Biblion for any device

Everything on this site, in apps that keep working when the signal does not — the whole Bible, four translations read aloud, the complete commentary, the maps, and, on the phone, a camera that can tell which chapter of a printed Bible you are holding. You buy each once and you own it. No subscription, no advertising, no account to make, and nothing watching what you read.

The iPhone, Mac and Windows apps are on sale. The Android app is not out yet. Most of it works on this website too, free and without an account — with three exceptions.

Biblion for iPhone

A chapter open in the reader — Reading, listening, the commentary, a word looked up, and the shelf of what is kept on the phone.

A chapter being read aloud, the words following along — Reading, listening, the commentary, a word looked up, and the shelf of what is kept on the phone.

What the iPhone app is

A Bible you can read, hear, and study, built as a native app rather than a website in a wrapper. It holds the text on the phone, so a chapter opens instantly on a train, in a basement, or on a plane, and the narration plays from the same place.

Reading

Four translations — the World English Bible, the King James Version, the American Standard Version and the Bible in Basic English — each complete, each with the whole text read aloud. Every chapter of all four has a recording: 327 hours in three voices, and the reading follows along as it plays.

Notes and starred verses are made and kept on the phone itself. There is no account and no sign in, so nothing you write there is sent here, and nothing of yours depends on this server still being switched on.

The commentary

Biblion’s own commentary on all sixty-six books, written for this app and found nowhere else — 3,031 comments, each one saying plainly how firmly its reading is held. It comes down with the app and works offline like the text does.

The camera

Point the phone at a page of a printed Bible and the app works out which chapter is open, then offers to take you there — to the commentary on it, to the cross-references, to the recording. It reads the page on the phone itself: no photograph is kept, nothing is written to storage, and nothing about the page is sent anywhere.

It does not need to recognize the translation in your hands. It matches on the rare words a passage uses, which survive translation — so it works with a Bible this app does not carry.

Study

Strong’s numbers on the King James text, with the lexicon entry and every other verse the same word stands in. Seventeen hand-drawn maps of the world the events happened in. A daily devotional. Search that reaches the text, the commentary and the places at once.

What the iPhone app costs

$4.99, once. Everything above is in it — all sixty-six books, four translations and every hour of their narration, the whole commentary, the maps, Strong’s and the camera. Nothing is held back, nothing is sold separately, and there is no subscription and nothing to unlock afterward. It is a purchase on your Apple Account, so it comes back on a new phone without our knowing anything about either.

What the iPhone app does not do

It carries no advertising and no tracking of any kind, and it has no account: nothing to register, nothing to sign in to, nothing of yours kept on our server. What it counts, it counts without knowing who you are — a bare total for the day, with no name and no identifier of any sort attached, described in full in the privacy policy.

Biblion for Mac

On the Mac, as a separate app, listed on the App Store as Biblion Bible Study. The same position as the phone, at desk size: you buy it once and you own it — it works forever, offline, and never asks for an account.

John 1 in the World English Bible, with the King James and the Greek layered beneath each verse and the commentary open alongside — The study view, the comparative view, a sermon being written, the maps following a reading, a word looked up, and the New Testament interlinear. Photographs of the app running, not drawings of it.

Psalm 23 shown in three translations at once, with the differences between them tinted — The study view, the comparative view, a sermon being written, the maps following a reading, a word looked up, and the New Testament interlinear. Photographs of the app running, not drawings of it.

What it holds, all of it on disk and none of it asking a server:

Eight texts on disk — six English translations, with the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New. Three are partial by design: Tyndale never finished his, and the Hebrew and Greek each cover their own Testament. The app says which, wherever it matters.
Study panes that follow what you are reading — the commentary, cross-references, Strong’s, the maps and the measures — each keeping pace with the verse in front of you, or pinned to one while you read on.
A comparative view: three texts on one sheet, with the places they differ tinted so you can see the disagreement rather than hunt for it.
The Biblion commentary in full — all sixty-six books, 3,031 comments.
A word-by-word interlinear of the New Testament.
A sermon builder: plain files in a folder of your own choosing, scripture and commentary quoted with the attribution written in for you, the comments on your passage offered as you draft, a length counted in minutes at pulpit pace, export to Word or Rich Text, and a lectern view for preaching from.
No account, no sync, no advertising, and nothing sent anywhere. The app ships without the permission macOS requires to open a network connection at all.

$19.99, once. No subscription, no free tier, and no part of it sold as an addition.

Biblion for Windows

For Windows, as a third app. Written for Windows itself rather than the Mac one stretched to fit — the same library kept on the machine, the same study panes following what you read, the same search, and a sermon builder that writes to plain files in a folder you choose.

John 1 with the King James and the Greek layered beneath each verse, and the commentary open alongside — The study view, the comparative view, a sermon being written, the maps following a reading, a word looked up, and the New Testament interlinear. Photographs of the app running, not drawings of it.

Psalm 23 in three translations at once, with the differences between them tinted — The study view, the comparative view, a sermon being written, the maps following a reading, a word looked up, and the New Testament interlinear. Photographs of the app running, not drawings of it.

$19.99, once. No subscription, no free tier, and no part of it sold as an addition.

Biblion for Android

Being built for Android. The phone app again rather than the desktop one shrunk — the same four translations read aloud, the same commentary at every chapter, the same word study behind the King James, and the same camera that reads a printed page and finds your place in it. Everything it needs is kept on the phone, so it works with no connection at all. It is the newest of the four: it is not on Google Play yet, and there is no date.

A chapter open in the Android reader — A chapter, the shelf, the commentary, a word looked up, a map — and the camera reading a printed page. Photographs of the app running, not drawings of it.

The shelf pulled down over the hills, the canon beneath it — A chapter, the shelf, the commentary, a word looked up, a map — and the camera reading a printed page. Photographs of the app running, not drawings of it.

Reading it free in a browser

Most of what this page describes also works on this website, in any browser, on any device, free and without an account. Three things are the apps’ alone: the camera, the sermon builder, and the comparative view. Start reading, or see what Biblion is.