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The Bible Gateway story contest is closed

The Bible Gateway story contest is officially closed! We’ll be contacting the winners soon. Thanks to everyone who participated!

We’ve been truly taken aback by the sheer variety of stories you sent in–some were deeply moving, others were just plain funny, and almost all of them showcased the interesting ways you’re using the Bible Gateway. Once we’ve chosen the winners, we’ll post some of the stories we received here on the blog, so you can see what your fellow Bible Gateway users are up to.

Thanks again to all who sent us their stories!

Keep those stories coming!

Last week, we asked you to send us your Bible Gateway stories, and you’ve done so in spades! We’ve been floored by all the responses we’re getting–it’s truly humbling to hear about the ways that you’re using the Bible Gateway in your devotion reading, your evangelism efforts, and your personal lives.

If you haven’t yet told us your Bible Gateway story, you’ve still got time! Stop on by the Bible Gateway story giveaway page and tell us how you’re using the Bible Gateway. A lucky few entries will be chosen in early June to receive an iPod Nano or an audio Bible.

update: the Bible Gateway contest is now over. You can read about the winners here. Thanks to everyone who sent in their story!

What’s your Bible Gateway story?

Has the Bible Gateway transformed your devotional life? Has it given you an opportunity to share the Gospel with somebody else? Do you have an interesting or inspiring story about how you used the Bible Gateway? Tell us and you might win an iPod Nano (perfect for listening to your favorite audio Bible)!

Winners will be randomly chosen on June 8–two first-place winners will receive an iPod Nano and an audio Bible, and five second-place winners will receive the audio Bible of their choice. We want to know what you’re doing with the Bible Gateway, so head over to the Bible Gateway story giveway page for details, and send us your story today!

update: the Bible Gateway contest is now over. You can read about the winners here. Thanks to everyone who sent in their story!

The Bible on your iPod

Want to read the Bible on your iPod? The folks at the ESV Bible Blog have come across two different ways to do that:

Both tools use the English Standard Version of the Bible, which you can also read here at the Bible Gateway. If you know of any other iPod Bible-reading utilities, we’d love to hear about them.

Blogging about Bibles

Bible translation is a big and complex subject–and so it’s no surprise that plenty of people are discussing the ins and outs of translation online. One of the better blogs devoted to discussing Bible translation and related issues is the Better Bibles Blog. Lots of good discussion there (and many good related blogs listed in the blogroll, if you want to explore further). If you want to get a feel for the discussion there, here are some places you might start:

It’s great to see such high-quality discussion of Bible translation! Well worth adding to your feed reader.

Why “Christ” instead of “messiah”? And other translation questions

How do Bible translators decide to use terms like “Christ” instead of “messiah,” or “the LORD” instead of “Yahweh”? The Bible is full of specialized and highly nuanced terms, and translators must think long and hard about how to best render them in modern languages.

The ESV Blog (a blog about the English Standard Version of the Bible, which is available here at the Bible Gateway) has an interesting post discussing the reasons that certain specialized Bible words are translated the way they are. If the ins and outs of Bible translation interest you, it sheds some work on the challenges that face modern scholars and translators.

Searching the Bible Gateway from your browser

We’ve talked in the past about different ways to add a Bible Gateway search utility to your web browser. Today, we’ll look at yet another way. This method has the advantage of not requiring you to download or install any new software–the feature is built right in to your browser!

If you’re using recent versions of either Firefox or Internet Explorer (IE 7; this may not work with earlier versions of IE) as your web browser, you’ll note that by default, there is a search box located in the upper right corner of the browser window. Here’s how to add the Bible Gateway to that search box, so that you can search for Bible verses right from the search window.

It’s really quite easy. Just go to the Bible Gateway site. Then, if you’re using IE, click on the little down-arrow to the right of the search box, then click on Add Search Providers –> Bible Gateway, like such:

Add BG to IE

A popup window will ask you if you want to make the Bible Gateway your default search or not. We’ll leave that choice up to you. Either way, you’re all set–the BG has now been added to your available search engines, and you can search for verses right from the search box.

If you’re using Firefox, the process is quite similar, although the arrangement of the search window is slightly different. It should look something like this:

Add BG to Firefox

Note that this is a new BG feature that we’re trying out, and it may have some rough edges. Use at your own risk, and if you have any feedback (positive or negative), feel free to let us know.

Picking the best Bible translation for you

“Which Bible version is the best?” That’s a question we hear from time to time from people wondering which of the dozens of Bibles at the Bible Gateway is the one they should read. Unfortunately, there isn’t a single, easy answer to that question–if one version of the Bible were clearly recognized as the best, there’d be no need for so many different versions!

The question of which Bible is the best for you is largely a personal one. Which Bible versions can you most easily read and understand? Which are translated by people and organizations that you trust the most? These might seem like intimidating questions, but with a bit of time and effort you’ll be able to discern which Bible or Bibles are the best for you. To help get you started, check out five keys to picking the best Bible for you over at the Withering Fig blog. While those suggestions are geared for finding a good print Bible, most all of the advice there can be applied equally well to the task of finding a good online Bible.

While you’re hunting around for the right Bible at the Bible Gateway, be sure to check our version information page–clicking on the name of each Bible version takes you to a page with information about the Bible’s publisher, its translation history, and the goals behind the translation. In most cases, publisher websites will have more information as well. Happy hunting!

(Hat tip: ESV Bible blog.)

Verse of the Day on your desktop

Last month, we pointed out a desktop search widget that lets Mac users search the Bible Gateway from their desktop. Here’s another nifty desktop tool for the Bible Gateway (this time for Windows)–a Google Gadget that displays the Verse of the Day on your desktop!

To use it, you’ll first need to install Google Desktop, following the instructions on the Google Desktop site. Once you’ve got Google Desktop set up, you can add Gadgets to it, including the Verse of the Day Gadget. Once the Gadget is installed, it will display the daily verse that appears on the Bible Gateway homepage.

Have fun! (And as with other third-party tools, note that the Verse of the Day Gadget wasn’t made and isn’t officially supported by the Bible Gateway, so use it at your own risk.) Thanks to Adam Faulker for creating this tool!

Add a Bible toolbar to your browser

There are a lot of smart people out there making it easier for you to search the Bible Gateway right from your web browser. One particularly nice tool–available for those of you who use the Firefox web browser–is the Bible Toolbar, an easy-to-install Firefox addon that puts a handy Bible search bar right at the top of your browser window:

Bible Toolbar

As you can see in the screenshot above, the toolbar includes an impressive number of options, letting you change versions and languages, restrict your search to certain parts of the Bible, and more. You can install it in just one or two mouse-clicks at the Bible Toolbar site.

Kudos to Jamison Stepan and Karl Herrick, who put this together!

Obligatory disclaimer: the Bible Gateway didn’t create and doesn’t support this tool, so use at your own risk. If you know of a good third-party tool for the BG, let us know about it!