Gospel Getter

An offline Bible reader for Linux and Windows. Read the KJV, BSB or WEB a chapter at a time with the chapters before and after shown alongside, search the whole Bible, compare any two translations verse by verse, and copy, bookmark or write notes on passages. No account and no network needed.

Features

• Three complete translations, fully offline. The King James Version (KJV), the Berean Standard Bible (BSB) and the World English Bible (WEB) are built into the app, so reading needs no downloads, API keys or network access. The translation button in the bar shows the one you're reading (KJV); it, or T, lists them a line each, with each one's date and licence. The KJV is the default, and the arrow keys move through the list. About Gospel Getter credits where each text comes from (see Translations).

• Read in context. The chapter you're reading sits in the middle with the previous and next chapters faded on either side, scrolling with it. ← and → turn chapters across the whole Bible, and each chapter ends with buttons for the previous and next chapter.

• Go to any chapter. The reference button at the left of the bar (John 3 · KJV) always says where you are. It, or G, opens the book and chapter picker: Random chapter, then the Old and New Testament books, each opening onto its chapters. On wide windows the picker is a sidebar you can hide, and on narrow ones a popover. A chapter you choose there opens at its top.

• Search, go to a reference, or run a command. One box (/ or Ctrl+K) jumps to references such as John 3:16, jn 3:16-18, 1 Cor 13 or Psalm 23, and searches the text for anything else. Results show every verse in the current translation containing all your words, in Bible order, with the words highlighted. Type a book's name, like Psalms or 1 John, to go straight to its first chapter, with the verses that mention it listed below. The same box runs commands: as you type, it lists Go to, Commands and Verses, in that order, and each command shows its key, if it has one. Start with > to list commands only.

• Select verses. Click a verse, or Shift-click another to select a range, and a card opens under them (or above, near the bottom of the window) with Copy, Copy as…, ★ Bookmark, + Add note and the highlight colors, then the verses' footnotes, your notes on them and their cross-references. It floats over the text, so the text doesn't move. Hold Shift and the card fades and lets clicks through, so you can Shift-click a verse it covers.

• Copy verses with their reference. Select them, then Copy or Ctrl+C. You get the verse text (in the KJV, without its margin notes), followed by e.g. — John 3:16–18 (WEB). Copy as… in the card (or Ctrl+Shift+C) offers four formats: text with its reference, with verse numbers, a Markdown quote, or plain text. Copy chapter…, at the end of each chapter, copies the whole chapter in any of them. The status line says what was copied.

• Bookmarks. Save a verse or range with ★ Bookmark. Bookmarked verses get a ★, and the Bookmarks list in the Library (the bookmark button at the top, or Ctrl+B) reopens any of them in whichever translation you're reading.

• Highlights. Select a verse or range and pick yellow, green, blue or pink to highlight it, like a highlighter pen; Remove highlight clears it. Each theme has its own shades, highlights show in both columns of compare mode, and they aren't printed.

• My highlights list. The Highlights list in the Library shows every highlighted passage in Bible order, with its color, reference and a preview in the current translation. Neighboring verses highlighted in the same color are one entry (John 3:16–18). Filter by color, click a passage to open it, or remove its highlight with ×.

• Notes. Select a verse or range and choose + Add note (or press N) to write about it, in a panel that shows the verses. A passage can have several notes, and they show in every translation. A small ✎ marks verses with notes, selecting verses shows every note on them, and the Notes tab in the Library lists them all in Bible order, with a box to search them. Notes take a little Markdown (bold, italics, lists and links), and a reference you type, like "Rom 5:8", becomes a link that goes there. If the app quits, or you close a note with Keep for later, what you typed is kept as a draft to restore, on this computer only: backups don't include drafts. Deleting a note offers Undo, and Copy as Markdown copies one with its verses quoted. Export notes… (in the Library's Notes tab) saves them as a Markdown file, or with One file per book (a folder) a file for each book, as notes apps such as Obsidian keep them, with each note's verses quoted in the translation you're reading. Pick which books to include, a chapter range when you pick one book, and when the notes were written (All time, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, This year or Custom dates); a live count shows how many notes match. In the KJV, translator-supplied words appear in italics, as in printed KJVs, and the margin notes are left out.

• Compare any two translations. Press C (or Compare under the translation button) to see the translation you're reading beside another, one row per verse number. Compare (C) with, under the same button, chooses the other one, and it's remembered; until you choose, it's the KJV (or, beside the KJV, the WEB). Where only one translation numbers a verse, the other column says so instead of shifting anything.

