How to install the PocketBible app

Go to laridian.com, look for “Download Our FREE PocketBible App,” and click on the link for your smartphone, tablet, or computer.

How to install the Bibles

First install PocketBible. Then install the Bibles into PocketBible.

In the near future, these instructions will not be needed as the Bibles will be available “in-app” within PocketBible. We want to allow a “seasoning” period for these Bible texts to stabilize to minimize the number of revisions and changes required after the PocketBible people put them into their server.

Apple iPhone or iPad

  1. Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Apple or Windows computer using the USB cable.
  2. Open iTunes on your computer.
    (You can download iTunes for Microsoft from https://www.apple.com/itunes/download.)
  3. Click on the little icon of your device.
  4. Click on “App Sharing.”
  5. Click on the PocketBible app icon.
    Notice the “PocketBible Documents” area on the right side of the iTunes window.
  6. Drag and drop all the *.lbk files that you want (from under “Bibles” above) into the “PocketBible Documents” area.

Apple computer

  1. Open the Finder app (the little Mac man icon at the start of the Dock).
  2. Choose “Go” from the menu bar and then “Go to Folder...”
  3. Type ~/Library/Application Support/com.laridian.PocketBible/Laridian and press the [Return] key.
    Do not neglect the leading ~ (tilde) character, which signifies the path to your home directory.
  4. Drag and drop all the *.lbk files that you want (from under “Bibles” above) into the ~/Library/Application Support/com.laridian.PocketBible/Laridian folder.

Windows

Android

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What are the benefits of these digital Bibles?

    The benefits are:

    1. Accuracy, consistent data format, ease of access.
    2. Single source of Bibles not already in any popular Bible-reader apps or sites:
      1. Western Armenian,
      2. Eastern Armenian (the “Ararat” version),
      3. Eastern Armenian (the “Etchmiadzin” version), and
      4. Classical Armenian
    3. Features like:
      1. Words of Christ in red
      2. Subheadings
      3. Hyperlinked cross-references (one of these Bibles has over 60,000 cross references)

  2. Why are you using Laridian PocketBible (laridian.com) instead of bible.com or biblehub.com or biblegateway.com or olivetree.com or any of the other sources for digital Bibles?

    Good question. A bunch of reasons:

    1. PocketBible makes it easy to create digital Bibles that work inside PocketBible.
    2. In the near future, these Bibles will be available from inside the PocketBible app (obviating the installation instructions above).
    3. Other popular Bible sites make importing new Bible versions odious or impossible, due to their technology and risk aversion.
    4. PocketBible:
      1. runs on every platform and is free of charge,
      2. is thoroughly seasoned and debugged (over decades),
      3. has an experienced developer that is continually improving the app,
      4. has Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, devotionals, and religious texts,
      5. has parallel or comparative reading panes, bookmarks, highlighting, and personal notes,
      6. has text-to-speech audio reading with multiple voices,
      7. has synchronization of personal bookmarks, highlights, and notes across multiple copies of PocketBible,
      8. has several sources of Hebrew and Greek dictionaries hyperlinked by Strong’s or Goodrick-Kohlenberger Numbers,
      9. has interlinear Bibles with graphical display of Hebrew and Greek,
      10. has free Bibles (ASV, BBE, DNT, GEN, KJV, SBL SBL Greek NT, WBS, WEY, WEB, and YLT), and
      11. has popular English Bibles for a single payment of $10 (ESV, NKJV, NLT, etc.) and some $15 (NIV, NRSV, etc.) all of which work on all your copies of PocketBible forever (see laridian.com).

  3. I have to pay money to read the NRSV or NKJV in PocketBible?

    1. Yes, but you will be able to read it in PocketBible in parallel with one of our digital Bibles.
    2. Once we complete the full set of Bibles and publish their plain-text sources on GitHub, we will continue efforts to find additional publishers.

  4. What is the big deal? There are plenty of free, public domain Bibles out there at a number of different websites that offer all their content for free. Some of them have cross references and dictionaries and parallel readers and commentaries.

    The value we are adding is:

    1. Accuracy. The texts of our Bibles are complete, and errors are being corrected. (Some of the texts we have found at other websites had errors like: chapters numbered incorrectly, psalms missing, chapters missing, entire Old Testament missing, and many other things.)
    2. Consistency. The source text of these Bibles will be published on GitHub, providing:
      1. transparency, control of change
      2. consistent file format and data format, human and machine readable
      3. central access, ease of access
      (The texts from those other sources are in different data formats, stored in different locations, and are hard to access.)
    3. Accessibility. It has been difficult to convince the other popular sites (bible.com, biblehub.com, biblegateway.com, olivetree.com) to import new Bibles. Hence the need to have a website that:
      1. provides all Bibles in a consistent data format
      2. makes it easy to import the Bibles into their own data formats
      (Laridian makes it easy to import new Bibles into PocketBible. That is why we have started with them.)

Help

Our future plans for the Site Name project include a comprehensive set of texts and music of the Church, of which these Bibles will be the cornerstone, all cross-referenced and parallel indexed for liturgical use and study.

If you would be interested in collaborating, contact us at Contact Email. We need:

  1. Clergy and scholars to oversee and provide credibility.
  2. People with knowledge of:
    1. the Bible,
    2. the books, rituals, and languages of the Armenian, Coptic, and other Oriental Orthodox Churches,
    3. software programming.

Contact Us

Further info: Contact Email