oremus
bible browser
biblemail@oremus.org
v 3.1
5 February 2020
29 April 2019
oremus Bible Browser is copyright © 1998–2019 Simon Kershaw <biblemail@oremus.org>. All rights reserved.
Some of the texts included in the oremus Bible Browser are copyright © the individual copyright holders, and are used by permission.
The oremus Bible Browser is, and always has been, offered free of any charge. If you would like to make a contribution to costs then donations may be made via PayPal or Amazon to simon@kershaw.org.uk. To use PayPal, simply browse to paypal.me/SimonKershaw, enter the amount and click or tap the “Next” button. Do select “Sending to a friend or family”: if you select “Paying for an item or service” PayPal will deduct a fee.
Or you can log in to your Paypal account, and select “pay or send money” and then “Sending to a friend or family”; enter the email address simon@kershaw.org.uk, and specify your donation. PayPal does not charge a fee for this transaction; if you select “Paying for an item or service” they will.
Alternatively, Amazon gift vouchers are a convenient method and can be purchased online at Amazon and delivered by email to simon@kershaw.org.uk . Please do use amazon.co.uk and not amazon.com or another Amazon site to buy vouchers. amazon.com vouchers can only be redeemed or spent at the US amazon.com (and similarly for other countries).
The oremus Bible Browser is, and always has been, offered free of any charge. If you would like to make a contribution to costs then donations may be made via PayPal or Amazon to simon@kershaw.org.uk. To use PayPal, simply browse to paypal.me/SimonKershaw, enter the amount and click or tap the “Next” button. Do select “Sending to a friend or family”: if you select “Paying for an item or service” PayPal will deduct a fee.
Or you can log in to your Paypal account, and select “pay or send money” and then “Sending to a friend or family”; enter the email address simon@kershaw.org.uk, and specify your donation. PayPal does not charge a fee for this transaction; if you select “Paying for an item or service” they will.
Alternatively, Amazon gift vouchers are a convenient method and can be purchased online at Amazon and delivered by email to simon@kershaw.org.uk . Please do use amazon.co.uk and not amazon.com or another Amazon site to buy vouchers. amazon.com vouchers can only be redeemed or spent at the US amazon.com (and similarly for other countries).
The oremus Bible Browser is a simple, friendly way of accessing bible texts. Just enter a reference to a bible passage in the box and press ‘return’, and the passage will be displayed. Optionally, you can tap the search icon (🔍) rather than using the ‘return’ key.
As you use the oremus Bible Browser, it remembers the passages and searches you have entered, displaying the first few lines of each as a ‘visual history’ at the bottom of the page. This grows to become a horizontal scrolling list, and tapping on an item restores it to the main panel. These items are stored in the browser page, and you do not need to be on-line to restore them.
You can also enter other words or short phrases to search for the text anywhere in the bible. You can force a search rather than a reference by prefixing it with the word ‘search:’ – this is useful if you want to search for a word that is also the name of a biblical book, such as ‘revelation’ or ‘Ezekiel’ or words such as ‘Paul’ or ‘letter’ which are otherwise ignored.
Search results appear in a separate, scrollable, panel, and you can tap on a verse to display the verse and its surrounding context in the main panel.
Tapping on the down arrow (▼) enlarges the text entry panel allowing you to enter multiple bible references, one per line. You can then tap the search icon (🔍) to retrieve the passages.
The menu system (accessed via the menu icon at the top left of the page) allows you to select a different bible version. The oBB currently supports the New Revised Standard Version in both American and British spelling editions, together with the Authorized Version of 1611, also called the King James Version. In addition there are three further versions of the psalms: the psalters from Common Worship (the Church of England’s 2000 prayer book), the Alternative Service Book 1980, and from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The oBB remembers the version selected until it is changed again.
The menu also lets you choose whether to display verse numbers (including chapter numbers), footnotes and footnote markers, section headings (which are provided by some translations as an aid to the reader), and also the passage reference and links to adjacent passages. You can toggle the display of all these on and off independently, and the oBB remembers your settings.
The size of the type used to display bible passages can be increased and decreased using the two buttons (T▲ and T▼).
Setting dark mode changes the colour scheme, so the background colour is dark – nearly black – and the text is pale. This is useful when reading from the oremus Bible Browser in a dark setting, for example at a nighttime service in a church or elsewhere.
By default, searching for text scans the entire bible. You can limit you search to a range of books by selecting them in the ‘search options’ panel.
Tapping the star icon (★) will generate a short link to a passage, multiple passages, or a word search. This link is stored by the oBB server, and can be shared with others.
Version 3 of the oremus Bible Browser works with the latest versions of popular browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Edge on desktop and laptop computers and also on tablets and phones. Internet Explorer is not supported.
To make full use of the oBB you must use secure https, rather than the old http. Some functionality will not work without https, including remembering your settings.
The oBB stores some data in cookies, including the settings options and the most recent bible reference (or references). Although your web browser automatically sends oBB cookies to the oBB server, the server does not use them at all. It is only used by the web browser to remember your options and to reapply them each time you visit the oBB page.
Simon Kershaw
22 June 2019