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Show HN: I made a new kind of Bible app

347 points by theoblank 5y ago

scottndecker 5y ago
Did this get flagged? It went from front page on HN to completely disappearing for me.
- asjdflakjsdf 5y ago
  same.
- scottndecker 5y ago
  I don't see how this violates the guidelines of HN.
- wilsonfiifi 5y ago
  It appears to have been flagged. I wonder what infractions have been caused...
- theoblank 5y ago
  Hmm, that's a bummer. I thought I followed all the rules?
  - jwhitlark 5y ago
    I'm glad the mods unflagged this, as I do believe there is some interesting discussion here. Do you see your app as being useful to people researching more philosophical aspects of the Bible? (For instance: I'm atheist to the core, but I'm curious about the impact Stoicism had on the Bible.)
- TameAntelope 5y ago
  I flagged this submission because I think it has a high potential for not-interesting and unproductive discussion. Others can vouch if I'm wrong, but I don't see a place for an app like this on HN. Product Hunt seems more appropriate. This is a very loosely held opinion, though I'm not willing to go back and forth on it, and I doubt my flag will change anything one way or another.
  - scottndecker 5y ago
    Did you read the HN guidelines? I can vouch that you're wrong. Someone spent time working on an app they care about and has proven by the conversation here to be interesting to the community. If someone wrote an app on a topic you'd be interested in, would you have flagged it? Please consider that there are varying perspectives on HN beyond your own and that sharing an app which allows people to study the Bible isn't forcing a worldview on anyone.
  - theoblank 5y ago
    Can you clarify? Why would Product Hunt be more appropriate?
  - happytoexplain 5y ago
    >Others can vouch if I'm wrong The problem is, unless I'm misunderstanding something about HN, they can not vouch until the submission is already dead. You're not out of bounds to suppose this will have some bad comments, but I do think it's presumptuous to bet there will be no interesting discussion. There in fact has already been both - a lot of interesting discussion, and a little bit of bad comments. I encourage you to flag bad comments while they are still the minority, and only resort to flagging the submission if they take over, since, again, nobody can vouch for the submission until it's dead, at which point there will be fewer people to vouch for it, as it will be hidden. Edit: Actually, maybe vouch is only for comments, and not for submissions? I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I think my suggestion still makes sense.
  - asjdflakjsdf 5y ago
    You serious? The guy/girl is taking on the task of trying to help with understanding of one of the most complex, and well known, books we have as a species! And he/she is trying to do so using technology that most here are familiar with. How in hell (pardon the pun) is this not relevant? Its a super interesting challenge
  - unknown_error 5y ago
    Even as someone dismayed by the outsized influence of ancient religion on modern society, I don't think it's fair to flag this. Like it or not, this impacts a lot of people, and developing an app for that audience comes with its own set of interesting UX, curation, funding, etc. considerations. Even if I don't like the product, it's certainly worth a discussion at least.
- dang 5y ago
  It did. I've turned the flags off now. More here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27594949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27594949
theoblank 5y ago
Hey HN! Spark Bible is a free app I built for iOS & Android. The idea is that many millions of people read the Bible regularly and want it to impact their lives for good. However, the Bible is also quite difficult to understand. There is a lot of foundational knowledge people only get through graduate education in theology or biblical studies (e.g., understanding the differences between ancient near eastern cultures vs today’s cultures). My goal is for Spark Bible to make that type of knowledge and learning more accessible to the average Bible reader.
kleiba 5y ago
Great idea, and good luck with your app! Could you talk a little bit about technical challenges that you may have encountered during development?
- theoblank 5y ago
  The tech stack is pretty straightforward (Rails back-end, using Expo/React Native for the mobile apps). The biblical texts are actually rendered in a WebView and the native code communicates back/forth to the WebView with a basic javascript bridge. I wasn't sure this approach would work at first, but it's actually worked out quite nicely. Handling theological bias has actually been one of the bigger challenges (not technical of course). People have such drastically different views and prejudices of the Bible that I'm always walking a careful line of what resources are approved vs not.
  - bradgranath 5y ago
    What is your specific approach to handling content approval?
    - theoblank 5y ago
      My approach will likely improve over time, but for now it is based on a few main factors. 1) Is the content primarily concerned with teaching the Bible? 2) Does the teaching fall within what is broadly considered orthodox? 3) Is it a good "fit" for the UX of the app? By "fit" I mostly mean duration. If there is a good sermon, but it's 45 min long, then it may not be approved. Since people are actively reading the Bible, ideally a video will say something meaningful and specific about a Bible passage without taking too long (<5 mins).
      - foolinaround 5y ago
        are you able to fit in snippets of a larger video, using youtube's start and end time stamps?
jan_Inkepa 5y ago
The iOS app store link takes me to a page that doesn't fully load for some reason? https://imgur.com/a/e78nPvc https://imgur.com/a/e78nPvc Other pages load ok in it, and I tried some other links. But maybe it's just me? (using safari on ipad) (similarly, searching for "spark bible" brings up nothing) Is it region-restricted? I'm not in the USA. EDIT: ah by using the footer App Store link I get a page in the App Store with a dialog saying that the app isn't available in my region. I tried using both links again, and yeah for some reason the floating footer link shows the informative error, but not the upper one. Spooksies...
- theoblank 5y ago
  Yes, sorry about that! I haven't yet opened it up to all countries.
- theoblank 5y ago
  UPDATE: I just made the app available to all countries. Not sure how long until that change is propagated by the App Stores, but you can try soon.
  - jan_Inkepa 5y ago
    Yeah it was working very soon after you posted your comment. Cheers. Gosh American bible interpretation is really its own universe! Interesting!
gjsman-1000 5y ago
What translations do you use?
- theoblank 5y ago
  Currently I've added ESV, NIV, NRSV, KJV, and a few other public domain translations. Getting access to translations has been a challenge due to licensing costs.
  - michaelsbradley 5y ago
    Nice work! Any possibility for an option to list/read/explore the deuterocanonical books, i.e. for translations that have them, e.g. the RSV[1]? Also, there are freely accessible texts of the Knox translation[2] and Douay-Rheims (Challoner revision of 1752)[3] online, the latter from multiple sources: https://www.newadvent.org/bible/ https://www.newadvent.org/bible/ https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1581/1581-h/1581-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1581/1581-h/1581-h.htm The Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text is certainly in the public domain. As for the Knox translation, I'm aware newadvent.org arranged permissions with the Westminster Diocese who hold the copyright; maybe they'd be open to giving similar permissions for your app? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Standard_Version#Post-1952_developments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Standard_Version#Post-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knox_Bible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knox_Bible [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douay%E2%80%93Rheims_Bible#Challoner_Revision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douay%E2%80%93Rheims_Bible#Cha...
    - theoblank 5y ago
      Thanks for pointing those out! I'll add to the todo list. Yes, I definitely plan to add deuterocanonical books at some point, although I think it's low priority for the average Bible reader. It does add a good bit of technical complexity since there's conditional logic involved if you expand outside the Protestant canon.
