Reader Dru recently recommended the free Bible software TheWord. So I took a look and worked with it a bit. And for free software, I must say that I’m impressed.
The software is far more user friendly than most, being most similar to Accordance among the paid Bible software. The programmer provides a default look and interface that allows the student to quickly set up and find what he’s looking for. Excellent programming.
Like all free Bible software, the commentaries and other resources are limited to public domain materials, but the Hebrew and Greek resources are easily accessed and intuitive. For those mainly wanting to find the Greek word or text in a passage, along with morphology (verb tenses, that sort of thing) and definitions, TheWord will be more than sufficient for most.
But the real prize is the long list of Bible translations, especially translations of non-Western languages, even some very obscure ones. Here’s the list:
NET Bible® – New English Translation – Limited notes edition
English Standard Version, The Holy Bible
Coverdale Bible of 1535
Tyndale Bible of 1526
Geneva Bible of 1587
King James Version of 1611/1769 with Strong’s numbers
Bishops’ Bible of 1568
A Voice in the Wilderness – 2008
King James or Authorized Version: original edition of 1611
Darby translation 1890
The English Majority Text Version (EMTV) of the Holy Bible
American Standard Version of 1901
World English Bible
Bible in Basic English 1949/1964
Young’s Literal Translation 1898
Webster Bible Translation
American King James Version
Douay-Rheims Bible, Challoner Revision
Emphasized Bible
Wesley’s New Testament 1755
English Septuagint (Brenton’s)
English Revised Version
The Lexham English Bible
The Scriptures (ISR) 1998 with Footnotes
Apostolic Bible Polyglot Greek-English Interlinear
Smith’s Literal Translation
Apostolic Bible Polyglot – English only text of Interlinear
Catholic Public Domain Version
Holman Christian Standard Bible®
International Standard Version Bible (ISV) – Limited Notes Edition
Updated King James Version
The Open English Bible (US Spellings)
The Open English Bible (Commonwealth Spellings)
The Twentieth Century New Testament
Authorized King James Version Pure Cambridge Edition
English Standard Version 2011 Version, The Holy Bible
Wilbur Pickering New Testament
Jewish Publication Society Tanakh – 1917
Restored Name King James Version
Gospel of God In Christ
Anderson’s 1865 New Testament
Godbey New Testament, The
Daniel Mace New Testament (1729)
Weymouth New Testament
Worrell New Testament (1904)
Worsley’s New Testament. 1770
Haweis, A Translation of the New Testament from the original Greek
Bibles: Greek Ancient (13)
Greek New Testament with Variants
Textus Receptus – Editio Regia Greek NT with variants, Strong’s numbers, parsing info and lemmas (no Accents)
Westcott-Hort with NA27/UBS4 variants (1881) Greek NT with Strong’s Numbers and parsing info
Byzantine/Majority Text (2000) Greek NT with Strong’s Numbers and parsing info
Tischendorf Greek NT 1872, 8th edition – with Strong’s Numbers and parsing info
Westcott-Hort Greek NT with accents
Greek New Testament with accents as it is used by the Greek Orthodox Church
Septuagint Old Testament
Septuagint Old Testament with accents
SBL Greek New Testament
Textus Receptus – Editio Regia Greek NT with variants, Strong’s numbers, parsing info and lemmas (w/Accents)
The Greek Testament by Henry Alford with Strong’s numbers
Beza, Greek New Testament
Bibles: Hebrew (5)
Westminster Leningrad Codex
Modern Hebrew Bible
Aleppo Codex
Hebrew interpolated Study Bible (with Strong’s numbers, English gloss, Transliteration, Morpheme indicators)
Shoroshim Companion Tanakh
Bibles: Afrikaans (1)
Die Pad van Waarheid tot die Lewe Afrikaanse