• Cross-references. Select a verse to see related passages in its card. Click one to read it right there in the card, a whole range at once, in the translation you're reading; click it again to close it, and Go to opens it. Only one shows at a time. The Cross references list at the end of each chapter links straight to each passage, selected.

• Footnotes (KJV and BSB). In the KJV, translator-supplied words are in italics, as in printed KJVs, and the margin notes are moved out of the text into lettered footnotes. The BSB's translators' footnotes are lettered where the BSB places them, with alternative readings in italics. Select a verse (or click its letter) to see its footnotes in its card, and each chapter ends with a Footnotes list of all of them. That list and the chapter's Cross references are collapsed until you open them, and stay open once you have. Copy and search use the verse text without the notes.

• Comfortable reading. Scripture is set in Literata, bundled with the app. Nine themes: Chi Rho (the default), Vellum, System (which follows your computer's light or dark setting, as Vellum or Chi Rho), Vaporwave, Classic Dark, Classic Light, Matrix, Beast Slayer and Hot Pink. Four text sizes (also Ctrl+= and Ctrl+-, and Ctrl+0 for Medium), three line spacings, three widths for the text (Narrow, Normal and Wide), a layout, and a distraction-free reading mode, all under Aa. Printing is always black on white.

• Notes in the margin. In reading mode, your notes on the chapter sit in the margin to the right of the text, each beside the verse it's on, with a thin line beside a note on several verses. Click one to select its verses and open it in the card. Notes in the margin, under Aa with reading mode, turns them off.

• Verses or Flowing. Layout under Aa sets the verses one to a line (Verses, the default) or runs each chapter on as prose with small raised verse numbers (Flowing), in the chapter you're reading, the faded chapters beside it, reading mode and print. Selecting, notes, highlights, bookmarks and footnotes work the same in both. Compare always shows a verse to a row.

• Everything in reach, out of the way. A slim bar at the top holds the reference button (and, on wide windows, the button that hides or shows the sidebar), the translation button (the translations and Compare), Aa (text and display), the Library (bookmarks, highlights and notes), search and the ☰ menu (export, import, the welcome, the keyboard shortcuts and About Gospel Getter). Only one panel or popover opens at a time, and Esc closes it.

• Back and forward through passages. Alt+← and Alt+→ go back and forward through the passages you jumped to (from the picker, search, cross-references or the Library), each where you left it. Turning chapters isn't a jump, and the list lasts until the app closes.

• Keys for verses and books. j and k select the next or previous verse, Shift+j and Shift+k extend the selection, and [ and ] go to the previous or next book. ? lists every shortcut (see Keyboard).

• Picks up where you left off. Gospel Getter reopens at the verse you were reading. Your chapter, translation, bookmarks, highlights, notes and display settings are remembered between sessions.

• Back up or move your data. In the ☰ menu, Export data… saves your bookmarks, highlights, notes, reading position and display settings (Width, Layout and compare's translation included) to a JSON file, and Import data… shows what a file contains before adding it (or, if you choose, replacing your bookmarks, highlights and notes). Only that personal data is exported, not Bible text or the app's database. Files exported by 2.8.0 or newer (data format 3, which adds notes) can't be imported by 2.7.0 or older, which say the file is from a newer version; files from older versions still import into 2.8.0 and newer. Restore a backup made in 2.12 in 2.12 or later: 2.11 and older refuse a whole file whose theme they don't know. From 2.12 on, a display setting the app doesn't know is skipped, with a notice naming it, and the rest of the file imports: 2.12 skips a 2.13 backup's Width that way, 2.12 and 2.13 skip a 2.14 backup's Layout, and 2.12 to 2.14 skip a 2.15 backup's compare translation. Export data… is the backup, and its file imports again; Export notes… makes a readable copy of your notes, which isn't imported.

• A short welcome. On a new install, one card opens over the chapter. Pick a look tries Chi Rho or Vellum on the spot (the other themes are under Aa), and Where to start suggests Mark, John, Psalms or Genesis 1, each a click away. Skip, × or Esc closes it where you are, and Show welcome in the ☰ menu opens it again. Upgrading doesn't show it.

• Updates from inside the app, always asked first. When it starts, Gospel Getter checks GitHub Releases for a newer version and, if there is one, shows a banner with the release notes, Update and restart and Later. Check now in About Gospel Getter shows an update it finds right there, with its release notes, Update now and Close. Nothing is downloaded or installed until you choose to update. See Updates for which installs update themselves and how to turn the check off.

• A native desktop app. Built with Tauri: no browser, no background server, nothing listening on a port. The window's title says where you are (John 3 · KJV — Gospel Getter), and the window opens at the size and place you left it, on a screen that's still there. It can be as small as 640×480.

