Juan Alfonso A Mercado Sir Rafael Santos

Media and Information Literacy | MH9-10:30 December 6, 2018

THE RISE OF DIGITAL BIBLES AND ITS IMPACT ON CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS

I. Introduction
II. The Rise of Digital Bibles
a. Another change in reading the Bible, just like the Guttenberg printing press before it
b. Features and Advantages of Digital Applications
c. Popular and Rising Applications
i. GloBible
ii. YouVersion Bible
iii. Filament
III. The Debate Between Digital and Physical Bibles
a. Physical Bibles
i. Less distractions
ii. Retains the singular “holiness” of a singular Bible
b. Digital Bibles
i. Different features
ii. Devotionals
iii. For those with active lifestyles
c. In the end, it is the prerogative of the Christian believer
IV. Survey and Analysis
a. Demographics
b. Respondents use mostly the YouVersion Bible, among other apps.
c. Respondents use their apps at least once a day.
d. Most respondents use their apps for personal devotions, though not exclusively.
e. More respondents use their digital Bible more than their physical Bible.
f. Most importantly, most respondents their digital Bible is helpful to growing their faith.
V. Conclusion
a. In this culture, digital Bibles are important but cannot entirely replace the physical
Bible.
b. However, we cannot ignore its impact into building the faith of Christian believers.
 Introduction

Among the Christian community, a unifying practice is hearing or listening to the Bible. In
older times, this would mean listening to a priest or pastor read from the Word of God in a mass or
church service. It would also mean formally sitting down and reading a hard copy of the Bible for a
period of time. However, recent developments in technology have made the Bible available amongst
different virtual platforms. This allows Christian believers, regardless of denomination, to access the
Bible through their phones or laptop. The researcher wishes to find positive relations between Christian
believers who have regular access to a digital Bible and their own spirituality.
For the purposes of this research, a survey has been conducted and sent among different
Christian believers who use digital Bibles regularly, particularly to high school and college believers.
Aside from this, the research was complemented by different online articles.

The Rise of Digital Bibles

The Bible has gone through an evolution of change in terms of the format used to be exposed
by it. The most obvious of this would be the introduction of the Guttenberg printing press. This made
holding and reading a physical Bible available to believers who were but used to merely hearing it.
Before this time was also the oral culture of hearing the Bible. Simply put, usage of the Bible finds
itself in the culture of its time, and digital Bibles are only a product of today’s culture (Perky, n.d.)
(Pui-lan, 2008).
Nowadays, the Bible can be accessed practically instantly, through applications on smart
devices or directly from the internet. Dr. Michael J. Chan explains that digital Bibles make the Word
of God accessible in many different ways. First, it gives ease to the Bible reading experience: for
example, “search” features can mean one can look up verses, keywords, and topics quickly instead
going through the index at the back of a regular Bible. Next, digital applications help disabled people
access the Bible through audio, and even increasing font size for those with weakening eyes (Chan,
n.d).
For Biblical scholars, digital advancements have also helped their work through different web
sites. For example, manuscripts of Dead Sea Scrolls can now be digitally accessed as well as resources
for the Septuagint. As a consequence of becoming digital, Bibles have the potential do be more
interactive with use of multi-media these platforms (Chan, n.d.). It is also now easier to look for the
historical backgrounds of Biblical texts (Pui-lan, 2008).
In 2011, Zondervan decided to release the revised version of the New International Version
(NIV) Bible on digital format even before they came out with a physical copy. This e-book’s features
included clearer text and shortcuts across different sections of the Bible as well as footnotes (Garcia,
2010).
On the side of Bible applications is the application GloBible. According to its website, the app
is able to compile different Biblical resources such as sermons, maps, and other audio-visual material
augment the experience (GloBible, n.d.).
Arguably the most popular application for Bible reading is YouVersion’s The Bible App. With
over 350 million installs, the app includes 1,797 Bible versions in 1,247 languages. The application
offers unique features such as audio Bibles, adding bookmarks, highlights and notes, and sharing Bible
verses on social media. It also offers devotional plans, which allow you to read selections of the Bible
on a given day for a period of time. Plans are also accompanied by devotionals as well as audio-visuals
(YouVersion, n.d.)
YouVersion’s latest annual report discussed the increasing accessibility of the Bible throughout
the world by means of its app. The report explains the company’s continuing aim to make the Bible
available globally and in different languages. In 2017, 16.7 billion chapters of the Bible have been
read, with 532 chapters read in a second. What is interesting is that the Philippine’s use of the app has
risen 152% (YouVersion, 2017).
Just this October, Tyndale House Publishers decided to reconcile digital and print Bibles by
releasing Filament, a Bible that combines augmented reality features. The user utilizes his device’s
camera through the Filament application over the Bible’s pages, making way for many features such
as maps, character profiles, devotionals, and extra notes. This allows for the book itself not to seem
cluttered with many details, only becoming available throughout the app (Petersen, 2018).

