Ok, we’ve installed Olive Tree, and beefed it up with all the free Bible resources we could find. Now, what can we accomplish with just the free items?
First, let’s tip our hat to the many free Bible programs that are out there. YouVersion was a great product the last time I tried it. It even included downloading and free audio (as long as you were connected to data). Even Logos has some free options. But our purpose here is to unfold the study tools of Olive Tree.
Let’s set ourselves up for maximum study. I’m using an iPad Mini 2 for these tests. (The PC version is a slightly different beast, and we’ll need separate blog posts for some of the unique things that the Windows version brings with it.)
Start by getting rid of the strange default of double-columned text. Let’s turn that off (Settings > Advanced > Display > Multi-Column Text). The helpful Window Sync option comes turned on by default.
Now, if you don’t see Open Study Center at the bottom of the screen, touch the middle of the screen to make it visible, and then select Open Study Center.
Immediately we see a list of our installed Bibles, but what we’ve really opened is the Resource Guide. Pull the three-bar handle up to show a bigger list of what the Resource Guide contains.
Let’s dissect this a bit.
Olive Tree’s favorite study tool is the Resource Guide. I admit, I don’t find it all that helpful. The idea is that with a Bible open at the top of the screen (or the left, if you turn the device sideways), you will have a vast wealth of supplementary study information available on the right hand side. If you’re used to a paper study Bible, you basically have two columns of study info: (1) The cross references from each verse, and (2) the running commentary at the bottom of the page.
The Resource Guide in Olive Tree is supposed to be a souped up version of that. Your possible study materials are arranged in categories:
- installed Bibles’ cross references (all of them).in a section called Related Verses
- Commentaries on the verses displayed on the page.
- Sometimes the study notes of an installed study bible are designated as Commentaries. Others are not.
- Bibles (for parallel reading of the same passage)
- People (these are entries from Bible dictionaries that you’ve installed)
- Topics (same thing)
- Maps that pertain to something in the passage
- Outlines from any resource that may have one
- Introductions to the Bible book you’re looking at
- Sermons
- Videos
- Your own notes
- Tags
Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? If there are categories you never use, you can turn them off in the settings.
Here is a display of “Related Verses” from the ESV cross references
Possibly you’ll notice that any translation you happen to be using may have its own cross references inside the text, indicated by small clickable letters. These are based on the same exact lists as the Related Verses for each bible translation, but, if you use the ones that are inside your chosen version, then they are connected to individual verse sections, rather than just the whole verse. That can make a difference for your studies.
If you click the Commentary section on Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, you’ll see the individual commentary paragraphs that go with this passage. If you click on one of these sections, the split screen will go to that section of the whole commentary, for continuous reading.
Here, I’ve simply clicked on one of the parallel Bibles, in this case the SBL Greek New Testament. Notice how it’s super-small and hard to read.
Thankfully, you can change the font size individually for various kinds of text. Greek can be changed without messing with any other text:
That’s enough for tonight! Remember, everything we’ve done so far is still free.