      - michaelsbradley 5y ago
whalesalad 5y ago
I wonder what percentage of HN users would consider themselves religious.
- asjdflakjsdf 5y ago
  regardless of being "religious" or not, the bible is fascinating!
- gjsman-1000 5y ago
  More than you think. But I think more would call themselves "spiritual" or "unaffiliated religious" than be members of organized religion. I have no peer-reviewed evidence for that though, it's just a personal observation.
- unknown_error 5y ago
  Depends. As followers or deities?
- asadlionpk 5y ago
  This might butthurt this crowd but: Atheism is usually a life phase young people follow in FOMO or because it's cool (like crypto). Most revert to a religion (and traditional investments) once they realize the reality and gain wisdom. Edit: as predicted :)
  - hunta2097 5y ago
    Anecdotally (but just as valid as your comment) i've found the polar opposite. I know loads of people who have left religion later in life and plenty of old atheists who never did.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - xupybd 5y ago
      I'm trying not to come off as argumentative so please don't see this as disagreement only curiosity. My naive hypothesis would be that people tend more agnostic as they get older, not more atheistic. Is that a trend you've noticed?
alxjsn 5y ago
Bible Project (https://bibleproject.com https://bibleproject.com) also has a lot of great content they are creating along with mobile/web apps (https://www.readscripture.org https://www.readscripture.org).
- theoblank 5y ago
  Yes, I'm a huge fan! A lot of their stuff is integrated into Spark Bible.
3pt14159 5y ago
Small bit of feedback for the landing page Theo: On a MacBook Pro the image of the app looks a bit shoddy. The font doesn't look as crisp as it could. It would be better if you could serve a retina option. These days it's pretty easy with srcset. Good luck!
- theoblank 5y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! Added to the todo list ;-)
nicoburns 5y ago
This isn't specific to the Bible (although it's prevalent in that community), but I've never understood why it's seen as so important to understand what the original authors of literature meant or intended. They're fallible like everyone else, and therefore might be wrong. To me it seems like it would make far more sense to focus on seeking the best conclusions using the source material as inspiration, rather than treating the source material as an authority and seeking to understand exactly what they meant. In terms of impacting people's lives for good, I definitely feel like religions are at their best when they are inspiratory, and at their worst when they try to impose authority.
- pksebben 5y ago
  when it comes to historically significant texts, I like having the ability to cross reference editions, esp. with translated works. translator annotations and marginal information are usually where I derive the most value. would love to see an "annotated king James" that contains information about potential linguistic issues migrating to English, as well as notes about translational ambiguities etc
- unknown_error 5y ago
  Usually originalism is used to defend some desired status quo, justifying persecution of some "other". Whether it's the Bible or the Constitution is largely irrelevant; the interpreters are the real gods here, not some bearded zombie carpenter skydaddy.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - dang 5y ago
    Please don't take HN threads into religious flamewar, regardless of which side you're flaming or defending. It leads to extremely poor quality internet discussion (not to mention some of the nastiest) and that's what we're trying to avoid here. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20religious%20flame&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
unknown_error 5y ago
I want to see the section on Sodom and Gomorrah. How long before the app gets hijacked by ultra-conservative, hateful, televangelists? Charisma is so much more dangerous, and potent, than any degree of religious study. For every MLK there's ten cult leaders and Trump-wannabes. Something something Bible direct connection to personal God something something interpreted by fallible men something. I just can't see this turning out well for society.
- meibo 5y ago
  If it's Christian and made in the US it's very likely already hijacked by hateful ultra-conservatives with a lot of money by the get-go.
  - unknown_error 5y ago
    It's actually kinda interesting/terrifying to imagine religious technology... like those "safe driving" apps for insurance, but instead monitoring your whereabouts to comply by some arbitrary mythology and inflicting social punishment whenever you stray. But, of course, the preachers themselves wouldn't be forced to use it. What would a polygamous Tinder look like? Or a Hadithpedia? Bible camp MMOs? Whereas China tries to steer technology towards secular collective capitalism, I could see religious states using it to identify, track, and segregate populations by religion. Israel, looking at you. Some of the world's most enduring sci-fi/fantasy worlds are religious works, and to see them brought into the modern secular existence is both sort of jarring and fascinating. Profit-wise, this has all the same potential as the echo-cesspool of Twitter/YouTube, but under guise of God. That potent combination of money, God, guns... yeah, goodbye civil US society.
    - nicoburns 5y ago
      Something akin to this actually exists in Saudi Arabia. Specifically there is an app that allows man to keep track of their wives, who must get approval from their husbands to do things.
      - 5y ago
nfoz 5y ago
What is the business model here? It's a registered LLC that collects tracking data etc... so like, what are your plans for this app?
- theoblank 5y ago
  That's a good question that I'm still exploring. I'm still debating the non-profit vs for-profit route. At the moment this is bootstrapped and self-funded, but if I can gain enough traction I may attempt a freemium business model where people can pay for more advanced study tools (e.g., original languages) and potentially for in-house produced video content.
  - nfoz 5y ago
    Thanks for clarifying -- makes sense. Good luck with the project. Maybe I'm weird about it but reading the Bible for me is personal enough that I don't want to use an app that collects my identifier and tracks usage data. I'd rather pay for something I can use offline or anonymously. Non-profits seem preferable for this sort of thing as well imo.
    - Syonyk 5y ago
      I'm reminded of this (rather well done) comic about social credit systems, and your concerns are reflected in it: https://www.hummingfluff.com/lovelypeoplecomic.html https://www.hummingfluff.com/lovelypeoplecomic.html I don't mind the occasional online Bible app, but in general, I'd far rather read offline with something that doesn't track my reading/information/etc. I understand that the gamification can be useful, but it also is a wealth of "big data" that can be aggregated and I'm not sure that's healthy for anyone.
- imilk 5y ago
  Identify potential priests before they are ordained, then send the info over to law enforcement and childcare services.
jgrauman 5y ago
Cool! I made a Bible program myself (scrolltag.com) a while back. I have also made a series of explanatory videos on the entire Old Testament (~280 videos) I made for a Bible College. Maybe you can include them. theapprenticeship.org/otvideos.html
- theoblank 5y ago
  Very cool! I'll check it out.
wilsonfiifi 5y ago
Quick question, are the videos curated? Is there a specific source or do they go through some sort of vetting process?
- theoblank 5y ago
  Good question. I have a basic admin back-end that lets me review them before they show up in the app.
HelloNurse 5y ago
Does the actual app have an animated carousel of video thumbnails like the screenshot on the site? Moving graphics are very distracting when one wants to read text; after a lifetime of videogames, I'm almost unable to read because unknown fast objects entering the screen require an immediate reaction. The value of thumbnails for videos that are all "talking heads", even if shown fixed in place (like e.g. in YouTube playlists) is also doubtful; text with duration, name of the speaker, title of the video and possibly date etc. would be more compact, more information-rich and more elegant.
- theoblank 5y ago
  That's a good point. I'm still trying out different ideas for the homepage. The actual app does have a side-scrolling carousel like that for people to access the videos (not auto-scrolling though, people have to scroll it manually).