Can Digital Bibles Be Trusted?

A lot of the articles pertaining to digital Bibles and building of faith have been opinionated,
many of which concern them lacking the “holiness” of a hard copy Bible. One event that prompted
discussions such as this include using a Kindle in a pastor’s swearing-in ceremony. Theologians argue
that the Bible is more valuable by itself- that is, as single-volume book. In phones, on the other hand,
the Bible would be sharing space with other different applications (Gryboski, 2014). This is how, in
the context of a worship service, using digital Bible as distracting since users could very easily open
up other applications and play games (Perky, 2014).
In contrast, digital Bibles are important since they help expand and augment the experience.
Through a wide array of Biblical resources, there is more for a Christian believer to study for the
growing of their faith (Rau, 2016). Digital Bibles also help those with more active lifestyles, as well
as serve as a means for outreach to non-Christians (Pui-lan, 2018).
All in all, this debate, however legitimate it may be, raises good points on both sides. However,
it seems, in spite of it all, the best answer is that whatever is able build up the believer’s faith. Each
Christian believer is different, so it would therefore be suited to them on how they answer to the Word
of God (Perky, 2014).

Survey

In order to further discover the nuances of reading a digital Bible, the researcher has decided
to conduct a survey. This was sent out among high school and college students of Metro Manila. In the
end, there were twenty (20) respondents. The majority of these respondents were Protestant Christians,
as originally intended. Three (3) of the respondents were Catholic, but the researcher has decided not
to remove their responses.

Demographics
Of the twenty-respondents, twelve (12) of them were female, while nine (8) were male. Their
ages ranged from sixteen to twenty years old. The majority of these responses were seventeen years
old, of which there were 8 respondents. Two (2) of the responses were sixteen, three (3) were eighteen,
six (6) were nineteen, while one (1) was twenty years old.
The majority of the respondents hailed from Pasig City with eight (8) respondents, followed
by Marikina with five (5) respondents and Quezon City with four (4) respondents. The rest came from
Cainta, Mandaluyong and Taytay, with one (1) respondent each. The majority of the respondents were
from Grade 12 with eleven (11) respondents. This was followed by first year college students with
seven (7) respondents. The remaining two (2) were in third year college and Grade 10, respectively.

What Applications Do You Use?

Among respondents, it came to no surprise that the majority used the YouVersion Bible. This
accounted for fourteen or 2/3 of the total respondents. Two of the respondents used the ESV Bible
App. Three people used the Holy Bible App. One person used the Light Bible App, while one other
used the GloBible App. One person even used a Japanese Bible.
One thing to note is that a few of the responses overlap. This means that a few, specifically two
(2), of the given respondents may have more than one Bible app of choice.

How Often Do You Use Your Bible App?

Ten (10) of the respondents, exactly of them, answered that they used their respective Bible
apps once a day. Six (6) of them use it a few times in a week, while two (2) use it exactly once a week.
One person said they use it every other day and another said more than once a day.

On What Occasions Due You Use Your Bible App?

Most of the respondents, specifically twelve (12), used their Bible applications for personal
devotions. Four (4) of the respondents used it in their church service or perhaps during mass. The
aforementioned respondents account for those who use their Bible app exclusively for that use.
Furthermore, none of the respondents use their Bible app exclusively for small groups (DGroups,
Victory Groups, Growth Groups, etc.). This leaves out the four (4) remaining respondents who use
their Bible app for all three uses.

