new version 2017 - detailed description
Basic environment introduction 1) Reset all settings - except the language, font size and font type
2) Selection of a bible-translation, the original text or concordance
3) Main application settings - the pop-up menu
4) Audio player
5) Smart Search Field
6) Search button
7) Virtual keyboard
8) Help for using the search box
9) Another pop-up menu with informative content
10) Module name (the name of Bible translation, etc.).
11) The selection of book of the Bible
12) The selection of chapter number
13) Go to the previous book of the Bible
14) Go to the previous chapter
15) Go to the next chapter
16) Go to the next book of the Bible
17) The text of the Bible translation, the original text or concordance
18) The selection of biblical commentaries
19) Selecting the Interface Language
20) Font size selection
21) Advanced Search
22) Comparing mode
23) Display as a flowing text / each verse on a new line
24) Touchscreen device [Y/N]
25) Strong‘s numbers show / hide
26) The ability to use Chinese Dictionary
27) Change national nicknames of God to the name of God - יהוה
28) Links to other versions of SOB;
The main program featuresSOB offers a large number of Bible translations and original texts of the Bible (about 230), dictionaries, concordances, commentaries, audio bibles with online listening option (about 40), possibility of font size and font type settings, interface language settings (9 languages), simple and advanced search function (9 types), comparing any of translations (and any number of translations), direct links, Strong‘s numbers based study (Strong‘s dictionaries in 6 languages, the morphology of the Greek text in 8 languages) and more. In the following lines I would like to presented the main functions in detail, including screenshots for better understanding.
Selection of Bible translationChoosing a Bible translation I solved by drop-down list, located at the top left - under book icon. Here you can find translations divided into several sections, according to language translation. At the beginning you can find „Comparing mode“ and at the end of list you can find Bible Concordances based on the Strong‘s numbers. Choosing a translation is very simply - clicking it - without confirmation.
NavigationNavigation on the site is very intuitive. Selection of book of the Bible can be done easy by using the drop-down list, which is under the name of translation. In this list you can also see number of the chapter where you are. Selection shall be done without confirmation. Right next you can find a similar list, allowing you to select a specific chapter from selected book of the Bible (the number of a chapter is generated automatically - corresponds to the actual number of chapters in the book). Even here you do not confirm the chapter selection. This drop-down list at the same time provides you with the information about chapter you are in. In addition, you have the buttons for a comfortable navigation to the next or previous chapter, and also to the next or previous book of the Bible. The last (and fastest) navigation option are the „direct links“.
SearchingThe search function is one of the most important functions of any Bible program. In the SOB you can currently use the simple and advanced search functions and also Strong‘s numbers searching. All occurrences are also active links to verses (abbreviations of Bible-books correspond to the selected SOB interface language). In the header of SOB you can find multifunctional search box. Here you can enter search words (or parts of words), Strong‘s numbers or direct links to books, chapters, verses or ranges of verses. Recognition is automatic.
Simple search
Advanced searchInto SOB I‘ve added the advanced search feature. This feature greatly expands the capabilities of the basic search words. The advanced search feature currently offers 8 types of search, with additional display options for further translation of the Bible for comparison and with the possibility of limiting the range of the search on the part of the Bible or a particular book. The advanced search feature is available in two different ways - from the settings menu (the gear icon) or at the bottom of the SOB through the magnifying glass button with a + symbol inside.
Advanced search typesSOB now offers the following types of advanced search feature: Simple quick search for strings (words or parts of them), searching for exact phrases, search all words (or parts thereof), finding all the words (whole words), finding at least one of the words (or parts thereof), finding at least one of the words (full words) and also search using regular expressions. A new feature is the ability to search one or several Strong‘s numbers.
The basic function is a simple quick search for strings (words or its parts) without having to use so called Wildcards. It means, that you can not only search for whole words, but also their parts. In practice, this means, that as the search string you enter eg. root of some search word (common part) and searching will find all words this the same root.
You also have a search function for exact phrase. This function is useful, when you want to find a specific verse from the Bible, and if you know a part of it. Note: In this case it is necessary to keep the order of words!
If you are unsure about the exact phrase or a sequence of words in the verse, you can use the search function of all words. This feature offers two options - either whole words or parts of searched words. This feature will find verses, in which they occur all your searched words (or searched parts of words), but it does not matter their order or position in the verse.
Another type of search is a search at least one from the words. This function offers also two options - either search only whole words or parts of searched words. This function can be used with success eg. if you have in your head several translations of the Bible, and you‘re not sure, which word is used in the selected translation. You can enter eg. 2 or 3 options, and this function will display all occurrences of any of the words.