el_don_almighty 5y ago
This is a VERY crowded market. What are you bringing that makes your product unique and valuable? Videos? Is the video content curated? By whom and how? Are you charging the video suppliers? What's the model for you and for them? If not, do you have copyright coverage for the videos? This seems like a challenging app space for an independent developer
- theoblank 5y ago
  Most of the apps in this space that are doing really well (Youversion, Abide, etc.) are geared more towards making the Bible quick and easy. This is great, but I believe people also need an easy way to learn on a deeper level. Videos are the starting point, but I hope to add more ways to accomplish this. My vision is to help "bridge the gap" between academia and the everyday Bible reader. The video content is reviewed (currently by me via an admin portal). All the videos are publicly available (Youtube and Vimeo). A real business model is TBD. It's currently more of a "passion project" but if I can gain enough traction I think there's some interesting ideas for monetization and partnerships.
  - decafninja 5y ago
    As a (fellow?) Christian I'm curious how you imagine curation of videos would scale, especially like you mentioned somewhere, different viewpoints can be highly controversial even amongst the Christian community.
    - theoblank 5y ago
      Ideally, Spark Bible would help overcome the embattlement that divides Christians by providing education that's more academic and explores differing viewpoints. But, I know that is probably over-idealistic thinking. One idea I have is to build an ML model that could be used to personalize what content is presented to a given user. It should be pretty trivial to build & train.
  - TheFreim 5y ago
    Full disclosure, i haven't had a chance to look at your app yet, but I have a question. How does it compare to apps like Logos (Aka Verbum)? Specifically, can it compete with the logos PC and mobile integration and libraries? Thanks, very interested to learn about your product.
rognjen 5y ago
Possibly not as interesting for you personally but I would guess that this concept would work very well for Qur'an and the Hadith. Potentially even more so since verses often require additional historical context besides the interpretation.
- theoblank 5y ago
  Thanks—cool idea! I could definitely see it used as a platform for other texts.
- binaryblitz 5y ago
  It's sad that Christians don't use historical context when interpreting verses.
  - cratermoon 5y ago
    It's sad that critics of Christianity don't use primary sources to inform themselves.
    - simondotau 5y ago
      I'm going to be even more controversial and contend that neither historical context nor primary sources should ever be necessary to legitimately criticise an idea. Primary sources and historical context are certainly valuable for the study of history and culture—but any idea worth its salt should always be able to stand on its own. By way of example, one shouldn't need to have studied the Rigveda, or understand the historical context of ancient India, in order to have reasonable ground as a proponent or critic of modern yoga practice.
      - pram 5y ago
        Being belligerently uninformed sounds super persuasive, for sure
        simondotau 5y ago
vmception 5y ago
I hadn't thought about it, a pastor and scholar aggregator by passage How do you curate, is this an automated process?
- theoblank 5y ago
  Currently there's an admin back-end where videos are manually reviewed and given applicable Bible references before they show up within the app.
dvt 5y ago
Congrats on the launch! I installed it and messed around with it a little bit, it's quite polished. However, I honestly find tools like this in kind of a weird place. I don't think I'd use this as a Bible study tool (a pen/paper and physical Bible seem to be more productive), and when I'm on my phone reading the Bible or a devotional it's early in the morning or before bed -- not really in the mindspace for a deep exegetical dive. Either way, seems like a cool app!
sharikous 5y ago
Why is it not available in Israel?
- theoblank 5y ago
  Sorry about that. I'm still working to expand it to more countries.
  - theoblank 5y ago
    UPDATE: I just made the app available to all countries.
thearn4 5y ago
Congrats on launching. I'm not Christian, but this does remind me a bit of the Sefaria project, which aims to bring together a library of Jewish texts for scholarship, and has a great mobile app. This project also seems to have a deep scholarly focus, so it might be worth having a look at as well for some ideas. https://www.sefaria.org/ https://www.sefaria.org/
- theoblank 5y ago
  Thanks! I'll definitely check it out.
tibbydudeza 5y ago
I am in South Africa and can't find it in our app store listing or install it via your link - the green install button is greyed out.
- theoblank 5y ago
  Sorry about that. I'm working to make it available in more countries ASAP.
  - tibbydudeza 5y ago
    Thanks will take a look.
    - tibbydudeza 5y ago
      It's listed now and I could d/l it.
- theoblank 5y ago
  UPDATE: I just made the app available to all countries.
lalaland1125 5y ago
My main question for this app is how they are going to deal with the many conflicting interpretations of the Bible. Who decides which interpretation is shown by default or the order? For example, the pro-LGBT and anti-LGBT churches have drastically different views of many verses.
- theoblank 5y ago
  Definitely an important question. In an ideal world, I believe people would want to explore and learn from viewpoints that differ from their own (after all, how else can you learn?). But, of course people tend to be very embattled on issues like these and shy away from anything that sounds different than what they already believe. One idea I have is to use a ML recommendation model that would use theological preferences as inputs. The trick would be how to personalize that model for a given user before knowing what content they want or would be put off by. Perhaps that could be part of the onboarding process though.
  - lalaland1125 5y ago
    There is no need for ML here. The app can simply ask for the name of the person's church.
    - jtbayly 5y ago
      And if the name is "Johnsonville Presbyterian Church" then what?
      - amerine 5y ago
        Seems pretty easy, https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-presbyterian-church-usa https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issu..., most major denominations are open about their stances on LGBTQ things.
        jtbayly 5y ago
Minor49er 5y ago
I just gave this a quick try. I really like how easy the interface is to use and navigate. Parts like the bottom panel can be turned off if they get in the way. One big thing that I noticed that would keep me from switching from my current Bible app, KJV Bible Lite, is that there's no offline mode. I can't load any chapters without a connection. I like that there are several translations available, but generally, the text isn't so big that it couldn't simply be stored locally. Also, while I really like the idea of videos being available, there are tons of textual commentaries available for each book and chapter of the Bible. I have a few physical copies from various authors and publishers that I like to reference while studying. I'm not sure how viable it would be to include in an app like this due to various factors (eg: I'm not sure if a lot of the known commentaries in print are available online, especially for free from their publishers), but it would be an excellent addition. Especially too, I'm already reading the Bible. I think that switching to watching a video could take me out of the flow of reading once the video was over. I'm going to keep using this and see if it can give me a better experience than KJV Bible Lite
- theoblank 5y ago
  Thanks for the great feedback! I do really like the idea of offline mode and integrating text-based commentary (there's definitely some great stuff out there). The main hurdle at this point is the licensing fees associated with both these items.
  - easton 5y ago
    I think the way YouVersion got around it was having the public domain versions downloadable (so KJV and ASV I think). Maybe that would be enough for now?
    - cratermoon 5y ago
      Beware YouVersion. https://www.cnet.com/news/why-so-many-android-christian-apps-have-unholy-privacy-policies/ https://www.cnet.com/news/why-so-many-android-christian-apps...
Barrin92 5y ago
Just took a cursory glance at the list of speakers but if I'm not mistaken this is exclusively Protestant commentary? Is the app particularly aimed at Protestants or is it just availability?
