It crazy how many websites out there around bible collect information and share it with third parties. I looked at a bunch and couldn’t find anything that’s completely private.
Worst case, I would OK with them collect information but not share any information with third parties.
Don’t have an answer but I’m genuinely surprised and impressed that the majority of responses aren’t people being snarky about religion and instead, just folks trying to help you out!
Good luck!
It hit the magical crossover between being non-pushy and asking about privacy
Even though it’s nice to see people getting along, I was kinda hoping to make a joke about St Peter’s record book being the ultimate tracking cookie.
It’s because anyone is free to learn/study/worship.
It’s only a problem if you try to force it on others.
Why not an epub reader? Is there some functionality these websites have that isn’t just providing the text?
Ability to look up specific verses and taking notes, some have narrations or further notes, etc
Sounds like the daily devotional
This one looks like what you might be looking for.
Edit: it’s even on fdroid.
Edit: maybe The Life Or The Light.
Good luck on your search!
OliveTree. Excellent app for study. They have literally everything including devotional. It’s the power app for study.
F-droid has a couple.
another option is to have an epub version of it that you can load into a reader. you should be able to add bookmarks etc. It might not be as feature-rich as an app, but if you want privacy, it’s about as close to reading a book as you’re going to get.
you version has no ads, not sure about tracking. does have decent devotionals and no account required
That’s what used till now, then I found it shares data with third parties
ah that’s too bad, I’ll have to keep an eye on the thread then
Does the Crossway ESV app do it? The issue with open source bible apps is that they rely on public domain translations, but Xiphos and AndBible are alright
what version?
KJV or NIV
KJV should be fairly easy considering it’s public domain.
I think the trick is the daily devotional, they’ll want to know who you are to deliver that.
Bible Gateway is great if you just want the text, multiple translations even.
Why does it has to do anything with me? Just pick out a verse and provide devotional on it.
Have you heard of upper room? They’re in print. My mom reads the old ones from years ago, one of the previous years where the day of the week matched up with the date – because devotionals are evergreen.
Not what you asked but you may be able to get paper devotionals from a church. Or maybe upper room has an ok website?
They likely keep track of who has been delivered which devotional to avoid duplicates.
Press tab a few times in TempleOS.
Yeah I was pretty disappointed the main app on iOS and Android has you create an account to download offline translations.
Like someone else said, I think getting an offline PDF copy would be a good substitute for this.
The BibleGateway and BibleHub websites have always been good for me and I never have to log in. But not sure about them keeping data for anyone visiting. You could visit in incognito to avoid that concern.
The BibleGateway and BibleHub websites
They do sadly.
Not really surprised for BG but BH surprises me with how simplistic it looks.
Sorry, wish there was something more privacy focused.
This might be of interest but the UI looks bad
https://github.com/maxlit/grepbible-server?tab=readme-ov-file
For android:
https://github.com/yukuku/androidbible
And found this insane open source OP one for multiple platforms https://github.com/eliranwong/UniqueBible
For your phone? On iOS, the most popular Bible app doesn’t have ads.
I want privacy
For me, something based around Sword is important, as it allows you to use a bunch of different Bible versions, commentaries, dictionaries and other works that you can freely download from various repositories. My app of choice is AndBible, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. I don’t know whether or not they collect any information, but I believe they do have a warning before you search for Sword modules, since accessing those databases can identify you as a Christian.
EDIT: No, sorry, the warning is on BibleTime, my desktop app of choice.
Is it possible to get AndBible modules on Xiphos? I find it hard to find good Sword modules
There aren’t AndBible modules, but the Sword modules are independent, so you can just install whatever modules you want with either front-end.
For additional Sword modules, try looking on Bible.org and CrossWire.
Any way of getting the ESV? 😬
They don’t publish an ESV Sword module any more, sorry! I have one I bought a while back, and have manually installed every time I change phones.
Anyway of… Obtaining an older leaked copy online?
With some googling, I found on a forum a script you can use to download the text and bundle your own ESV Sword module. Try searching for ‘“ESV” sword module’.
Word is that E-Sword has an ESV license, and it doesn’t look terribly expensive.