A new feature is the ability to search one or several Strong‘s numbers. This is a great help in the study of Scripture in depth. This is a way to reduce errors and inaccuracies in the translations of the Bible. Here is an example, how you can find all occurrences of „My Name“ in the New Testament. We‘ll look at the original, and for comparison we can choose some translation.
The last type of the advanced search option is a search with using regular expressions. This search option uses the MySQL REGEXP function, which offers only limited functionality, but it can still be of great help in the search. After using a search regular expression beside the selection box will appear a question mark icon, which is a link to the help file for using of regular expressions in SOB (help for now I wrote in Czech and English). See the "advanced search types" image above.
Another functionality is the ability to let you view some another translation to compare. Especially if you search for a specific word in a translation by comparison with verses from other Bible translation, you will find this option useful. Similarly useful this feature is, when you want some translation of the Bible compare e.g. with the original text.
The last advanced search functionality is the ability to limit your search to a part of the Bible. This option reduces search time and also allows you to limit the range, if they know, where the searched text placed. For simplicity, I prepared limit the search to 14 main areas, plus the ability to limit the selection to a some book of the Bible:
Strong‘s numbers searchingIn addition to the search functionality, you can in SOB use also the Strong‘s number search function. This feature is of course available only for translations, that are with so called Strong‘s numbers equipped. This feature is something like concordance - enables you to find all the places, where the searched Greek (G1 ~ G5624) or Hebrew (H1 ~ H8674) word in the Bible occur. Strong‘s numbers you can search not only through the advanced search feature, one Strong‘s number you can search also directly - from the search box in the header of SOB:
In this new version SOB you can also use a simpler way of operating with Strong‘s numbers than their searches using the aforementioned methods. Highlight (select) Strong‘s number, which you are interested in, and besides meaning of this word will appear also offer to find all verses, where the words with this Strong‘s number are („Strong‘s number search“), or search word with this Strong‘s number in a concordance („Search in a concordance“).
In concordance you can find besides all the places of occurrence also amount of available dictionaries in several languages, the possibility of comparing the original Hebrew or Greek text with translation of the Bible, ... Both functions in the pop-up menu I set up so, that the search results are displayed in a new window (new tab), and the original text will remain available. In this case you may not have pressed CTRL.
Another concordances can be found at the end of the list of translations:
At the beginning of concordances see box for entering searched Strong‘s number. Below you‘ll find a range neighboring Strong‘s numbers (± 5). Below this you can find "Cognate Strong's numbers" (if any cognate words exist). Below that you will find Strong‘s dictionaries in several languages - Czech, English (2), Spanish (3x), Russian, French, German and Chinese dictionary.
At the end of the list you will find concordance - including the number of occurrences, ways of translating searched word and all occurrences:
If you are looking in the Greek part of the Bible, and if the word with the corresponding Strong‘s number is also in the Septuagint (a translation of the Old Covenant in Greek - from the 3rd century BC), under a concordance you will find offer to find all the relevant verses in the Septuagint. It is often very good help, when you need to verify the meaning of a word, and often the only possibility of understanding in case, when the searched word in the New Testament occurs only once or a few times. Concordance for the Analytic Septuagint I created for version without accents and with God‘s name:
Directly in our example we can use the the possibilities mentioned concordance to the Analytical Septuagint. Searched Greek word „σποδός“ [spodos = ashes] in the text of the New Testament occurs only 3 times, while in the Septuagint 22 times. It is already for the verification meaning of the word relatively „sufficient“.
You may click on the abbreviations of linked verses. Then you‘ll see the verse in the comparing mode (in the a new tab) - together with a translation in the selected interface language and the original biblical text:
Font sizeWith respect to the fact that between SOB users are people with varying screen resolution, and especially with respect to the user with varying degrees of visual disturbances, I programmed into the SOB a simple possibility to set font size. Currently SOB offers 10 presets of font size. Changing the font size is very simple - click on any of the numbers 1 to 10. SOB will your choice remember for a long time, so you do not need to confirm it with every change on the page. Depending on the selected font size are changing also the font size in a tooltip. Newly You can also change the font size using the button at the bottom of the SOB.