Bibles: Albanian (1)
Albanian Bible
Bibles: Amharic (1)
Revised Amharic Bible
Bibles: Arabic (2)
Smith Van Dyke Arabic Bible
Smith Van Dyke Arabic Bible with Vowels
Bibles: Armenian (1)
Western Armenian New Testament of 1853
Bibles: Berber Languages (1)
Tashelhayt NT and Selected Psalms – aġaras n-tudert, imurign i-sidi rebbi
Bibles: Bulgarian (2)
BULGARIAN BIBLE – Revised edition 1940 – Copyright © 1995-2005 by www.bibliata.com
ВЕРЕН 2013
Bibles: Burmese (1)
Judson Burmese Bible of 1835
Bibles: Cebuano (1)
Cebuano Ang Biblia, Bugna Version
Bibles: Chinese (12)
Chinese Union Version 和合本 – Simplified with Strong’s numbers 简体中文版连史特朗经文滙篇 (Cuv/S)
Chinese Union Version 和合本 – Traditional with Strong’s numbers 繁體中文版連史特朗經文滙篇 (Cuv/T)
Romanized Chinese 汉语拼音圣经 (Pinyin)
Jian Ming Sheng Jing 簡明聖經 – Traditional 繁體版 (JMSJ-T)
Jian Ming Sheng Jing 简明圣经 – Simplified 简体版 (JMSJ-S)
Chinese NET Bible® – Chinese New English Translation 新 英語譯本聖經, Traditional Chinese 繁體版 – Free Limited Notes Version
Chinese NET Bible® – Chinese New English Translation 新 英語譯本聖經, Simplified Chinese 简体版 – – Free Limited Notes Version
Chinese Union Version – Classical Chinese 文 理和合本
中文英皇钦定本上帝版 Chinese King James Version Shang-Di 简体中文
中文英皇欽定本上帝版 Chinese King James Version Shang-Di 繁體中文
中文英皇钦定本神版 Chinese King James Version God 简体中文
中文英皇欽定本神版 Chinese King James Version God 繁體中文
Bibles: Croatian (1)
Croatian translation
Bibles: Czech (2)
Czech Bible Kralicka
Czech Bible 21
Bibles: Dutch (1)
Dutch Statenvertaling
Bibles: Finnish (4)
Kirkkoraamattu 1776
Kirkkoraamattu 1933/38
Saarisalon Uusi Testamentti
Coco Pyha Raamattu 1642
Bibles: French (4)
French J.N.Darby translation
Louis Segond 1910
French Martin 1744
La Bible Augustin Crampon 1923
Bibles: Georgian (2)
Georgian New Testament – “Sakataliko” version, XI century.
Georgian New Testament – “Sakataliko” version, XI century – ASCII (compatibility version)
Bibles: German (7)
German Darby Unrevidierte Elberfelder 1905
Luther translation 1912
Luther translation 1545
Elberfelder Übersetzung von 1871
German ‘Neue evangelistische Übersetzung’
Textbibel des Alten und Neuen Testaments
Hermann Menge (1841-1939) Translation
Bibles: Greek (5)
Μετάφραση Νεόφυτου Βάμβα
Μετάφραση Σπύρου Φίλου – 4η έκδοση, 2003
Η Καινή Διαθήκη – Νεοελληνική Μετάφραση “Ο ΛΟΓΟΣ”
Μεταγλώττιση Σπύρου Καραλή – Έκδοση 3η
Μετάφραση Νεόφυτου Βάμβα – Πολυτονικό
Bibles: Haitian Creole (1)
French Haitian Creole Version
Bibles: Hindi (1)
Hindi Bible
Bibles: Hmar (1)
Hmar Bible
Bibles: Hungarian (1)
Hungarian Vizsoly (Karoli) Biblia of 1590
Bibles: Indonesian (3)
Indonesian Terjemahan Baru
Indonesian Terjemahan Lama
Indonesian Bahasa Seharihari
Bibles: Italian (3)
Italian Giovanni Diodati Bibbia 1649
Italian Riveduta Bibbia 1927
Italian Nuova Riveduta 1994
Bibles: Japanese (1)
Japanese Bible Society 1955 Edition of the Bible
Bibles: Kannada (1)
Kannada KJV Bible
Bibles: Khmer (1)
Holy Bible Khmer New Testament
Bibles: Korean (1)
Holy Bible: Korean Translation
Bibles: Latin (2)
Jerome’s A.D. 405 Biblia Sacra Vulgata Latina (Latin Vulgate)
Vulgate Clementine – “Biblia Sacra Vulgatæ editionis, Sixti V Pontificis Maximi jussu recognita et edita”
Bibles: Lithuanian (1)
Lietuviska Biblija: Senasis ir Naujasis Testamentas (The Lithuanian Bible)
Bibles: Malagasy (1)
Malagasy Bible of 1865
Bibles: Malayalam (1)
Malayalam New Testament
Bibles: Maori (1)
Maori Bible
Bibles: Persian (1)
Persian Standard Bible of 1895 (Old Persian)
Bibles: Polish (2)
Polska Biblia Gdańska 1881
Uwspółcześniona Biblia Gdańska (NT, Psalms & Proverbs)
Bibles: Portuguese (6)
Tradução de João Ferreira de Almeida (Versão Revista e Atualizada, grafia usada na Europa)
Tradução de João Ferreira de Almeida Revista e Corrigida.
