Free Bible Study

Free Bible Study is a website rather than an app you download, and it opens straight into the Douay-Rheims. The first thing I saw was Genesis 1 in Bishop Challoner's revision, with a small "Catholic D-R" label at the top and the whole 73-book canon laid out as tabs. Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach and Baruch sit in the Old Testament where they belong, not tucked away at the back.

Reading is simple. Tap a book, pick a chapter, and use the arrows at the bottom to move along. A play button reads the chapter aloud in a natural voice, and you can choose a man or a woman. There are four text sizes and four colour schemes, from a warm parchment page to a dark night mode. Search worked well for me: I typed "charity" and 1 Corinthians 13 came up first. You can also tap a verse, highlight it in a colour, and it stays marked. There's no account, so as far as I can tell those highlights live in the browser on your own device.

The site also holds other traditions' Bibles for comparison. The tradition menu switches between the King James Version, an Orthodox Bible (Brenton's Septuagint with the World English Bible New Testament), the 1611 Authorized Version with its Apocrypha, and the World English Bible arranged the Lutheran way. Two- and three-column views set translations next to each other, and the About page lists the Hebrew Westminster Leningrad Codex, the SBL Greek New Testament and the Clementine Vulgate as well. I found it genuinely useful to read John 1 in the Douay-Rheims and the King James together and notice where the wording parts ways.

I think this suits Catholics who love the traditional English of the Douay-Rheims, anyone reading slowly through a book of Scripture, and people in an ecumenical or mixed-family Bible study who want to see what the person across the table is reading. There are no ads, no sign-up and no paywall, and you can add the site to your phone's home screen so it opens like an app.

It has limits. This is a reading desk, not a study Bible: I didn't come across Challoner's notes, commentary, reading plans or the daily Mass readings, and the Douay-Rheims is the only Catholic English translation, so there's no RSV-CE or NABRE. On a phone the side-by-side view is cramped, and you swipe between panels rather than seeing them together; it works much better on a tablet or computer. The site also says little about who runs it, and a simple Questions form is the only way to get in touch.

Free Bible Study is free. Find it at freebiblestudy.space.