The ESV on an Apple iPhone

At the risk of alienating the Luddites in the audience, I've decided to post the answer to a question I often receive, which usually goes something like this: "Mark, with all the cool Bibles reviewed on your site, which one do you actually use the most?" Even though I'm situated in an Aladdin's cave of goatskin, calf, and india paper, the Bible I use most often these days is bound in aluminum and glass. And it's not really a Bible at all. It's a phone. An Apple iPhone, to be precise.

Above: the iPhone "open" to Psalm 1 in the English Standard Version.

If this comes as a surprise, believe me no one is as surprised as I am. When the iPhone came out last summer, I prided myself on not being one of the sheeple who stood in line. (My pride was based on a mere technicality: my father and brother, even greater technophiles than me, stood in line and bought one for me.) After plunging a lot of money into the black hole that was the Pocket PC circa 1999, I had pretty much given up on "convergence," the dream of a single device to rule them all. My judgment was confirmed after I inherited a Motorola SLVR (giving up my perfectly good pre-Sony Ericsson T28) with the idea that it would combine the functions of phone and iPod. It did, but not very well, and I decided the future was still in the, well, future.

Now I'm a believer. The future started last July, but not everyone realizes it yet.

But this isn't about the iPhone. It's about the Bible on the iPhone. At first, I didn't take advantage of the possibilities. I had a bookmark to the ESV Online in my Safari browser, but more often than not I'd forget it was there. Then the ESV Blog posted some (for me) historic news: how to "Add the ESV to your iPhone Home Screen." Specifically, you can create an icon for any of the ESV's many online reading plans and have it display right on the home screen, giving you one-click access to the day's reading. I followed the instructions and that did the trick. Hardly a day goes by now when I don't take advantage of it.

Above: The icon in the lower right-hand corner brings up the Daily Reading Bible selection in a Safari window.

Technically, the ESV isn't on the iPhone. When you click the icon, you launch a browser window in Safari, which pulls up the same text you'd see if you accessed the page from your home computer. The difference is, you don't carry your home computer everywhere you go. For this to work, of course, you need either a wireless signal (fast) or a phone signal to access AT&T's Edge network (slow, but not as bad as I had feared).

Above: Exodus 14:21-31, today's Old Testament reading from the Book of Common Prayer Lectionary.

The nice thing for aging eyes is that you control the type size. If the standard layout shown above doesn't do it for you, just turn the phone sideways for the landscape view. If that's still not larger enough, you can zoom in closer by making a pinching motion on the touchscreen.

Above: The text displayed in landscape mode -- much easier to read.

As you can see from the photos, I couldn't leave well enough alone in the glass and aluminum department. The problem with most iPhone cases is that they add too much bulk to the device. After much searching, I found this brown leather one made by the well-known Argentine leathergoods company Vaja. It's called the ivolution Top. Yes, it increases the iPhone footprint a bit, but not as much as other cases I've looked at, and the textured leather keeps the phone from slipping out of my hand, something it likes to do at the worst possible moments. Back in the Pocket PC days, I had a Vaja flip-case for my Compaq iPAQ, so this was like coming full circle -- only the sheathed iPhone is about a tenth of the size.

Above: The Vaja ivolution Top case, closed. The flap is secured via friction. It clips over the top of the phone securely, without any snaps or magnets. The docking port is covered, but the speakers, earphone jack, and the various volume buttons are exposed for easy use.
Below: The ivolution Top, with the flap opened. It hangs low enough not to interfere with one-handed use.

When you consider how much I like small Bibles, it's no surprise that the iPhone-as-Bible appeals to me. It's the Bible I carry when I'm not carrying a Bible. Personally, I don't like having a bunch of little devices to carry, so in the past I tended to leave digital cameras, music players, etc., behind. A cell phone is the only pocket device I've had the discipline to carry pretty much always. Because I can now read the Bible on my phone, I almost always have Scripture handy, no matter where I happen to be.

Look at the form factor. With the Vaja case attached, my iPhone measures about 2.5 x 4.5, and just over half an inch thick. One of the smallest Bibles I have is the Cambridge Crystal Reference KJV in goatskin from R. L. Allan's, a beautiful little edition. It measures 3.75 x 5.5, and just under an inch thick. On the ultra-small end of the spectrum, I have a tiny Prayer Book from the 1940s, published by Oxford with a Morocco cover and silk-sewn binding. It measures 3 x 4.5 and just under an inch thick. (There's no way I'd stuff either of these editions into my pocket, but I think this is a worthwhile comparison.)

Above: The iPhone in Vaja case (top), compared to an Oxford BCP (middle), and the Cambridge Crystal KJV from R. L. Allan's (bottom).
Below: The same comparison as seen from above. Note the larger footprint of these pocket-sized books.

