If you are wondering what the best present for a Christian who is also a tech geek might be, look no further than The Reformation Study Bible iPhone application. In my opinion, it is a must-have for any reformed Christian who also happens to own an iPhone! In fact, in the past few days since I downloaded the application, I’ve found myself reading the Bible off the phone more, rather than picking up the physical copy!
The Reformation Study Bible (ESV), edited by Dr. R.C. Sproul, is already a proven, much-loved, and trusted translation. Making it available in an electronic format which allows for quick searches with indexing and bookmarking capabilities further extends the usefulness of the translation to a new level. With a few swipes and finger taps on your iPhone, the same resources that come with the physical copy of the Bible are now, literally, at your fingertips — thousands of study notes on Bible verses and terms, additional study notes including introductions to the seven groups of biblical books, book introductions with outlines, and 96 notes on central doctrines of Scripture.
To be honest, I wish all Study Bibles came in this format!
In this review, I’ll be highlighting some of the great features exclusive to the application which I myself find useful.
Presentation
By default, all 66 books of the Bible are listed in alphabetical order. That’s helpful if you are a new Christian and cannot figure out if the book of Habbakuk is before or after the book of, say, Zechariah, or if it’s in the New or Old Testament. It’s also helpful if you just want to quickly get to a book — it’s definitely easier to scroll through the list alphabetically. If you prefer to have the books listed in their proper order, that can be set via the options panel. I personally prefer the latter.
Reading
The default font size is quite comfortable, but if you prefer not to tax your eyes too much, you can set the font size to “Large” in the Options screen. Unfortunately, there are only two font sizes — default and large. Not a real shortcoming, but the ability to select larger font sizes or something in between default and large would be nice. There’s also just one font face, but I have no complaints.
As with most iPhone applications, tilting the screen will display the reading panel in either portrait or landscape mode.
Notes, References, and Highlighting
While reading, you can quickly and easily bring up references and notes related to the text. Just tap on the icon that looks like two window panes, one on top of the other, to bring up the reference panel. To close the reference pane, just tap on the “X” icon to hide it.
To reference related verses, simply tap on the appropriate letter (in superscript) to bring up the panel. I must admit that it was initially quite difficult to do this accurately with the default (smaller) font. It could just be that I’ve got fat fingers, but I reckon that setting the reading pane to the larger font will help your accuracy.
While the panel with the related verses is displayed, you can tap on each related verse to read it, and even jump right to the exact location (book and chapter) of the verse. Oh, yes, it does beat flipping pages!
Like a particular verse? Or doing some self study on a particular theme, and wished that there were some way to highlight and keep track of what you have studied? Here’s a simple solution: highlight them. The RSB iPhone application comes with a highlighting function under the reading pane. Simply click on the highlighter icon, choose a color from the six offered, and highlight away!
History and Tracking
The RSB iPhone application makes it really easy for you to see what you have read and even track what you have highlighted, bookmarked or noted. This is the feature I like best, and is, in my opinion, where the electronic version has a leg up on the printed.
While you can easily flip pages to reference another verse, or pick up a highlighter pen to highlight verses, there’s no good physical way to jump to whatever notes you’ve made quickly, unless you jot them down somewhere. And if, like me, you now have handwriting that even a doctor cannot decipher, you’d be losing some hair trying to find those references.
The RSB iPhone application can save you some hair in such situations. Simply access the Bookmarks panel to see what you have read recently, which verses you have tagged (highlighted), or the margin notes that you’ve added. I also like the fact that the highlighted (or tagged) texts are listed by color under the Bookmarks panel — I use a different color for different purposes, e.g. yellow for commandments, green for a verse related to a doctrine, etc.
In the second screen shot below, the application tells me that I have one verse highlighted (tagged) in yellow.
Search
What’s an electronic version of the RSB, or any Bible for that matter, without a search function? The RSB iPhone application has one where you can either search by specifying keywords or an exact phrase, and have the engine look for the appropriate references in either the entire Bible, the Old Testament or the New Testament. Twenty search results are displayed per “page”, and tapping on any result brings you directly to the appropriate book, chapter and verse which contains the result.
Reading Plan
As a “bonus”, the RSB iPhone application also comes with a built-in Bible Reading plan, which takes you systematically through the Bible in a year. It even helps track your progress with a progress bar!
Verdict
In addition to the Bible itself, you can also get (via separate downloads) additional translations, including the KJV, ASV, YLT, WEB, Darby, RVA, AA, and the Greek NT, as well as great resources like Mathew Henry’s Concise Commentary, Easton’s Bible Dictionary, Spurgeon’s Daily Devotional, and Thompson Topics free.
Since I have not tried out the features themselves, I’ve not included reviews of two features: (1) where you can perform web backup of notes and highlighting, and (2) a direct, two-way web synchronization. You can get more information about the above-mentioned features here.
I’d venture to say that The Reformation Study Bible iPhone application is a must-have for any reformed Christian who loves the Word of God and likes the conveniences that an electronic version of the Bible offers. Among other things, it’s a great companion on long journeys, and you can even whip it out quickly for any occasion for reference. One particular scenario where the application will be very helpful is in evangelism — you can first highlight (or tag) verses specific for evangelism in a specific color, which will then allow you to quickly refer to them when you have a chance to share the Gospel.
That said, I will caution an over-reliance on the application — the art of flipping the Bible to the right book and chapter/verse is dying in many churches where the Bible is not even referred to. Some cannot even remember if a particular book is in the New or Old Testament, never mind its order within the collection of 66 books! Bring it to church if you like, but holding the Bible in your hands is still an occasion to cherish when we remember the martyrs who died so that we today can do so without risk to limbs and life!
The Reformation Study Bible iPhone application is available now at the iTunes store for an introductory, limited-time, price of just US$11.991, or about S$17, a whopping 33% off the original price.
- The author is not affiliated with AcroDesign Technologies nor Ligonier Ministries, and does not derive any benefit, financial or otherwise, from promoting the product ↩
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Wonderful review Isaiah!
Another reason to get an iPhone…ugh.
fantastic review- you sold me!
God bless!
Thank you for the kind words, brothers.
How do you access Thompson Topics in AcroBible for iPhone?
Thanks for visiting, Theo.
If you have downloaded the extra book, you can view it via the split screen. Simply bring it up, then tap on the icon that looks like three full-stops in a row to select that or other extra books you’ve downloaded.
Hope this helps.
I love this iPhone Bible and reference, the only thing that drives me nuts is the online reading plan. There is no way to go back a day and you can’t even quit part of the day’s reading plan and go to other portions of the bible and come back to the portion you were reading for that day. It’s an all or nothing approach to that day and that’s it (or go forward a day.) They really need a way to go back a day or to even continue on the same day – if you leave the reading section and leave the app to go do something else on your iphone it assumes you finished that day’s reading.