I promise we’re not going to forever bombard you with praise and acclaim for the new Bible Gateway. However, we were thrilled to see the Bible Gateway receive an extremely thorough review by Sam O’Neal at About.com, and I thought I would highlight a few items from the review.
Sam has a lot of good things to say about Bible Gateway, but he particularly likes the new note-taking and highlighting feature:
…what really caught my attention is the new ability for users to highlight different portions of the biblical text (in several different colors) and take notes that can be connected to specific portions of Scripture. This is huge! This what we love so much about the worn-out printed Bibles we’ve carried around for years — even decades. Those Bibles are a collection of our growing thoughts and maturing interactions with God’s Spirit and God’s Word. They are a testimony to our relationship with God.
And now, thanks to this new technology, we can have the same experience on a website that offers greater accessibility and more stability than the printed text. When you highlight verses or make notes on BibleGateway.com, the BibleGateway mobile site, or the BibleGateway app — those notes and highlights will be saved and accessible through all of those different access points.
That’s a big deal for me, and I think it will become a major new feature for many users — especially those in younger generations.
That is our hope, too—that this and other new features will close the gap between what you can do with your print Bible and what you can do with an online Bible. Earlier in his review, Sam notes that print Bibles lend themselves well to the practice of quiet, reflective study, whereas online Bible tend to be used more to just quickly look up verses or provide fast answers to questions. That’s a good observation, and one of our aims with the new Bible Gateway is to make it easier to do the kind of reflective reading online that you’re accustomed to doing with a print Bible.
Sam also points out the parallel Bible feature, which lets you read a Bible passage in several different translations side-by-side. This feature has actually been a part of Bible Gateway for some time, but we’ve found that many users aren’t aware of it. Here’s how to read more than one Bible side-by-side (it’s item #4 in the list). It’s very easy to do—whether you’re grappling with a challenging Bible passage, or are just curious to see how different translators approach the same text, you’ll find it a useful part of your Bible reading.
Take a look at the review for more praise (and a bit of constructive criticism, which we also appreciate). And if you’ve not yet stopped by to check out the new Bible Gateway, create an account, and explore its new features, why not take a minute to do so now?