- theoblank 5y ago
  It is currently mostly resources from Protestant teachers (iirc Yale has some good videos on there that include back & forth discussion from both Protestant and Catholic scholars). This is driven mostly by my familiarity with Protestant resources, but I believe it's also true there's less video content available for Catholic or Orthodox teaching that focuses particularly on the Bible (correct me if I'm wrong). I think it would be great for people to have resources from a variety of faith traditions though.
- wonderinglife 5y ago
  hey, we build get.catenabible.com - we launched our video feature last year and annotate each video by verse so you can jump to where it's discussed in the video while reading (tap any verse, then swipe left once to see related videos). We add new videos and speakers every month, and trying to expand to all apostolic denominations. Hope you find it helpful, God bless!
leandrod 5y ago
Is it compatible with the Crosswire Bible Society Sword library?
- allyourhorses 5y ago
  Came here to ask this. Most obvious guess as to where the app's bible texts come from. Would much prefer to see this as a new UI for Crosswire than an independent effort. I know tons of people using Crosswire
  - theoblank 5y ago
    It's actually all built from scratch. I'm not very familiar with Crosswire but will look into it some more.
user3939382 5y ago
My preference is the Haydock commentary. It would be great if I could get that next to the Douay Rheims. I’ll give this a shot.
- wonderinglife 5y ago
  hey, have you checked out get.catenabible.com - we have Haydock + DR :) God bless!
gnicholas 5y ago
> New resources added weekly How do you add the resources? I assume this isn't via weekly iOS app updates?
- theoblank 5y ago
  I have an admin back-end that allows for reviewing, editing metadata, and then approving resources. Once approved new videos get pulled into the app via an API without requiring an app update.
pryelluw 5y ago
I really like the UX. Makes navigating the content easy and provides lots of extra value. How is your taxonomy handled ? Could you break it down for us?
- theoblank 5y ago
  Thanks! Can you clarify what type of taxonomy you're asking about?
  - pryelluw 5y ago
    I’m asking about the taxonomy around the verses and supporting content like videos.
  - theoblank 5y ago
    Sure. Essentially all the videos, topics, and any new type of resources added in the future have Bible reference(s) set (this happens via admin controls). This is another big reason content has to be manually reviewed before allowing it to show up in the app.
analyte123 5y ago
This looks like a Protestant version of Catena, a similar app where the annotations are exclusively from Orthodox and/or Catholic sources over the millennia.
- srcreigh 5y ago
  Based on the featured videos, the Catena app developer is actually Coptic Orthodox. TIL. In other words there is an underserved market of people who want St Gregory Palamas and St Porphyrios in their Bible app.
  - wonderinglife 5y ago
    Hi! Catena developer here :) I am Coptic Orthodox, and our team has had Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant engineers. We do serve all Christians, with the service of apostolic Christian commentary. Happy to connect anytime and hear any thoughts! God bless!
- theoblank 5y ago
  Very cool. Somehow I've never seen Catena before.
  - wonderinglife 5y ago
    Hey, Catena developer here :) great work with Spark, we should connect! God bless
- wonderinglife 5y ago
  thank you for sharing, God bless!
nwsm 5y ago
> By connecting you with video from top Bible teachers, Spark Bible enables you to find answers and to become a smarter, more confident Bible reader. > Solid Bible education is now just a tap away for every chapter of the Bible. It seems like you're not vetting the content at all. I'm not sure this will really consistently lead to being "smarter" or "more educated". You can find a wealth of manipulative, toxic "religious leaders" on YouTube. Edit: I see this comment [0] from OP: > Currently there's an admin back-end where videos are manually reviewed and given applicable Bible references before they show up within the app. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=27595782&goto=item%3Fid%3D27592473%2327595782 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=27595782&goto=item%3Fi...
aj_icracked 5y ago
This is great, keep it up!
esel2k 5y ago
Regulat you-version bible app user here: I really like your app as it is not bothering me everytime I accidentally select a verse (instead of scrolling) when using the you-version. The changes of the top and bottom bar could be less distracting in my opinion, though… I however still miss a german Bible version (Elberfelder or Luther) - or it was not clear how to find the other languages versions. Just one other idea: I regularly need to do live translations and like the history if a side by side view is optionally viewable that would be great. Thanks
aarpmcgee 5y ago
Inclusion of apocryphal books would be cool—Gospel of Philip/Thomas/Mary Magdalene in particular would be a welcome sight for me.
sudosteph 5y ago
I've been thinking about this technical space a bit lately. I don't personally like mixing text with other media, but I do agree that many of the bigger bible websites are severely lacking in the UX department. Best site I've found personally is yallversion.com . It replaces "you" in any translation with "y'all" (or other 2nd person plurals) based on the original koine greek. I've been studying koine, so the side-by-side view works and highlighting words between different versions is what makes it so useful to me, but the "y'all" stuff is honestly amazing in it's own right.
- JoeMerchant 5y ago
  Where has this been all my life lmao
- muzani 5y ago
  I do a little thing with languages where the data is something like "shake ${his} resolve" or "conspire against ${him}" where the feminine for both are the same word. But for his/hers, we use ${hers} because the masculine conflicts with his/her. English is an interesting language. It doesn't get this confusing with most of the other languages I know.
throw7 5y ago
Why is this app only? Is there (will there?) a web version?
- theoblank 5y ago
  There is a basic web version if you visit https://sparkbible.com/read https://sparkbible.com/read. I built it mainly for SEO purposes, but eventually I do see it having feature parity with the other apps.
fortran77 5y ago
For people interested in the Hebrew bible, there's an excellent website and app called Sefaria: https://www.sefaria.org/?home https://www.sefaria.org/?home
dangus 5y ago
On my iPhone 12 mini the marketing page allows me to scroll left and right, looks like it needs some tweaking.
juliend2 5y ago
This is so cool. I also had the idea of linking videos to specific passages in my Bible app that I did with Rails (it's old though). I'm glad to see other people working in that niche. Because the Word of God is so rich and so many scholars have commented on it. Youversion is nice, but there are so many dimensions through which the Bible studying/consuming could be enhanced. And those dimensions of rich text study could even be inspirations for interacting with other sources of information, such as philosophical texts or reference materials. God bless you and this project.
- wonderinglife 5y ago
  hey! we actually launched this on get.catenabible.com just last year :) we're adding new speakers and videos every month, hope you find it helpful and would love to hear your feedback! God bless!
kyle_martin1 5y ago
Awesome thanks downloading now!
Koiwai 5y ago
Do not want to sound discouraging but don't we already have NOAB? BTW NOAB is available on Kindle, which is far better than any "app" IMHO.
Kelamir 5y ago
Will there be a support of other languages?
skinkestek 5y ago
Can always need a new one since the old life church one (that used to be good) has become focused on growth hacking that I cannot bookmark a verse without it trying to broadcast it to all my friends. The Bible is deeply personal to me and just like I don't anyone knowing what I asked my doctor about or what I bought at the pharmacy I don't want to share everything I read in it.
foolinaround 5y ago
@theoblank : Looks very promising! Congrats!! Feature request: When i click on a verse, one option is to provide that verse as provided by the various bible translations ( similar to bible.cc ), with the word differences highlighted. For lack of space, just a handful of translations can be picked ( by the user ahead of time via the settings )

