Alkitab Bible Study

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on November 28, 2011

Alkitab Bible Study is a free, open source Bible reference and study aid. It offers multiple viewing options, daily devotionals, a powerful search tool, and extras like plug-ins, as well as the ability to download and install a wide variety of texts, commentaries, dictionaries, concordances, lexicons, and other reference works, many of them time-tested classics. Since it's an open-source project, it grows over time through updates and participation. It's also public domain. Alkitab Bible Study requires Java 6 or better.

Alkitab's installer includes several optional reference books you can select with checkboxes: King James Bible, Strong's Greek and Hebrew Dictionaries, Robinson's Morphology, and Institutes. The largest of these is less than 4 MB and the smallest is just over 100 KB, so opting for the extra reference books won't take up much disk space. The books download from an external site, though it's listed so you can check it out. Alkitab includes a Bookshelf, Book Viewer, Book Navigator, and other tools for adding to and managing your library. The left-hand tree view, tabs, and draggable, three-panel interface give Alkitab a familiar feel, while the subtle colors and clear type make it easy to navigate and manage. In fact, it's probably the least confusing tool of its kind we've yet seen. The search tool is handy, as is the ability to rapidly switch between tabbed references or just as quickly access any feature from the tree view's Bookshelf and Navigator tabs. A fine, fully indexed Help file answers all questions, at least those related to Alkitab's workings. Spiritual, textual, historical, and metaphysical questions may or may not be answered by its content!

In Arabic, "Al-Kitab" more or less means "of the Book," i.e., the Bible. Alkitab Bible Study is an excellent tool for daily devotionals and serious biblical scholarship alike. It's one of the best tools of its kind we've seen, and completely free, as the Word should be.