Online Bible

The Online Bible (OLB) is one of the oldest and still most cost effective, high quality Bible programs available for Mac. OLB continues to be known for its ease of use coupled with an abundance of Bible versions and translations in some 25 different languages, the inclusion of many classic commentaries, Bible dictionaries (including ISBE), and original language resources.

For the person with minimal or no knowledge of the Greek language, there is an interlinear version of the Textus Receptus (Stephens 1550). There are also parsing and declension options available in several Greek texts. There are two versions of the Old Testament Hebrew: one is regular and the other uses a morphologically-separated format. The Old Testament is also available in the Greek Septuagint and the whole Bible in the Latin Vulgate.

One of the features that I use a lot is highlighting Strong's Number in the lexicon window and then finding every occasion that the word in Greek or Hebrew is used. Lexicons included are Strong's for the whole Bible, Thayers for the N.T. and Brown, Driver & Briggs with Gesenius for the O.T. Also, there is the option to create your own Greek and Hebrew notes or lexicons.

Perhaps one of the most tempting factors is that the OLB application itself and many of the modules are free and downloadable from their web site. Even purchasing the Classic CD for $39.95 or the Deluxe CD for $79.95 is still a great value.

On the downside, OLB does not contain any of the newer commentaries or dictionaries, as all the OLB modules are copyright-free and in the public domain. There is other software that covers this gap.

For those who used Online Bible under Mac Classic (systems 7 through 9), all you have to do is replace the old application with the new application currently in version 4.2.1. All the modules are still the same and work the same as they did under Classic. There are a few small differences between Classic and OS X. The F7 key for instant insertion of Bible texts in any word processing program, initially missing, has been replaced by Command-7. A Toolbar has been added; for small screens this is not necessary as it only reproduces the same options available in the top menu bar, or even more handy the right click (Control click) which opens a submenu with all of the options immediately available.

2015 version

Online Bible released a new 2015 CD with additional languages and resources. This had already been released for Windows in 2012.

The Macintosh version 4.2.1 can still be downloaded as a free Starter Pack, and works fine under Mac OS 10.11 (El Capitan). It was temporarily not working under the initial version of Sierra, but once again works fine after Apple released the patch OS 10.12.2.

As of 2020, the website states that the app "runs well with MacOS up until High Sierra (10.13) which gives some problems."

iOS version

As of 2016 there is at last a version for iPad and iPhone, provided they run iOS version 8 or higher.

External links

• http://onlinebible.us/
• http://onlinebible.com/olb-en - iOS version

Credits

• Written by Marvin Robertson, June 2, 2010.
• 2016 update added by Neville Reid (including Command-7 key, as advised by Bill Matthews), August 2016.
• Sierra and iOS updates added by Neville Reid, December 2016; High Sierra update added January 2020.