347 points by theoblank 5y ago

scottndecker 5y ago

Did this get flagged? It went from front page on HN to completely disappearing for me.

asjdflakjsdf 5y ago
same.
scottndecker 5y ago
I don't see how this violates the guidelines of HN.
wilsonfiifi 5y ago
It appears to have been flagged. I wonder what infractions have been caused...
theoblank 5y ago
Hmm, that's a bummer. I thought I followed all the rules?
- jwhitlark 5y ago
  I'm glad the mods unflagged this, as I do believe there is some interesting discussion here. Do you see your app as being useful to people researching more philosophical aspects of the Bible? (For instance: I'm atheist to the core, but I'm curious about the impact Stoicism had on the Bible.)
TameAntelope 5y ago
I flagged this submission because I think it has a high potential for not-interesting and unproductive discussion. Others can vouch if I'm wrong, but I don't see a place for an app like this on HN. Product Hunt seems more appropriate. This is a very loosely held opinion, though I'm not willing to go back and forth on it, and I doubt my flag will change anything one way or another.
- scottndecker 5y ago
  Did you read the HN guidelines? I can vouch that you're wrong. Someone spent time working on an app they care about and has proven by the conversation here to be interesting to the community. If someone wrote an app on a topic you'd be interested in, would you have flagged it? Please consider that there are varying perspectives on HN beyond your own and that sharing an app which allows people to study the Bible isn't forcing a worldview on anyone.
- theoblank 5y ago
  Can you clarify? Why would Product Hunt be more appropriate?
- happytoexplain 5y ago
  >Others can vouch if I'm wrong The problem is, unless I'm misunderstanding something about HN, they can not vouch until the submission is already dead. You're not out of bounds to suppose this will have some bad comments, but I do think it's presumptuous to bet there will be no interesting discussion. There in fact has already been both - a lot of interesting discussion, and a little bit of bad comments. I encourage you to flag bad comments while they are still the minority, and only resort to flagging the submission if they take over, since, again, nobody can vouch for the submission until it's dead, at which point there will be fewer people to vouch for it, as it will be hidden. Edit: Actually, maybe vouch is only for comments, and not for submissions? I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I think my suggestion still makes sense.
- asjdflakjsdf 5y ago
  You serious? The guy/girl is taking on the task of trying to help with understanding of one of the most complex, and well known, books we have as a species! And he/she is trying to do so using technology that most here are familiar with. How in hell (pardon the pun) is this not relevant? Its a super interesting challenge
- unknown_error 5y ago
  Even as someone dismayed by the outsized influence of ancient religion on modern society, I don't think it's fair to flag this. Like it or not, this impacts a lot of people, and developing an app for that audience comes with its own set of interesting UX, curation, funding, etc. considerations. Even if I don't like the product, it's certainly worth a discussion at least.
dang 5y ago
It did. I've turned the flags off now. More here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27594949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27594949

theoblank 5y ago

Hey HN! Spark Bible is a free app I built for iOS & Android. The idea is that many millions of people read the Bible regularly and want it to impact their lives for good. However, the Bible is also quite difficult to understand. There is a lot of foundational knowledge people only get through graduate education in theology or biblical studies (e.g., understanding the differences between ancient near eastern cultures vs today’s cultures). My goal is for Spark Bible to make that type of knowledge and learning more accessible to the average Bible reader.

kleiba 5y ago

Great idea, and good luck with your app! Could you talk a little bit about technical challenges that you may have encountered during development?

theoblank 5y ago
The tech stack is pretty straightforward (Rails back-end, using Expo/React Native for the mobile apps). The biblical texts are actually rendered in a WebView and the native code communicates back/forth to the WebView with a basic javascript bridge. I wasn't sure this approach would work at first, but it's actually worked out quite nicely. Handling theological bias has actually been one of the bigger challenges (not technical of course). People have such drastically different views and prejudices of the Bible that I'm always walking a careful line of what resources are approved vs not.
- bradgranath 5y ago
  What is your specific approach to handling content approval?
  - theoblank 5y ago
    My approach will likely improve over time, but for now it is based on a few main factors. 1) Is the content primarily concerned with teaching the Bible? 2) Does the teaching fall within what is broadly considered orthodox? 3) Is it a good "fit" for the UX of the app? By "fit" I mostly mean duration. If there is a good sermon, but it's 45 min long, then it may not be approved. Since people are actively reading the Bible, ideally a video will say something meaningful and specific about a Bible passage without taking too long (<5 mins).
    - foolinaround 5y ago
      are you able to fit in snippets of a larger video, using youtube's start and end time stamps?

jan_Inkepa 5y ago

The iOS app store link takes me to a page that doesn't fully load for some reason? https://imgur.com/a/e78nPvc https://imgur.com/a/e78nPvc Other pages load ok in it, and I tried some other links. But maybe it's just me? (using safari on ipad) (similarly, searching for "spark bible" brings up nothing) Is it region-restricted? I'm not in the USA. EDIT: ah by using the footer App Store link I get a page in the App Store with a dialog saying that the app isn't available in my region. I tried using both links again, and yeah for some reason the floating footer link shows the informative error, but not the upper one. Spooksies...

theoblank 5y ago
Yes, sorry about that! I haven't yet opened it up to all countries.
theoblank 5y ago
UPDATE: I just made the app available to all countries. Not sure how long until that change is propagated by the App Stores, but you can try soon.
- jan_Inkepa 5y ago
  Yeah it was working very soon after you posted your comment. Cheers. Gosh American bible interpretation is really its own universe! Interesting!

gjsman-1000 5y ago

What translations do you use?

theoblank 5y ago
Currently I've added ESV, NIV, NRSV, KJV, and a few other public domain translations. Getting access to translations has been a challenge due to licensing costs.
- michaelsbradley 5y ago
  Nice work! Any possibility for an option to list/read/explore the deuterocanonical books, i.e. for translations that have them, e.g. the RSV[1]? Also, there are freely accessible texts of the Knox translation[2] and Douay-Rheims (Challoner revision of 1752)[3] online, the latter from multiple sources: https://www.newadvent.org/bible/ https://www.newadvent.org/bible/ https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1581/1581-h/1581-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1581/1581-h/1581-h.htm The Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text is certainly in the public domain. As for the Knox translation, I'm aware newadvent.org arranged permissions with the Westminster Diocese who hold the copyright; maybe they'd be open to giving similar permissions for your app? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Standard_Version#Post-1952_developments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Standard_Version#Post-... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knox_Bible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knox_Bible [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douay%E2%80%93Rheims_Bible#Challoner_Revision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douay%E2%80%93Rheims_Bible#Cha...
  - theoblank 5y ago
    Thanks for pointing those out! I'll add to the todo list. Yes, I definitely plan to add deuterocanonical books at some point, although I think it's low priority for the average Bible reader. It does add a good bit of technical complexity since there's conditional logic involved if you expand outside the Protestant canon.
    - michaelsbradley 5y ago

whalesalad 5y ago

I wonder what percentage of HN users would consider themselves religious.