The comparison is unfair -- to the iPhone. Since I have it in the Vaja case, it's a bit more substantial than it would be by itself. Stripped down to aluminum and glass, it is very trim indeed.

So does this mean I'm abandoning traditional paper Bibles in favor of vaporware? Hardly. Yes, the ESV on the iPhone is ultra-convenient, and as a result sees a lot of use. But believe me, if you have to choose between reading a full-size edition and the text on a tiny glowing screen, the book is going to win out every time. What I like about the iPhone is having access to the Bible at times I otherwise wouldn't.

Another caveat: I'm one of those people who frowns on using techno-gadgets in church. I tried it once with the Pocket PC and felt like every eye was on me. After two seconds, I had to put the thing away. So I don't really see the iPhone/Bible as a substitute for contexts in which you should have a "real" Bible handy. That's my own bias. You may feel differently.

Let's face it, you're not going to go out and buy an iPhone just to use it as a pocket Bible. But if you happen to have one for other reasons, it's nice to be able to pull up the Bible text with just a touch of the button. One of my goals is to never be without a Bible, something I find a whole lot easier than it was before the iPhone came along.

Comments

[matt blair]

Looks like I'm not the only one. I've been using Bible+ on my Palm TX for 2 years now and love it. I have who knows how many lexicons, commentaries, and dictionaries on a 2G memory card that I use at church. Love it.

FYI...my friend runs a blog that you might be interested in. Lots of good info.

http://www.mobileministrymagazine.com/

[Steve Lockhart]

Great tip. I've been looking at that case on Vaja's website too; it looks really nice.

[Cristian Franco (Argentina)]

Mark, thank you for your comments and advice on every Bible. As I told you by e-mail, in the Spanish speaking world there is a lack of fine Bibles. I'm an avid student of English language, and for that reason I'm buying fine Bibles made in England and the USA. Thanks for your comments on iPhone (it's in my wish list for the future!). Congrats for finding the best cases company over the world, Vaja Cases, from my country. They are five blocks from my office! I have buy a lot of Vaja Cases since 2004 (I don't have to pay the shipments or customs costs... sorry...!). Maybe we can tell them to start binding Bibles, you know...! Blessings in Jesus. Every week I read your blog. Go ahead brother.

[a husband]

I so want one of those things. Too bad my father and brother didn't buy me one! :o)

Thanks for keeping this blog so well-rounded. Seriously, you do a great job.

a husband

[Christian]

Myself has an HTC tytn mobile, it is windows mobile 6 based, and a program called pocket e-sword is available. I have 10 different bible versions including ESV, KJV ect, also you can have the greek and Hebrew texts, along with strongs dictionary , Thayers and websters. And much more. All in all you have a little seminary in your mobile!

Many may be familiar with the desktop version that is awesome for being free

www.e-sword.net

[Iyov]

An excellent post for the first day of April!

[Greg]

This is the best "not quite serious" post I've read -- this year, or any year. Thanks so much!

[chad]

When I worked as a college minister our director used his palm pilot for his main bible. It always freaked people out to see him pull it out and use it to teach when he was in front of 500+ people. This looks like a great feature, but I don't think the iphone is for me.

[Fr. Matthew]

This touches on an issue I've been mulling over recently and I thought others might have insight on: reading/studying the Bible electronically (having Bible text, commentaries, and personal notes kept on a computer) vs. reading/studying the Bible "on paper" (i.e. notes in a notebook, reading/annotating in a wide-margin Bible, studying from printed commentaries, etc.). Is one medium inherently better/preferable to the other? If so, why? What are the benefits of each medium?

[Stuart]

Nice touch Mark! :)

Does it have “red-under-gold” & are those “semi-yapp edges” I can see on that grainy leather “binding”? It certainly lies flat & has a beautiful single-column format... I hope it's stitched & not glued! It just needs a couple of 'virtual' navy blue silk 'ribbons' to bookmark your texts. BTW, I hope Allan’s picks up on this!

Seriously though, I can imagine it won't be long before we see the actual Bible characters popping up on the screen & reading the pages to us - (in spirit of the audio Bible projects that are gaining momentum recently) - but more as a bonus feature on your gadget like the “MS Word 'helper' wizard” only dressed in Bible guise & narrating or acting out the parts for you on your tiny telephone screen! Cool, the possibilities are endless… Come to think of it - I've probably just made somebody very rich!

[threegirldad]

Fr. Matthew,

I'll take a stab at answering your questions.

"Is one medium inherently better/preferable to the other? If so, why? What are the benefits of each medium?"