A quick tour

All twelve screenshots in this README, including the one at the top, use Chi Rho, the default theme, in a window wide enough for the picker's sidebar. The other eight themes are under Aa.

Search the text, or jump straight to a reference. Matching words are highlighted, and clicking a result opens and selects that verse. Type a book's name, like Psalms or 1 John, to go straight to its first chapter, with the verses that mention it listed below.

Compare two translations verse by verse. Reading the KJV, compared with the WEB: in Romans 14 the WEB numbers three verses the KJV doesn't, and the KJV column says so rather than shifting anything.

Select a range and copy it with its reference. The citation in the card shows exactly what will be copied.

Bookmark passages and come back to them. Bookmarked verses are starred in the text, and the Library (Ctrl+B) lists each one with a preview.

Keyboard

?, or Keyboard shortcuts in the ☰ menu, lists every key in the app. The main ones:

Key	Does
← / →	Previous / next chapter, across books
[ / ]	Previous / next book, at its first chapter
Alt+← / Alt+→	Back / forward through the passages you jumped to
G	Open the book and chapter picker. The arrow keys, Home and End move through it; Enter opens a book or chapter
/ or Ctrl+K	Open the search box, which also runs commands; > typed first lists commands only. ↓ / ↑ move through what it lists, and Enter goes there or runs it
j / k	Select the next / previous verse
Shift+j / Shift+k	Extend the selection down / up a verse
Ctrl+C	Copy the selected verses with their reference. If you've highlighted text yourself, that's copied instead, as usual
Ctrl+Shift+C	Copy as…: the selected verses with verse numbers, as a Markdown quote, or as plain text
T	Open or close the translations and Compare (the translation button)
C	Compare translations on/off
Ctrl+= / Ctrl+-	Larger / smaller text, through the four sizes
Ctrl+0	Text size back to Medium
Ctrl+B	Open or close the Library (bookmarks, highlights and notes)
N	Write a note on the selected verses
Shift-click	Extend the selection to a range within the chapter. Holding Shift lets the click through the selection card to a verse it covers
Esc	Close search or the open panel or popover, then clear the selection, then leave reading mode
?	All the keyboard shortcuts

Installing

Download an installer from the latest release (older versions are on the Releases page). Each release lists a SHA256SUMS file to check them with. From v2.4.0 on, the files have the same names in every release, so these links always get the newest one:

• Linux: the AppImage (most distros, nothing to install) or the .deb (Debian/Ubuntu).
• Windows: the NSIS setup.exe (recommended) or the MSI. The Windows installers aren't code-signed, so SmartScreen will probably warn about an "unknown publisher". Choose "More info → Run anyway".

Build and install it yourself (Linux). packaging/install.sh builds a release AppImage and adds a launcher and icon to your desktop. packaging/uninstall.sh removes them. Rerun install.sh to update after changing the code. You'll need Rust and the Tauri CLI (cargo install tauri-cli --version "^2.0.0" --locked).

Run from source. cd src-tauri && cargo tauri dev. The page's Rust pieces (ui-leptos/, compiled to WebAssembly) are built first by Trunk: you'll need it (cargo install trunk --locked) and the target (rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown). See ui-leptos/README.md.

Arch Linux. packaging/PKGBUILD is a draft. It hasn't been tested with makepkg and is not published to the AUR; the file lists what's left to do.

Every push to main also builds untagged installers as workflow artifacts. These expire after a while, so use a release unless you want a specific main build.

Updates

Which installs update themselves. The Windows setup.exe and MSI, the AppImage and the .deb from the releases page install an update themselves when you choose Update and restart. The download is checked against the release's signature before anything is installed. Copies built with packaging/install.sh, the AUR recipe or from source can't update themselves: they show the same notice with a Download page button instead, which opens the releases page in your browser.

The check, and how to turn it off. The check runs once each time the app starts. To stop it, turn off Check for updates when Gospel Getter starts in About Gospel Getter, from the ☰ menu; Check now there still checks when you ask. About also shows which version you have. It's a setting for this computer and isn't exported. If the check fails, for example because you're offline, the app says nothing and works as usual; Check now gives up after 20 seconds and says GitHub couldn't be reached. Later hides the notice until the next start. When Check now finds an update, About shows it in place, with its release notes, Update now (with the download's progress) and Close, and the banner doesn't open as well.

It always asks first. An update is never downloaded or installed without you choosing Update and restart or Update now.

Privacy. Checking downloads a small file from GitHub that names the latest version, so GitHub sees your IP address, as with any download. Nothing about your reading or your data is sent.