Do you use a physical or digital Bible more often?

More respondents used the digital Bible more often, being thirteen (13) of the respondents. The
remaining seven (7) used their physical Bible more often.

Do you think that using your Bible app helps you to stay more devoted to the Word of God?
Arguably the most important question of this research, most of the respondents answered yes,
making up fifteen (15) votes. The remaining five (5) answered no.
Among those who answered yes, they reasoned about the convenience of Bible applications.
One reason behind this is that it eases bringing a physical Bible. They also cited the different features,
including Scripture notifications and devotionals within the applications. One respondent also cited the
presence of “streaks” that encouraged them to read the Bible every day. Overall, these features
encouraged them to be more active in reading the Bible.
On the other hand, those who answered no had different responses. One mentioned the
distractions it can entail, a point mentioned before. Another one mentioned how it only complements
Bible reading through “quick search” or being able to find Bible verses quickly. Another person simply
mentioned how “the message does not feel real” as apposed to that of a physical Bible.
One person who answered “no” mentioned how the use of a physical Bible over a digital Bible
or vice versa does not necessarily matter. Instead, the respondent mentioned how what truly matters is
if they were meditating on the Bible, regardless of format.

Conclusion

The goal of this paper was to find how digital Bibles could potential help Christian believers
grow their faith in God. That being said, different viewpoints on the issue were still very interesting to
bring up. In the end, however, it is up to the believer’s prerogative and decisions on how they wish to
meditate on and devote time to the Bible.
The researcher was able to find different information on how digital technology was used as
an advantage to bring the reading of the Bible into the modern age. In turn, this allows for the building
of some Christian believers’ faith. As the survey would assert, digital Bibles are a popular choice and,
for the most part, have a positive impact on the spirituality of Christian believers.
What this research also brought to light was that digital Bibles simply augment the experience
of reading the Bible. It can be assumed that Christian believers, most especially those in Christian
households, do have a Bible around in their home. With that in mind, digital Bibles cannot entirely
replace physical Bibles, at least not now and not in this culture.
Overall, digital Bibles have the potential of being great help to the Christian community, as
well as to the non-Christian community by extension. To ignore it completely would be a disservice to
believers, especially those who wish to experience God’s Word in a fresh, new way. In today’s media
oversaturation culture, digital Bibles can serve as a light amongst other content users, most especially
Christian users, can see today.
 REFERENCES

Chan, M.J. (n.d.). The Bible and the Internet. Retrieved from
http://global.oup.com/obso/focus/focus_on_bible_and_the_internet/.

Garcia, E. (2010). Zondervan Launches eBook of New NIV Bible. Retrieved from
https://www.christianpost.com/news/zondervan-launches-ebook-of-new-niv-bible-48163/.

GloBible. (n.d.). About GloBible. Retrieved from https://globible.com/about/.

Gryboski, M. (2014). Are Digital Bibles as Holy as Paper Bibles? Retrieved from
https://www.christianpost.com/news/are-digital-bibles-as-holy-as-paper-bibles-123342/.

Jackson, G.P. (2014). 8 Reasons You Should Get Bail On Your Bible App and Get Back to Your
Hard Copy. Retrieved from
https://griffinpauljackson.com/2014/04/07/8-reasons-to-bail-on-bible-apps/.

Perky, S. (2014). Should Digital Bibles Be Acceptable in a Worship Service? Retrieved from
https://www.steveperky.com/should-digital-bibles-be-acceptable-in-a-worship-service/.

Pui-lan, K. (2008). Holy Bible 3.0: Scripture in the Digital Age. Between Babel and Beatitude.
Retrieved from https://reflections.yale.edu/article/between-babel-and-beatitude/holy-bible-
30-scripture-digital-age.

Rau, A. (2016). 5 Reasons You Should Embrace Digital Bible Study. Retrieved from
https://churchtechtoday.com/2016/01/22/5-digital-bible-study/.

YouVersion. (2017). 2017 Year in Review. Retrieved from

http://installs.youversion.com/2017-year-in-review/index.html.

YouVersion. (n.d.). The Bible App. Retrieved from https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/.

Tyndale House Publishers Announces Innovative Print + Digital Bible. (2018). Retrieved from
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