Perhaps this is a generational issue; I'm not sure. I've been using PDAs since the original Palm handheld (known as the Palm 1000) was released in 1996, and I currently own a Windows Mobile PDA that runs Pocket eSword with numerous additional resources (very much like what Christian described above). So, I'm obviously not averse to technology. Nonetheless, I prefer a printed bible + paper journal hands-down for one simple reason: there's just nothing like turning pages and writing on paper. Also, despite the fact that using a PDA is pretty much second-nature for me, I still have occasional frustrations with the hand-writing recognition, and find myself spending far more time taking notes than I ever do when using good old pen and paper. This will be likely be less of an issue for people whose handwriting is crisp and well-formed (mine isn't). And the small screen annoys me after a few minutes, even though I have 20/20 vision; I've never been able to really *enjoy* "reading my bible" on a PDA for extended periods of time. On the other hand, portability is where a PDA really shines. It's relatively painless to take with me at all times (just like my wallet), and a wonderful way to pass the time when waiting for an appointment, for example. Because of this, I have my "bible" with me in all kinds of situations where I never would have had it before this technology existed.

Hope you find this useful.

[Fr. Matthew]

threegirldad --

Thanks for your notes and insights on reading the Bible in electronic form. I would agree that note-taking on a PDA does have the stumbling block of hand recognition software, but the benefit of portability. I eventually plan on making the leap to an iPhone and one of the first tasks will be to install a Bible for such portability.

What I have been mulling over is how invested I should get in doing bible study on my laptop vs. doing it with print resources and by hand -- or some combination of both electronic and manual forms. Any other thoughts out there or places people might steer me where this is being discussed?

[threegirldad]

Fr. Matthew,

In my case, there is no way that I could find room for printed versions of all the resources that I can install on my laptop. I used the Windows desktop version of eSword for several years until I was able to afford an edition of Logos Bible Software (http://www.logos.com/). It's actually an electronic library system more than just an electronic Bible program, and the amount of information you can query from multiple resources in a matter of seconds (as opposed to hours -- literally) is quite amazing. Here is a very thorough review that points to several other reviews and discussions:

http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2007/11/logos-bible-software-review.html

[Fr. Matthew]

threegirldad --

Thanks for the additional information and links. Some of the reviews touched on some of the benefits of electronic study -- (1) affordability, portability, and number of sources one may have in electronic form and (2) search-ability of electronic texts. As a Mac user, I'm already committed to using Accordance and many of its excellent modules.

I guess this begs the question on the other side--what are the benefits of having a well-annotated wide-margin Bible in this day of electronic resources?

[Fr. Matthew]

After a little more poking around, I found this electronic vs. print discussion on the Accordance blog site:

http://www.accordancebible.com/blog/2006/08/paper-vs-electronic-note-taking.html

This is the sort of thing I was looking for and knew was out there somewhere!

[Joe Cheng]

How is it that your screenshots show the ESV site rendering in Times? On my iPhone (and in the HTML source) it's Verdana.

[Tcblack]

As with Matt Blair I've been using PalmBible+ to read on my Treo 650 for more than a year and I've specifically been reading through the ESV with it. It can't have all the features of a fine bible but with my black leather holster it's not only always with me it looks nice too.

[andreas]

i like the case... what colour is that ? i can't find it on the vaja homepage

[Touch Bible, iPhone Bible]

I use Touch Bible. It is pretty new on the scene, and it's free. No ESV, but it has the NET, and a few others. Plus its an app, so you can get it through iTunes. They have a web app too.

[robert anderson]

It is true, we can have so much right on our iPhone and PC. I have the ESV study Bible on my phone. Most of it is free or nearly nothing compared to buying a nice leather bound Bible. Crossway offers you every Bible translation ever written along with commentary and cross reference.
I person can get everything he need right on the Internet by phone or PC.

[Gene]

I've been using Pocket Bible for the iPhone - it's got features that I haven't seen in any other Bible apps.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=313513717&mt=8

[DavidT]

I read the bible on my Kindle every day. I have the ESV, NASB, NIV, and KJV, plus the ESV study bible and multiple commentaries all packed onto this Kindle, and the beauty of it is that I can adjust the font size and it gives me everything in a single column paragraph format. I love this device. I still enjoy my collection of beautifully bound Allan and Cambridge bibles for the obvious reasons. But frankly I find myself grabbing the Kindle 9 times out of 10 for extended reading and study sessions. It is an amazing device.

[used Computers]

i have listen that the current bible is different from the bible which was sent by ALLAH to ESAA-ALY-SALAM i want to know that is it correct?? if it is correct then why it become change are u the followers of bible are not obeying their profit??? because HE had a different bible then current

[Fernando Villegas]

huh?

[generic viagra]

Oh My God!!!!!!!
The iphone is the best cellphone ever made, i mean, i used to have a nokia, and i think nokia rulez in the field of mobiles, but let's get this straight...
apple give us the oportunity to have in our hands the most technological thing in this century, rOCKZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =)

[Christian Book Publishers]

I also use touchbible as well as read Bible on Kindle everyday and have been impressed by the good service and continued quality of the screens.