The interface languageSOB has become a bit of an „international application software.“ For this reason I have prepared its localization into 9 languages (Czech, Slovak, English, German, Russian, Polish, Spanish, French and Greek). Selecting the interface language can be done two ways - either from the menu in the header of SOB (gear icon) - by clicking on the corresponding flag, or from the drop-down menu in the bottom of the SOB. Besides, I‘m programmed into SOB automatic detection of browser language. Therefore SOB automatically offer worthiest interface language setting, and also suitable translation of the Bible. The choice of the interface language also determines the selection of dictionaries, language of the greek morphology, translations in concordances, cross references with comments and so on.
DictionariesImportant part of the SOB are also dictionaries. In particular, the Greek-Czech Dictionary from prof. Tichý (where I added missing Greek words, which occur in the Textus Recceptus), Strong‘s Hebrew-English Dictionary, Strong‘s Greek-English Dictionary, Greek-English dictionary IPD (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament), Hebrew-English dictionary Brown-Driver-Briggs‘ Hebrew Definitions, auxiliary German dictionaries that I have created from Luther and Elberfelder Bible, Strong‘s Hebrew-Spanish Dictionary and Strong‘s Greek-Spanish dictionary (Español Multiléxico Strong-Chávez-Tuggy-Vine-Swanson), Strong‘s Hebrew-French Dictionary and Strong‘s Greek-French dictionary, Strong‘s Hebrew-Russian Dictionary and Strong‘s Greek-Russian Dictionary (Лексикон по Стронгу и Дворецкому), and newly also Hebrew-Chinese and Greek-Chinese Dictionary. Dictionary language changes automatically - depending on the SOB interface language.
Select a font typeNewly you can choose from the menu in the header of SOB the font type - either a classic Arial, a wide and elegant font Verdana (the default) or Times New Roman:
On-line listening Audio BiblesSOB offers the possibility of online listening the Audio Bibles (currently about 40 translations). Newly I chose audio player in HTML5, which does not need the Flash player. The player will appear in the header of SOB only if narrated bible for this translation available.
As an innovation in the SOB you can find also the possibility of reading aloud, using a speech synthesizer (TTS) - for about 170 translations in 25 languages. Just hide the numbers of verses and mark text to be read aloud (eg. text of the entire chapter). If you at the bottom see the following picture, you can use this function:
Biblical commentariesCurrently SOB offers 7 biblical commentaries. These comments you can simply activate for currently displayed chapter. The most detailed Biblical database cross-references TSK (Treasury of Scripture Knowledge) offers about 500,000 cross-references. Commentaries are now available from the dropdown menu at the bottom of SOB:
Direct linksDirect links are the quickest way to move to a specific place of the Bible, they are also very useful, eg. if using links on the SOB on the discussion forums, blogs and personal websites (just copy the address).
Direct link to enter the name of the book (or an abbreviation), separator (space, comma, colon, dash), chapter number, separator, verse number (optional), separator (optional), final verse (optional) - eg: John 3 16 (John 3:16) or eg John 3,12-16 (John 3:12-16). Instructions for use direct links including books abbreviations will be displayed after clicking on the icon with a question mark:
Abbreviations name of the books: Gen, Exod, Lev, Num, Deut, Josh, Judg, Ruth, 1Sam, 2Sam, 1Kgs, 2Kgs, 1Chr, 2Chr, Ezra, Neh, Esth, Job, Ps, Pro, Eccl, Song, Isa, Jer, Lam, Ezek, Dan, Hos, Joel, Amos, Obad, Jonah, Mic, Nah, Hab, Zeph, Hag, Zech, Mal, Matt, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Rom, 1Cor, 2Cor, Gal, Eph, Phil, Col, 1Thess, 2Thess, 1Tim, 2Tim, Titus, Phlm, Heb, Jas, 1Pet, 2Pet, 1John, 2John, 3John, Jude, Rev.
You can also use lower case letters as well as Czech, Slovak, Russian, Polish, German or French common abbreviations, names or even whole books.
Here you can see a direct link to the verse John 3:16-17 and the result:
List of versesNewly (
4/2017) you can also use several direct links to verses separated by a semicolon (with no space!). This option is (as well as direct links) especially useful for the discussion forums, blogs and personal websites (just copy the address). Example: „
John 3:16;Gen 2 4-7;Ps 1,1-4;Pro 2,6“.
Deuterocanonical booksInto SOB I programmed the support to view deuterocanonical and apocryphal books. The search function can also be used for searching in these books. The only restriction is, that these books can not be used in Comparing mode. If some of the deuterocanonical (or apocryphal) books are in the selected translation available, the names of specific books you will find at the end of the drop-down list selected book.
