What OpenScripture actually does

OpenScripture is a customisable, translation-aware Bible app. It shows where published translations agree, where they differ, and where source-language or manuscript data can help you read more closely.

See which layers are complete on the Status page

Learn Mode is how you meet Hebrew and Greek words in the text itself. While you read in Composite mode, a word you are learning appears as its source word, or as the English word with a small marker above it.

Learn keeps a few words in focus at once and brings in the next as each one is learned, at the pace and in the order you choose. Its word list comes from BibleProject’s word studies.

Tap a Learn word and Word Study opens on it. Each word has its own page: its meaning, a short summary in OpenScripture's own words of what BibleProject draws out of it, where it appears in the book you are reading, and links to the podcast episodes and dictionaries that discuss it. There you choose how the word appears in your Bible: the English translation, the source word, or your own wording, which is saved as a Word Lock.

Why Learn exists, and what it owes to BibleProject →How Learn works in the help guide

A Word Lock ties one Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek word, identified by its Strong's number, to the rendering you choose. It works like a find-and-replace for that original-language word across the whole Bible, in the verses where your translation is fully aligned.

Seeing your chosen wording every time a word recurs helps you spot links between passages and grow your vocabulary as you read. When you choose your own wording for a word in Learn Mode or Word Study, it is saved as a Word Lock. Word Locks show only in Composite mode.

How to create and manage Word LocksHow many Word Locks the free plan includes

Compare how the major translations differ. In Composite mode, circled numbers show at a glance where translations render the original differently, so a familiar wording does not quietly become the only one you know. Tap any circled number to open a compact comparison of how each translation renders that word.

Then, still in Composite mode, lock in your preferred wording for any verse with a Verse Lock, whichever translation you are reading. Choose the rendering you want in the Verse Drawer and tap "Lock it in"; the rest of the chapter follows your baseline translation.

Publisher footnotes stay visually separate: each translation's own letters, numbers, or symbols appear inside a small muted square. You should never have to guess whether a mark is a comparison cue or a publisher note.

Textual certainty markers introduce scholarly-level manuscript data into everyday reading. Where imported scores exist, OpenScripture marks wording that rests on more debated manuscript evidence.

Stable readings stay quiet. More uncertain places become visible at the level you choose in Reading Options, so the reader remains useful for devotional reading and serious study.

Three reading modes let you choose how much comparison sits in front of you for supported passages. Composite is the flagship: one smooth reading surface shaped by your Verse Locks and Learn words while the rest follows your baseline translation.

Published mode reads one translation as originally published. Interlinear aligns Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek script with transliteration and English where word data exists. The planned OASV and OARV are still in development and are not yet reading options.

The Verse Drawer groups reader-visible published translations by tradition — Protestant, Ecumenical, Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish, and Independent — with a count badge on each tab. The demo below shows a sample; the app has more. When a passage matters to a specific tradition, you can jump straight to those voices without scrolling past the rest.

AI editions will appear in comparison only after a named, versioned edition has completed its independent review and publication process.

Tap any word to open Word Study. Where word data exists, you see its original form, transliteration, Strong's number, morphology, concise definition, and frequency across Scripture. Words you are learning in Learn Mode open here too.

You can also open the same entry in Blue Letter Bible or BibleHub when you want a fuller article or parallel translations on those sites.

A Personalised Bible is a named setup that saves your Verse Locks and your word choices together. Switch profiles from the header when you want a different teaching context or reading habit.

Over time each profile becomes your own curated text — always marked so you can tell publisher wording from choices you applied at verse level and word level.

Bookmark a chapter in named, colour-coded collections: for example sermon prep, family devotionals, or language study tracks.

Bookmarks are universal by design. A saved chapter remains visible in every reading mode and every Bible, while notes and highlights can still carry their own scope.

Collections stay yours and sync across devices when you are signed in.