Bíblia Literal do Texto Tradicional (Massorético+Receptus), Anotada
Almeida Corrigida Fiel – Edição 2007
Almeida Revisada de acordo com os Melhores Textos em Hebraico e Grego – 1967
Versão Palavra Viva, Novo Testamento
Bibles: Romanian (2)
Romanian Cornilescu
Romanian Orthodox Bible
Bibles: Russian (2)
Russian Synodal Text 1876
Old Church Slavonic Bible
Bibles: Serbian (2)
Holy Bible in Serbian in Latin script
Holy Bible in Serbian in Cyrillic script
Bibles: Slovak (2)
Sväté písmo – Obsahuje deuterokanonické časti a poznámky prekladateľa
Roháček – autorizovaná verzia Dušana Seberíniho
Bibles: Spanish (4)
Reina Valera Gómez (palabras de Cristo en rojo)
Spanish Sagradas Escrituras Version Antigua 1569
Spanish Valera New Testament (1858)
Spanish Reina-Valera 1909 with Strong’s numbers
Bibles: Swedish (1)
Swedish Bible 1917
Bibles: Tagalog (1)
Tagalog Ang Biblia 1905
Bibles: Tamil (1)
Tamil Bible (Red Letter)
Bibles: Telugu (1)
Telugu Bible
Bibles: Thai (4)
Thai KJV Bible
Thai Standard Version – พระคริสตธรรมคัมภีร์ ฉบับมาตรฐาน
Thai Holy Bible 1971 – พระคริสตธรรมคัมภีร์ ๑๙๗๑
Thai Catholic Bible
Bibles: Ukrainian (1)
Ivan Ogienko Ukrainian Bible of 1930
Bibles: Vietnamese (1)
Vietnamese Cadman 1934 Version
I’ve not even heard of half these languages. This is a much better collection than even the paid software provides. So for missionaries, this seems to be an essential resource.
For non-missionaries, the search and language tools make the software a tempting choice.
Unlike eSword, Accordance, and Logos, there is no iOS or smartphone or Android version. It runs exclusively in Windows or a Windows emulator.
However, it does have a version that you run off a USB key. It costs $35, but the USB key allows you to run the software on a borrowed computer without loading the software on a friend’s hard drive. It’s rather like a cloud service except you use the USB key rather than an Internet connection — and your notes and purchases travel with you.
Similar to eSword, there are also additional commentaries and other products you can buy, such as the NICNT and NICOT, along with additional Greek and Hebrew resources.
There are utilities for converting eSword documents to TheWord format. The truth is that the Bible software industry continues to be plagued by non-uniform formats for books, making it difficult to move books bought for one service to a new service. Therefore, pick your service carefully before buying books for it. They may not port well when you decide to change software.
Moreover, both eSword and TheWord depend on volunteer programmers, who may not last as long as a profit-driven corporation. Everyone using Bible software is at risk that the provider company will go out of business, forcing you to change providers and forcing conversion of your books into new formats — which is no easy task. I would be very cautious before I invested much money in commentaries and such for use in even the best freeware.
Nonetheless, this is a very good choice to consider.