asjdflakjsdf 5y ago
regardless of being "religious" or not, the bible is fascinating!
gjsman-1000 5y ago
More than you think. But I think more would call themselves "spiritual" or "unaffiliated religious" than be members of organized religion. I have no peer-reviewed evidence for that though, it's just a personal observation.
unknown_error 5y ago
Depends. As followers or deities?
asadlionpk 5y ago
This might butthurt this crowd but: Atheism is usually a life phase young people follow in FOMO or because it's cool (like crypto). Most revert to a religion (and traditional investments) once they realize the reality and gain wisdom. Edit: as predicted :)
- hunta2097 5y ago
  Anecdotally (but just as valid as your comment) i've found the polar opposite. I know loads of people who have left religion later in life and plenty of old atheists who never did.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - xupybd 5y ago
    I'm trying not to come off as argumentative so please don't see this as disagreement only curiosity. My naive hypothesis would be that people tend more agnostic as they get older, not more atheistic. Is that a trend you've noticed?

alxjsn 5y ago

Bible Project (https://bibleproject.com https://bibleproject.com) also has a lot of great content they are creating along with mobile/web apps (https://www.readscripture.org https://www.readscripture.org).

theoblank 5y ago
Yes, I'm a huge fan! A lot of their stuff is integrated into Spark Bible.

3pt14159 5y ago

Small bit of feedback for the landing page Theo: On a MacBook Pro the image of the app looks a bit shoddy. The font doesn't look as crisp as it could. It would be better if you could serve a retina option. These days it's pretty easy with srcset. Good luck!

theoblank 5y ago
Thanks for the feedback! Added to the todo list ;-)

nicoburns 5y ago

This isn't specific to the Bible (although it's prevalent in that community), but I've never understood why it's seen as so important to understand what the original authors of literature meant or intended. They're fallible like everyone else, and therefore might be wrong. To me it seems like it would make far more sense to focus on seeking the best conclusions using the source material as inspiration, rather than treating the source material as an authority and seeking to understand exactly what they meant. In terms of impacting people's lives for good, I definitely feel like religions are at their best when they are inspiratory, and at their worst when they try to impose authority.

pksebben 5y ago
when it comes to historically significant texts, I like having the ability to cross reference editions, esp. with translated works. translator annotations and marginal information are usually where I derive the most value. would love to see an "annotated king James" that contains information about potential linguistic issues migrating to English, as well as notes about translational ambiguities etc
unknown_error 5y ago
Usually originalism is used to defend some desired status quo, justifying persecution of some "other". Whether it's the Bible or the Constitution is largely irrelevant; the interpreters are the real gods here, not some bearded zombie carpenter skydaddy.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 5y ago
  Please don't take HN threads into religious flamewar, regardless of which side you're flaming or defending. It leads to extremely poor quality internet discussion (not to mention some of the nastiest) and that's what we're trying to avoid here. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20religious%20flame&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

unknown_error 5y ago

I want to see the section on Sodom and Gomorrah. How long before the app gets hijacked by ultra-conservative, hateful, televangelists? Charisma is so much more dangerous, and potent, than any degree of religious study. For every MLK there's ten cult leaders and Trump-wannabes. Something something Bible direct connection to personal God something something interpreted by fallible men something. I just can't see this turning out well for society.

meibo 5y ago
If it's Christian and made in the US it's very likely already hijacked by hateful ultra-conservatives with a lot of money by the get-go.
- unknown_error 5y ago
  It's actually kinda interesting/terrifying to imagine religious technology... like those "safe driving" apps for insurance, but instead monitoring your whereabouts to comply by some arbitrary mythology and inflicting social punishment whenever you stray. But, of course, the preachers themselves wouldn't be forced to use it. What would a polygamous Tinder look like? Or a Hadithpedia? Bible camp MMOs? Whereas China tries to steer technology towards secular collective capitalism, I could see religious states using it to identify, track, and segregate populations by religion. Israel, looking at you. Some of the world's most enduring sci-fi/fantasy worlds are religious works, and to see them brought into the modern secular existence is both sort of jarring and fascinating. Profit-wise, this has all the same potential as the echo-cesspool of Twitter/YouTube, but under guise of God. That potent combination of money, God, guns... yeah, goodbye civil US society.
  - nicoburns 5y ago
    Something akin to this actually exists in Saudi Arabia. Specifically there is an app that allows man to keep track of their wives, who must get approval from their husbands to do things.
    - 5y ago

nfoz 5y ago

What is the business model here? It's a registered LLC that collects tracking data etc... so like, what are your plans for this app?

theoblank 5y ago
That's a good question that I'm still exploring. I'm still debating the non-profit vs for-profit route. At the moment this is bootstrapped and self-funded, but if I can gain enough traction I may attempt a freemium business model where people can pay for more advanced study tools (e.g., original languages) and potentially for in-house produced video content.
- nfoz 5y ago
  Thanks for clarifying -- makes sense. Good luck with the project. Maybe I'm weird about it but reading the Bible for me is personal enough that I don't want to use an app that collects my identifier and tracks usage data. I'd rather pay for something I can use offline or anonymously. Non-profits seem preferable for this sort of thing as well imo.
  - Syonyk 5y ago
    I'm reminded of this (rather well done) comic about social credit systems, and your concerns are reflected in it: https://www.hummingfluff.com/lovelypeoplecomic.html https://www.hummingfluff.com/lovelypeoplecomic.html I don't mind the occasional online Bible app, but in general, I'd far rather read offline with something that doesn't track my reading/information/etc. I understand that the gamification can be useful, but it also is a wealth of "big data" that can be aggregated and I'm not sure that's healthy for anyone.
imilk 5y ago
Identify potential priests before they are ordained, then send the info over to law enforcement and childcare services.

jgrauman 5y ago

Cool! I made a Bible program myself (scrolltag.com) a while back. I have also made a series of explanatory videos on the entire Old Testament (~280 videos) I made for a Bible College. Maybe you can include them. theapprenticeship.org/otvideos.html

theoblank 5y ago
Very cool! I'll check it out.

wilsonfiifi 5y ago

Quick question, are the videos curated? Is there a specific source or do they go through some sort of vetting process?

theoblank 5y ago
Good question. I have a basic admin back-end that lets me review them before they show up in the app.

