that these Greek/Hebrew words show up elsewhere. There is nothing easier than this.
- The copy to clipboard feature is amazing. Whenever I’m trying to get text onto a Powerpoint I always have to delete all the numbers and footnotes. With BlueLetterBible you can select copy options in the top left and choose the style of text you want to copy, hit copy and move it right into whatever media you need. Smooth and beautiful.
- It also comes packed with study/commentary tools including audio and video which I haven’t even begun to unpack and they are all searchable as well.
- They also have a great mobile version of the site. It’s a little less feature rich (you can still view the full site on your phone if you need the features) but it’s quicker and cleaner. You can see the mobile version at mobile.blb.org
- The only thing I think I will miss was how in Firefox I could add a Bible Gateway search bar right into my browser (anyone know if you can do this for Blue Letter Bible?) so I didn’t have to navigate to their home page first.
It’s enough for me to switch.
thanks for the word. i will definitely consider switchin’ too.
Neither of those sites have an NRSV translation. Weird that they wouldn’t include *the* word of God in there.
Textus receptus is THE word of God, and the default on blue letter bible, and rigthly so. The revised version adopted the roman catholic critical text instead of using the majority text plus looking at the church Fathers which became textus receptus. These are just more reasons to love blue letter bible.
We also appreciate the motives behind Blue Letter Bible and have one of their search tools on our website. A very good mobile version of BLB is now available for smartphone users that is similar to the standard version.
@nathan We have often thought of putting together a toolbar for the browsers. Since we are not ActiveX nor C++ developers, this became a big hurdle quick. Not that we can’t put down what we’re doing and go figure it out; it is just that. We would have to put down what were are doing and go figure it out. I’m all for that, except it will be at the cost of ignoring further development on the site. Since we are a very small team, this is no small deal. Know anybody that wants to help us on building a toolbar?
In the meantime, we do have a consolation prize that may help, even if in a small way. Check out this link. http://www.blueletterbible.org/help/browserSearch.cfm
That is actually EXACTLY what I was talking about. That is all I need and it is perfect, I don’t need/want a toolbar at all, having that search functionality right within my drop down along side of my other engines is perfect, thank-you so much for pointing that out!
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Re your point 3 bulletpoint 5 search: I suggest simply doing an online search e.g. [ Strong’s G4074 blueletterbible ] then find the page you would find least troublesome as base to return to, then copy the URL of that page to your “favorites” list. BTW I have included links to blueletterbible as sometimes superior to biblegateway and occasionally superior to biblehub in the marginal notes of my Conservapedia encyclopedic feature [ Harmony of the Gospel (Conservative Version) – conservapedia.com ]. Semper Fi. Pax Vobis.