Bible

7 Best Free Linux Bible Software

Easter is the most important annual religious festival for Christians. It is the celebration of the resurrection of the central figure of Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth (Jesus Christ). It therefore seems an appropriate point in the year for us to turn our attention to open source Linux Bible software.

The Bible refers to one of two closely related religious texts central to Judaism and Christianity, the Hebrew or Christian sacred scriptures respectively.

Bible software helps to make religious studies more effective, more organised, and more rewarding. For example, this type of software makes it possible to navigate around the religious texts more quickly, to perform complex searches to find passages, to serve up daily devotionals (where insightful and revealing passages of the Bible and key Bible characters are presented to the user), and much more.

To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, we have compiled a list of 7 high quality Linux Bible software. Hopefully, there will be something of interest for anyone who wants to learn more about God and his work.

Now, let’s explore the 7 Bible software at hand. For each title we have compiled its own portal page, providing a screenshot of the software in action, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources.

Bible Software
XiphosOffers a rich environment for reading, study, and research
BibleTimeQt based Bible study program
The SWORD ProjectCrossWire Bible Society's free Bible software
Alkitab Bible StudyOffers rich and user friendly Bible study tools
Bible AnalyzerComprehensive Bible study and analysis application
Bible DesktopEasy to use study tool
BPBibleFlexible study tool
Best Free and Open Source SoftwareRead our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software.

The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk.

There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more.
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Matthew Eckelman
Matthew Eckelman
2 years ago

1. Download this KJV text: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30/
2. Use VIM to search for your text.
3. The above KJV version text is indexed to make addressing verses easy. To get to John 3:16, search for this:
“43:003:016”. 43rd book:chapter 003:verse 016

Friar Tux
Friar Tux
2 years ago

Tried most of them. They are all overly complicated. I simply downloaded a copy of my favourite version in text format and use FocusWriter to access it. I also have some commentaries and dictionaries in text format that show up as tabs on the bottom of FocusWriter for quick access. And a tab for notes. Simple and efficient.

John Martin
John Martin
2 years ago
Reply to  Friar Tux

Friar Tux,
Thank you so much – I tried this and it is exactly what I needed. Simple and efficient as you said. Have a great and safe year.

Rob
Rob
1 year ago
Reply to  Friar Tux

Where did you find the ‘text’ format for your “favorite” version?

Umblin
Umblin
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob

In Xiphos, when you go to module manager, you can install an enormous range of Bible versions from many different languages (but I’m not sure about the Bibles which are copyright and must be paid for)
When you right click on a verse to Copy/Export, you can choose between verse, chapter or book – so you can download a whole book to clipboard with a click.
You could repeat that for each book of the Bible.

Umblin
Umblin
1 year ago

Xiphos is great. I’ve been using it for years.
I did have problems with the flatpack version, but the repo versions have worked great for me.
Great search facility.
Enormous range of foreign versions.
Tabs so you can have several tabs open at once (and be back there next time you open it up)
KJV so no need to use corrupted versions
TSK commentary is worth my weight in gold as a study resource (provides links to other verses)

I also use e-Sword via WINE. It has some advantages (eg easier to use commentaries) and some disadvantages. It runs on WINE but not flawlessly.

Missions Mike
Missions Mike
1 year ago
Reply to  Umblin

The big problem I have with Xiphos is that the personal commentary cannot be edited because the study pad is broken and has been broken for years — years.

It seems to me that Bible study should ‘require’ your doing the research and taking notes with references. It should be a high priority in the development. So it amazes me that this would go on so long. Last working version was 3.2.2 which was in Debian jessie.

It grieves me to no end . . .

Kevin RK Davis
Kevin RK Davis
1 year ago

The Berean Study BIble, reminiscent of the NIV84 for me, offers a variety of free files in various formats.

Using a eBook reader can be helpful here.

Charlie The Chaplain
Charlie The Chaplain
1 year ago

Nothing I have used on Linux compares to E-Sword, so I use Gnome Boxes and run windows 10 in it so I can access E-sword.

Nigel The Baritone
Nigel The Baritone
1 year ago

Did you try running it with Wine?

Raphael Awoseyin
Raphael Awoseyin
4 months ago

I use BibleTime. I tried Xiphos on my LinuxMint but I couldn’t get it to configure as it claims. I like to show parallel versions but it would only show them in tabs. Overall, I find BibleTime easier (though not trivial) to configure.

I have not found the NIV translation for any of the apps. (My favourite translation is NIV84.) I would appreciate if anyone knows of NIV text that works with BibleTime

As someone said, none of these compares with e-Sword on Windows.

Dan Beuscher
Dan Beuscher
2 months ago

I am Catholic and I also use BibleTime 3.0.3, but it too has its drawbacks. First and foremost is the lack of access to the Early Church Fathers.

Felich
Felich
24 days ago

theWord, like e-sword but better. Runs great in wine and thus far the best resource for bible study on Linux.

Eve
Eve
23 days ago
Reply to  Felich

1) This is a Linux site.
2) theWord doesn’t run natively under Linux
3) theWord isn’t even open source.

Hence your comment is irrelevant here.