Before Johann Gutenberg built his printing press and started publishing books in 1450, Bibles were painstakingly copied by hand. Only a privileged few had access to Scripture, most of them priests.
One of Gutenberg’s goals for the printing press was to make the Bible available “by a machine which never wearies to every soul which enters life.”
More than 500 years later, a spiritual descendant of Gutenberg is doing his own part to distribute Scripture more cheaply and widely, this time via a Bible study software program distributed freely over the Internet.
Dissatisfied with commercial Bible study programs, California native Rick Meyers decided in 2000 to write his own. He started writing computer code in January 2000 and completed version 1.0 of E-Sword three months later. He immediately posted it on the Internet.
Users soon discovered the program, creating such a demand that Meyers had to find greater bandwidth for his server. Favorable reviews drove more traffic to the site. By June 2001 more than 100,000 users had downloaded the program from www.e-sword.net.
E-Sword allows users to choose which Bible translations and study resources they want. Since the program is free, most of the translations and study materials offered are in the public domain, and many popular translations are unavailable. Still, users can choose from more than 40 different Bible translations in 14 languages, including versions in Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian and most European languages.
The King James Version is available with reference numbers, which key the text to dictionary references showing the underlying Hebrew or Greek word. Potential add-ons include multiple commentaries and Bible dictionaries, an atlas, charts and artwork related to the Bible.
As demand continued to grow, Meyers found a series of supportive friends to donate server space and bandwidth, ultimately moving to Fiber Network Solutions, which provides access to a Tier One national Internet backbone.
In November 2001, the company for which Meyers worked went bankrupt and Meyers, who lives in Nashville, began working on E-Sword full time. He still offers the program at no cost, though users are invited to make donations to a nonprofit organization he founded to support the ministry.
Meyers continued to add features to the program through 2002 — now up to version 6.5 — with downloads growing. “Every day, users download more than 2,000 copies of the base program, and about 700,000 additional files are downloaded each month,” he said.
A built-in word processor allows users to import text, add their own notes, highlight key passages and print. A new feature includes a pop-up daily calendar with a place to record and follow up on prayer requests.
Meyers is glad to provide E-Sword as a free alternative to commercial Bible study programs, which can cost hundreds of dollars. But he is even more excited about the accessibility of E-Sword in countries that normally frown on Bible distribution.
Since the program requires only a PC and an Internet connection, people who once took their lives in hand to obtain smuggled Bibles can now take their mouse in hand and download Scripture in their own language at no cost and less risk.
For example, Meyers said the Chinese modules were downloaded more than 5,000 times in Nov. 2002, and Russian modules were downloaded more than 2,000 times.
Users from more than 100 countries on six continents have downloaded the program, Meyers said. Total downloads now exceed 800,000.
Papa Gutenberg would be proud.
(ABP)
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