Thanks for using BibleText, a clean and fast way to read and study the Bible. Here's how to get help and answers to common questions.
Tap Read to read, Books to pick a book, and Search to search by keyword. Use Go to at the top to jump straight to a reference like John 3:16. Your place is remembered automatically, and the app works offline once the text has loaded. Light and dark themes follow your device.
The words of Jesus are shown in red by default on every platform — iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux. Turn that off under the gear (top right) — the switch has its own Words of Jesus section at the bottom of Settings; the scripture text size is under Reading. Poetic passages — the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and much of the prophets — are set as poetry: each authored line begins a new line, the way it appears in print. Text you copy or share keeps those lines.
Tap the translation name under the title to switch between the World English Bible, the World English Bible (Catholic) — with the deuterocanonical books — and the Berean Standard Bible (all public domain), and the New King James Version.
The NKJV is served through API.Bible. Release builds include a project fallback, so it works after installation on every supported platform. You can use your own free API.Bible key instead — create one, add the NKJV to it, and paste it into Settings → Translations; "Clear" removes it again. The picker lists only translations you can actually read.
Select a passage, tap Share, and choose how it goes: a typeset image card, text with a citation, or a link that opens the same verses for your friend. You can attach a short note of your own to a link — it travels inside the link itself, through whatever messaging app you send it with, and opens with your message beside the passage in the translation you were reading. On iPhone, iPad and Android, tapping the link opens the app; on a Mac with the App Store edition, clicking it does; on any desktop you can paste the link into the app's search box. No account is involved, and nothing passes through any server of ours. If your friend doesn't have the app, the link shows the passage — and the note — right in their browser. NKJV links are the one exception: the NKJV's text can't be published on the web, so that page shows your note with the reference, offers the passage in the public-domain translations, and links to the app.
Notes you've received and sent are collected under Notes on the Search tab, searchable and sorted. A passage can carry more than one note — the note says so ("1 of 3 in this chapter") and tapping the count steps through them. You can delete all stored notes from the gear → notes settings.
Tap the speaker in the reading header to play the chapter: a public-domain recorded narration where one exists, or (on phones, tablets, and Mac) your device reading it aloud. The Greek books of the World English Bible Catholic edition — the deuterocanon, Esther, and Daniel 3, 13 and 14 — have no public-domain human recording, so they play a synthetic (computer) voice, marked as such in the audio source menu. Playback continues into the next chapter, and on phones and tablets it keeps going from the lock screen.
The AI features (Find, Explain, and context/translation analysis) are optional and use your own AI provider key. To turn them on, tap the gear (top right) → choose a provider (Google Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, or SpaceXAI/Grok) → paste your API key → Test key. Your key is stored in the system Keychain on iPhone and iPad, and on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android in the app's own settings on that device. When you use an AI feature, your Find search or the passage and study action you selected are sent directly to the provider you chose, using your key. See the Privacy Policy.
On first launch BibleText shows the Gospels immediately and downloads the rest of the Bible in the background; a banner indicates this. If it stalls, make sure you have a connection and reopen the app — the download resumes automatically.