Comparing modeSOB offers the possibility of comparing any of translations, even any number of translations simultaneously. Selecting the comparing mode can be done two ways - either from the menu in the header of SOB (gear icon), or from the bottom of the SOB - by clicking on the button
Click on down arrows beside the text „Selecting translations to compare“ . Press the CTRL key and hold it. By clicking select the translation you want to compare. Then release the CTRL key and click on the button „compare“! Besides translations here, you can choose as well as Czech or English pronunciation of the Hebrew original text or for example commentaries (for example Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary [JFB], Treasury of Scripture Knowledge [TSK] etc).
Click again on the already selected translation to deselect. When you want to return to normal display mode, simply eg. from the drop-down list in the header of SOB choose the translation you want to see. If you really get lost, just click on the icon SOB, which works also as a „reset“.
Study of the Hebrew textsSOB offers the option of easy studying the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament. In SOB You can find now texts Westminster Leningrad Codex and Aleppo Codex (German Bible Society unfortunately banned the use of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in SOB). Westminster Leningrad Codex are provided with vowels and with Strong‘s numbers (with links to the dictionary. You can also view the transliteration (transcript of pronunciation) - in Czech or English (or in both languages). There is also narrated version with online listening possibility. Dictionaries linked to Strong‘s numbers are changing automatically - depending on the selected interface language. Besides the mentioned texts in the SOB You can find also Modern Hebrew Bible and the Hebrew New Testament with vocalization.
Study of the Greek textsSOB offers comfortable study all major Greek texts of the New Testament, and in addition the Septuagint (the Old Testament in Greek). You can find here the Textus Receptus, the Byzantine/Majority text, Tischendorf NT - 8 editions, Westcott-Hort text NT. All these texts are provided with Strong‘s numbers and morphology. In the SOB is also available text UBS - 3. edition (NA27) and SBL - Greek text of the New Testament (Society of Biblical Literature - 2010).
You have several variants of narrated NT, with online listening possibility.
SOB also offers the Septuagint - in several versions: original - with or without accents, Alfred Rahlfs Septuagint and several versions of Analytical Septuagint - with Strong‘s numbers and morphology, with or without accents, and also versions with with God‘s name „ יהוה “ (according to the Hebrew texts of the Old Covenant). Language of the dictionary and morphology changes automatically - according to the interface language. With these utilities you can easy find out what is truly in the original texts of the Bible.
Another useful tool for in-depth study of the Bible is the Greek New Testament with variants, in which you can transparently see the differences between the main sources of the Greek New Testament:
Support for „exotic“ Bible translationsSOB and Bible translations are in UTF-8. It offers the ability to view and work with „exotic“ translations, respectively with „exotic“ fonts. SOB offers also for these translations search function and their use in comparing mode:
Morphology of the Greek textsAs I have mentioned, SOB offers Greek texts not only with Strong‘s numbers and dictionaries, but also with morphology. This means that you have (even without knowledge Koine Greek) the possibility of knowing not only the words used in the original Greek text, but also their grammatical type - gender, tense, number, person, etc. Currently SOB offers not only corrected morphology in English, but also in Czech, Slovak, German, Polish, Spanish, French and Russian. Language selection of morphology is also automatic - by language interface SOB.
Show or hide Strong‘s numbers and morphology you can either from the menu in the header, or using the buttons at the bottom of the SOB. If the Strong‘s numbers are displayed, appears also a button with the possibility of switching to a Chinese dictionary.
Displaying verses on separate lines / flowing textSOB offers a choice of displaying texts as a continuous text or display each verse on a new line. The style of displaying you can set either from the menu in the header of SOB (gear icon), or from the bottom of the SOB - by clicking on the button:
Show / hide the numbers of versesSOB offers the possibility to show or hide the numbers of verses. This allows you to read the Bible simply as a book - without distraction due to numbers of verses. Another useful way to use this option is possibility to read the text by using speech synthesizers. This option is especially useful for owners of tablets and smartphones, as well as for people with impaired vision. The style of displaying you can select from the menu in the header of SOB (gear icon).
Virtual keyboardIn the case you want to search words in a foreign language text, and if you have not installed on the computer keyboard in the required character set, you can easily use the virtual keyboard, which is part of the SOB. Language of the virtual keyboard is preset depending on the language of the currently displayed translation of the Bible. The virtual keyboard offers more than 100 variants - the selection you can at any time change manually. The virtual keyboard can be activated by clicking on the keyboard icon next to the search box in the header SOB.
