A few months ago, Bert posted a great review about the ESV Bible(+) App for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Yesterday, a new app was released for the iOS platform that I think is a great contender in the race for portable Bible study tools: Accordance for iOS. The price is also very attractive — FREE!
About Accordance
If you are not familiar with Accordance Bible software, it is known as the leading biblical studies tool out there. And oh, it only runs on the Mac. Many Bible scholars have historically put a lot of trust in the package for the type of tools that are available from the company. You can purchase every major Bible version, the best Greek and Hebrew dictionaries and the latest Bible commentaries as well. However, until now, it has been available only on your Mac desktop or laptop.
About the App
With the introduction of Accordance for iOS, you now have the power of all of this literally in the palm of your hands. If you don’t own any Accordance software at all, that’s ok. Oak Tree (the company behind Accordance) gives you a free download of the ESV Bible with Strong’s links. What are Strong’s links you ask? Basically, if you see a word in the English and you wonder what it is in the original language, just tap on the word to highlight and a pop-up will display the original word and its definition. In full, the starter pack gives you the following:
The WEB translation- Outlines of each book of the Bible
- Margin notes and cross-references
- Easton’s Bible dictionary
- The Bible Lands PhotoGuide Sampler
- Greek and Hebrew dictionaries, and
- Samples of the Greek New Testament and Hebrew Bible.
Ok, so what if you, like me, already own Accordance for the Mac? Simply, login with your account information in the App and it will allow you to download any of the modules you have purchased previously onto your iOS device. If you don’t already own Accordance, you can still create an account online and download other modules for free (e.g., Matthew Henry Commentary, some Bible dictionaries, etc.). You can, of course, purchase more and it will show up on your iOS device.
This is a universal App meaning it works for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It supports a split pane when you have multiple texts open (e.g., one Bible and one commentary) and will split the screen vertically when you hold your device in landscape mode.
Conclusion
Well, if you ask me, I just deleted my ESV Bible App. This is a must have with a very attractive price. It has all the features of the ESV Bible App, plus tons more.