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 4.1.1. All the modules are still the same and work the same as they did under Classic. There are two main differences between Classic and OS X. The F7 key for instant insertion of Bible texts in any word processing program is gone. On the positive side, a Toolbar has been added. For small screens it 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.

2012 version

Online Bible released a new 2012 DVD with additional languages and resources. As of April 2012, this is for Windows only. It can be run on Macintosh computers under the WINE emulator.

The older Macintosh version 4.1.1 still works fine and runs under Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion).

There is not yet a version for iOS (iPad or iPhone).

Credits

Written by Marvin Robertson, June 2, 2010.

2012 update added by Neville Reid, April 2012.

External links

http://www.online-bible.com/maconlinebible.html