Replacement of national nicknames into God‘s nameA very common practice of translators of the Bible in many nations and languages is replacing God‘s name some common word or „nickname“ (eg. LORD, Pán, Hospodin, GOTT, ER etc.). Usually this step masquerades as a reverence for God‘s name, but the opposite is true. Anyway, I did (for about 60 Bible translations) option, with one click change a substitute of the divine name into Hebrew Tetragrammaton „
יהוה “. Settings can be changed either from the menu in the header of SOB (gear icon), or from the bottom of the SOB - by clicking on the button
Using links to SOB on other websitesSOB can of course use for example even the authors of the Christian sites. The easiest solution is simply copy the internet address (např.
http://obohu.cz/bible/index.php?styl=KJ3&k=Mt&kap=4). This is the link to the fourth chapter of Matthew‘s Gospel - King James 3 translation. In the same way you can use eg links to concordances, comparative mode, search results for some term or Strong‘s numbers. In addition, you can use also links to a specific verse, or even to the range of verses. For this purpose you can in the SOB use attributes „v“ (verse) and possibly also „kv“ (final verse). Link to the Matthew chapter 4, verse 23 to 24 will therefore look as follows:
http://www.obohu.cz/bible/index.php?styl=KJ3&k=Mt&kap=4&v=23&kv=24SOB in addition offers the possibility to make a link directly to the verse. This means, that the listing of the chapter move directly to the referenced verse (if the length of the chapter allows it). This is an optional attribute on the end of the link, in the form „#vX“, where X is the number of referenced verse. So if we like to use this functionality in the previous case, the link would look like this:
http://www.obohu.cz/bible/index.php?styl=KJ3&k=Mt&kap=4&v=23&kv=24#v23This functionality can also be found in listing all variants of the search, and also in the list of verses on separate lines.
The most effective ways to integrate SOB into the websites is displaying links in window - either in the Pop-up window, or even better using some variants of lightbox. I prepared a simple JavaScript solution for all authors of existing Christian sites, thanks to which can their existing websites during a time transform into pages with active links to Bible verses. This solution I prepared for Czech, Slovak, German, French and Spanish authors of the Christian sites, because for English users exist similar and great solution - Reftagger (
https://reftagger.com). But in the case of interest I can try prepare variant also for the English users.
The code, that must be inserted into the websites, can be very simple, eg .:
<script type=“text/javascript“language=“javascript“src=“http://musculus.cz/lytebox/odkazy_na_verse_cz_kompr.js“></script><script type=“text/javascript“><script type=“text/javascript“>var p=“CSPP“;var o=“POPUP“;var s=750;var v=400;var t=document.body.innerHTML;var t=zamen(t,p,o,s,v);document.body.innerHTML=t;</script>Lightbox pop-ups can also be easily integrated into the content management systems, and may look like this:
For the Czech and German authors of Christian websites I programmed also a multifunctional generator of links to Bible verses, which offers great freedom in the choice of translations of the Bible, appearance, pop-ups or lightbox variant, and so on.
SOB - version for mobile devicesI prepared SOB version designed for mobile phones, PDAs, tablets and other mobile devices with low resolution displays. This version is adapts to „any“ resolution, has a bit limited graphics, has a slightly modified controls, redesigned advanced search his statement and so on. However, the features and options remain the same. This „mobile“ version you can find on the easy to remember address:
www.obohu.cz/mbible.
Link to switch to the „mobile“ version (and also to the older version of SOB) is at the bottom the SOB.
The current offer of the translationsAt the moment (April 25, 2017) SOB contains about 230 translations and original texts of the Bible, dictionaries, concordances, commentaries and narrated Bibles with on-line listening. Translation of the Bible or part of the Bible is in the SOB available in 68 languages...
Discussion forum about SOBI prepared this Internet SOB forum, even now in 3 languages (CZ, DE, EN). Here you you can write your suggestions, reviews, questions, etc...
ConclusionIf you want to study the Bible really deep, you can solve this problem through free Bible programs (Davar, ISA, Theophilos, TheWord, E-Sword, Sword etc.), or pay extra and buy one of the paid biblical programs. SOB is a free, powerful biblical program - and you need just an Internet connection. No installation is needed, no free space on your hard drive is needed. No advertising, spam, viruses and Trojans - it is commonplace. SOB works without problems on any operating system. I would like, that SOB become your favorite helper on the way to a deeper understanding of Scripture.
Libor Diviš (author of SOB)
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