HelloNurse 5y ago

Does the actual app have an animated carousel of video thumbnails like the screenshot on the site? Moving graphics are very distracting when one wants to read text; after a lifetime of videogames, I'm almost unable to read because unknown fast objects entering the screen require an immediate reaction. The value of thumbnails for videos that are all "talking heads", even if shown fixed in place (like e.g. in YouTube playlists) is also doubtful; text with duration, name of the speaker, title of the video and possibly date etc. would be more compact, more information-rich and more elegant.

theoblank 5y ago
That's a good point. I'm still trying out different ideas for the homepage. The actual app does have a side-scrolling carousel like that for people to access the videos (not auto-scrolling though, people have to scroll it manually).

el_don_almighty 5y ago

This is a VERY crowded market. What are you bringing that makes your product unique and valuable? Videos? Is the video content curated? By whom and how? Are you charging the video suppliers? What's the model for you and for them? If not, do you have copyright coverage for the videos? This seems like a challenging app space for an independent developer

theoblank 5y ago
Most of the apps in this space that are doing really well (Youversion, Abide, etc.) are geared more towards making the Bible quick and easy. This is great, but I believe people also need an easy way to learn on a deeper level. Videos are the starting point, but I hope to add more ways to accomplish this. My vision is to help "bridge the gap" between academia and the everyday Bible reader. The video content is reviewed (currently by me via an admin portal). All the videos are publicly available (Youtube and Vimeo). A real business model is TBD. It's currently more of a "passion project" but if I can gain enough traction I think there's some interesting ideas for monetization and partnerships.
- decafninja 5y ago
  As a (fellow?) Christian I'm curious how you imagine curation of videos would scale, especially like you mentioned somewhere, different viewpoints can be highly controversial even amongst the Christian community.
  - theoblank 5y ago
    Ideally, Spark Bible would help overcome the embattlement that divides Christians by providing education that's more academic and explores differing viewpoints. But, I know that is probably over-idealistic thinking. One idea I have is to build an ML model that could be used to personalize what content is presented to a given user. It should be pretty trivial to build & train.
- TheFreim 5y ago
  Full disclosure, i haven't had a chance to look at your app yet, but I have a question. How does it compare to apps like Logos (Aka Verbum)? Specifically, can it compete with the logos PC and mobile integration and libraries? Thanks, very interested to learn about your product.

rognjen 5y ago

Possibly not as interesting for you personally but I would guess that this concept would work very well for Qur'an and the Hadith. Potentially even more so since verses often require additional historical context besides the interpretation.

theoblank 5y ago
Thanks—cool idea! I could definitely see it used as a platform for other texts.
binaryblitz 5y ago
It's sad that Christians don't use historical context when interpreting verses.
- cratermoon 5y ago
  It's sad that critics of Christianity don't use primary sources to inform themselves.
  - simondotau 5y ago
    I'm going to be even more controversial and contend that neither historical context nor primary sources should ever be necessary to legitimately criticise an idea. Primary sources and historical context are certainly valuable for the study of history and culture—but any idea worth its salt should always be able to stand on its own. By way of example, one shouldn't need to have studied the Rigveda, or understand the historical context of ancient India, in order to have reasonable ground as a proponent or critic of modern yoga practice.
    - pram 5y ago
      Being belligerently uninformed sounds super persuasive, for sure
      - simondotau 5y ago

vmception 5y ago

I hadn't thought about it, a pastor and scholar aggregator by passage How do you curate, is this an automated process?

theoblank 5y ago
Currently there's an admin back-end where videos are manually reviewed and given applicable Bible references before they show up within the app.

dvt 5y ago

Congrats on the launch! I installed it and messed around with it a little bit, it's quite polished. However, I honestly find tools like this in kind of a weird place. I don't think I'd use this as a Bible study tool (a pen/paper and physical Bible seem to be more productive), and when I'm on my phone reading the Bible or a devotional it's early in the morning or before bed -- not really in the mindspace for a deep exegetical dive. Either way, seems like a cool app!

sharikous 5y ago

Why is it not available in Israel?

theoblank 5y ago
Sorry about that. I'm still working to expand it to more countries.
- theoblank 5y ago
  UPDATE: I just made the app available to all countries.

thearn4 5y ago

Congrats on launching. I'm not Christian, but this does remind me a bit of the Sefaria project, which aims to bring together a library of Jewish texts for scholarship, and has a great mobile app. This project also seems to have a deep scholarly focus, so it might be worth having a look at as well for some ideas. https://www.sefaria.org/ https://www.sefaria.org/

theoblank 5y ago
Thanks! I'll definitely check it out.

tibbydudeza 5y ago

I am in South Africa and can't find it in our app store listing or install it via your link - the green install button is greyed out.

theoblank 5y ago
Sorry about that. I'm working to make it available in more countries ASAP.
- tibbydudeza 5y ago
  Thanks will take a look.
  - tibbydudeza 5y ago
    It's listed now and I could d/l it.
theoblank 5y ago
UPDATE: I just made the app available to all countries.

lalaland1125 5y ago

My main question for this app is how they are going to deal with the many conflicting interpretations of the Bible. Who decides which interpretation is shown by default or the order? For example, the pro-LGBT and anti-LGBT churches have drastically different views of many verses.

theoblank 5y ago
Definitely an important question. In an ideal world, I believe people would want to explore and learn from viewpoints that differ from their own (after all, how else can you learn?). But, of course people tend to be very embattled on issues like these and shy away from anything that sounds different than what they already believe. One idea I have is to use a ML recommendation model that would use theological preferences as inputs. The trick would be how to personalize that model for a given user before knowing what content they want or would be put off by. Perhaps that could be part of the onboarding process though.
- lalaland1125 5y ago
  There is no need for ML here. The app can simply ask for the name of the person's church.
  - jtbayly 5y ago
    And if the name is "Johnsonville Presbyterian Church" then what?
    - amerine 5y ago
      Seems pretty easy, https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issues-presbyterian-church-usa https://www.hrc.org/resources/stances-of-faiths-on-lgbt-issu..., most major denominations are open about their stances on LGBTQ things.
      - jtbayly 5y ago

Minor49er 5y ago

I just gave this a quick try. I really like how easy the interface is to use and navigate. Parts like the bottom panel can be turned off if they get in the way. One big thing that I noticed that would keep me from switching from my current Bible app, KJV Bible Lite, is that there's no offline mode. I can't load any chapters without a connection. I like that there are several translations available, but generally, the text isn't so big that it couldn't simply be stored locally. Also, while I really like the idea of videos being available, there are tons of textual commentaries available for each book and chapter of the Bible. I have a few physical copies from various authors and publishers that I like to reference while studying. I'm not sure how viable it would be to include in an app like this due to various factors (eg: I'm not sure if a lot of the known commentaries in print are available online, especially for free from their publishers), but it would be an excellent addition. Especially too, I'm already reading the Bible. I think that switching to watching a video could take me out of the flow of reading once the video was over. I'm going to keep using this and see if it can give me a better experience than KJV Bible Lite

theoblank 5y ago
Thanks for the great feedback! I do really like the idea of offline mode and integrating text-based commentary (there's definitely some great stuff out there). The main hurdle at this point is the licensing fees associated with both these items.
- easton 5y ago
  I think the way YouVersion got around it was having the public domain versions downloadable (so KJV and ASV I think). Maybe that would be enough for now?
  - cratermoon 5y ago
    Beware YouVersion. https://www.cnet.com/news/why-so-many-android-christian-apps-have-unholy-privacy-policies/ https://www.cnet.com/news/why-so-many-android-christian-apps...

Barrin92 5y ago

Just took a cursory glance at the list of speakers but if I'm not mistaken this is exclusively Protestant commentary? Is the app particularly aimed at Protestants or is it just availability?

theoblank 5y ago
It is currently mostly resources from Protestant teachers (iirc Yale has some good videos on there that include back & forth discussion from both Protestant and Catholic scholars). This is driven mostly by my familiarity with Protestant resources, but I believe it's also true there's less video content available for Catholic or Orthodox teaching that focuses particularly on the Bible (correct me if I'm wrong). I think it would be great for people to have resources from a variety of faith traditions though.
wonderinglife 5y ago
hey, we build get.catenabible.com - we launched our video feature last year and annotate each video by verse so you can jump to where it's discussed in the video while reading (tap any verse, then swipe left once to see related videos). We add new videos and speakers every month, and trying to expand to all apostolic denominations. Hope you find it helpful, God bless!

leandrod 5y ago

Is it compatible with the Crosswire Bible Society Sword library?

allyourhorses 5y ago
Came here to ask this. Most obvious guess as to where the app's bible texts come from. Would much prefer to see this as a new UI for Crosswire than an independent effort. I know tons of people using Crosswire
- theoblank 5y ago
  It's actually all built from scratch. I'm not very familiar with Crosswire but will look into it some more.

user3939382 5y ago

My preference is the Haydock commentary. It would be great if I could get that next to the Douay Rheims. I’ll give this a shot.

wonderinglife 5y ago
hey, have you checked out get.catenabible.com - we have Haydock + DR :) God bless!

gnicholas 5y ago

> New resources added weekly How do you add the resources? I assume this isn't via weekly iOS app updates?

theoblank 5y ago
I have an admin back-end that allows for reviewing, editing metadata, and then approving resources. Once approved new videos get pulled into the app via an API without requiring an app update.

pryelluw 5y ago

I really like the UX. Makes navigating the content easy and provides lots of extra value. How is your taxonomy handled ? Could you break it down for us?

theoblank 5y ago
Thanks! Can you clarify what type of taxonomy you're asking about?
- pryelluw 5y ago
  I’m asking about the taxonomy around the verses and supporting content like videos.
- theoblank 5y ago
  Sure. Essentially all the videos, topics, and any new type of resources added in the future have Bible reference(s) set (this happens via admin controls). This is another big reason content has to be manually reviewed before allowing it to show up in the app.

analyte123 5y ago

This looks like a Protestant version of Catena, a similar app where the annotations are exclusively from Orthodox and/or Catholic sources over the millennia.

srcreigh 5y ago
Based on the featured videos, the Catena app developer is actually Coptic Orthodox. TIL. In other words there is an underserved market of people who want St Gregory Palamas and St Porphyrios in their Bible app.
- wonderinglife 5y ago
  Hi! Catena developer here :) I am Coptic Orthodox, and our team has had Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant engineers. We do serve all Christians, with the service of apostolic Christian commentary. Happy to connect anytime and hear any thoughts! God bless!
theoblank 5y ago
Very cool. Somehow I've never seen Catena before.
- wonderinglife 5y ago
  Hey, Catena developer here :) great work with Spark, we should connect! God bless
wonderinglife 5y ago
thank you for sharing, God bless!

nwsm 5y ago

> By connecting you with video from top Bible teachers, Spark Bible enables you to find answers and to become a smarter, more confident Bible reader. > Solid Bible education is now just a tap away for every chapter of the Bible. It seems like you're not vetting the content at all. I'm not sure this will really consistently lead to being "smarter" or "more educated". You can find a wealth of manipulative, toxic "religious leaders" on YouTube. Edit: I see this comment [0] from OP: > Currently there's an admin back-end where videos are manually reviewed and given applicable Bible references before they show up within the app. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=27595782&goto=item%3Fid%3D27592473%2327595782 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=27595782&goto=item%3Fi...

aj_icracked 5y ago

This is great, keep it up!

esel2k 5y ago

Regulat you-version bible app user here: I really like your app as it is not bothering me everytime I accidentally select a verse (instead of scrolling) when using the you-version. The changes of the top and bottom bar could be less distracting in my opinion, though… I however still miss a german Bible version (Elberfelder or Luther) - or it was not clear how to find the other languages versions. Just one other idea: I regularly need to do live translations and like the history if a side by side view is optionally viewable that would be great. Thanks

aarpmcgee 5y ago

Inclusion of apocryphal books would be cool—Gospel of Philip/Thomas/Mary Magdalene in particular would be a welcome sight for me.

sudosteph 5y ago

I've been thinking about this technical space a bit lately. I don't personally like mixing text with other media, but I do agree that many of the bigger bible websites are severely lacking in the UX department. Best site I've found personally is yallversion.com . It replaces "you" in any translation with "y'all" (or other 2nd person plurals) based on the original koine greek. I've been studying koine, so the side-by-side view works and highlighting words between different versions is what makes it so useful to me, but the "y'all" stuff is honestly amazing in it's own right.

JoeMerchant 5y ago
Where has this been all my life lmao
muzani 5y ago
I do a little thing with languages where the data is something like "shake ${his} resolve" or "conspire against ${him}" where the feminine for both are the same word. But for his/hers, we use ${hers} because the masculine conflicts with his/her. English is an interesting language. It doesn't get this confusing with most of the other languages I know.

throw7 5y ago

Why is this app only? Is there (will there?) a web version?

theoblank 5y ago
There is a basic web version if you visit https://sparkbible.com/read https://sparkbible.com/read. I built it mainly for SEO purposes, but eventually I do see it having feature parity with the other apps.

fortran77 5y ago

For people interested in the Hebrew bible, there's an excellent website and app called Sefaria: https://www.sefaria.org/?home https://www.sefaria.org/?home

dangus 5y ago

On my iPhone 12 mini the marketing page allows me to scroll left and right, looks like it needs some tweaking.

juliend2 5y ago

This is so cool. I also had the idea of linking videos to specific passages in my Bible app that I did with Rails (it's old though). I'm glad to see other people working in that niche. Because the Word of God is so rich and so many scholars have commented on it. Youversion is nice, but there are so many dimensions through which the Bible studying/consuming could be enhanced. And those dimensions of rich text study could even be inspirations for interacting with other sources of information, such as philosophical texts or reference materials. God bless you and this project.

wonderinglife 5y ago
hey! we actually launched this on get.catenabible.com just last year :) we're adding new speakers and videos every month, hope you find it helpful and would love to hear your feedback! God bless!

kyle_martin1 5y ago

Awesome thanks downloading now!

Koiwai 5y ago

Do not want to sound discouraging but don't we already have NOAB? BTW NOAB is available on Kindle, which is far better than any "app" IMHO.

Kelamir 5y ago

Will there be a support of other languages?

skinkestek 5y ago

Can always need a new one since the old life church one (that used to be good) has become focused on growth hacking that I cannot bookmark a verse without it trying to broadcast it to all my friends. The Bible is deeply personal to me and just like I don't anyone knowing what I asked my doctor about or what I bought at the pharmacy I don't want to share everything I read in it.

foolinaround 5y ago

@theoblank : Looks very promising! Congrats!! Feature request: When i click on a verse, one option is to provide that verse as provided by the various bible translations ( similar to bible.cc ), with the word differences highlighted. For lack of space, just a handful of translations can be picked ( by the user ahead of time via the settings )