Coming from 2.6.0 through 2.20.0? Each updates itself to 2.21.0: it offers the update when it starts (or from Check now, in About Gospel Getter from the ☰ menu in 2.7.0 and later, or in the Updates section of Settings in 2.6.0), if it's one of the installs above that update themselves. The 2.19.0 pre-release updates itself to 2.21.0 the same way.

Coming from 2.5.0 or older? Those versions can't update themselves. Install 2.21.0 by hand once, from the latest release, over your current version; updates after that can come from inside the app. Upgrading keeps your data.

What changed in each version is in CHANGELOG.md.

Your data

• Everything (translations, cross-references, reading position, bookmarks, highlights, notes and the search index) lives in one SQLite database in the per-app data folder. On Linux that's ~/.local/share/com.tossbaws.gospel-getter/gospel_getter.db; on Windows it's under %APPDATA%\com.tossbaws.gospel-getter\. SQLite may keep -wal and -shm files beside it; they belong with the database.
• Upgrades keep your data. A new version adds any new tables and builds the search index once, in the background, without changing scripture text, your reading position, bookmarks, highlights or notes. 2.10.0 rebuilds the index once, by itself, so KJV search leaves out the margin notes. 2.16.2 switches the database to write-ahead logging when it first opens it. Moving back to an older version after upgrading hasn't been tested.
• Theme, text size, line spacing, width, layout, compare (and which translation it compares with) and reading mode are display settings stored in the app's web storage, not the database, as are whether the sidebar is shown and whether the chapter's Footnotes and Cross references are open (which aren't exported).
• The verse you were reading, which the app reopens at, is kept with your reading position in the database, on this computer only: backups don't include it, and restoring one opens its chapter at the top.
• Note drafts (what you typed in a note and haven't saved) are kept in the app's web storage, on this computer only, for 30 days (the 20 newest). Backups and Export notes… don't include them.
• The window's size and place are kept in window-state.json, beside the database, and aren't exported either.
• Coming from the old browser-based Gospel Getter (the local server on localhost:3002)? The first launch copies its database from ~/.local/share/gospel-getter/data/gospel_getter.db and leaves the original untouched.

Translations

Three translations are bundled, all public domain, which is what allows them to ship offline:

Translation	Date	Licence
King James Version (KJV), the default	1611/1769	public domain
Berean Standard Bible (BSB)	2023	public domain (CC0)
World English Bible (WEB)		public domain

The translation button in the bar (or T) chooses one; existing readers keep the one they had. The KJV's margin notes and the BSB's translators' footnotes are shown as lettered footnotes. About Gospel Getter credits each text's source, and the cross-references' (see Data provenance). Copyrighted translations such as the NIV and ESV aren't bundled; including one would need a licence that permits an offline copy.

Adding a translation with a licence that allows an offline copy:

1. Add a JSON file to src-tauri/data/ shaped like kjv.json: 66 books in canonical order, each {"name", "testament", "chapters": [[verse, ...], ...]}. A verse the translation doesn't number is null. Footnotes kept apart from the text go in each book's footnotes, as in bsb.json.
2. Add an entry to TRANSLATIONS in src-tauri/src/db/seed.rs.

Existing installs seed only translations they don't already have. To correct the text of one that's already seeded, clear its rows (its footnotes, verses and its row in translations), or the whole database, so it seeds again.

How it's put together

• Two parts: src-tauri/ is the Rust backend (Tauri 2, sqlx/SQLite), and the frontend is built in Rust too: ui-leptos/ (Leptos, compiled to WebAssembly), which Trunk builds with ui/index.html, the page's markup and styles, into dist/. The frontend calls typed Tauri commands, not HTTP.
• Data model: book structure is shared between translations, but each translation keeps its own verse text and numbering. They number a few verses differently, which is expected; the BSB leaves 16 verses unnumbered in mid-chapter.
• Logic: domain/bible.rs works out the previous and next chapter, and domain/query.rs decides whether search input is a reference or words.
• Search: uses an SQLite FTS5 index derived from verses. It's never written back. It indexes each verse's text as the reader shows it (without the KJV's margin notes or the BSB's footnotes), and results show that text.
• Database: every connection uses SQLite's write-ahead logging, so reads and a write don't wait for each other, and the first launch's search index build, in the background, doesn't hold up the page. Every write goes through one connection, so the app's own writes take turns, first come, first served, instead of racing for the write lock; reading uses its own connections, which can't write. A transaction that writes takes the write lock as it begins (BEGIN IMMEDIATE), waiting up to 5 seconds for it if something outside the app holds it. If the index build fails anyway, it's tried again after 1, 2 and 4 seconds before search says it's unavailable.
• Copying: one formatter in the backend makes the text for Copy, Copy as…, Copy chapter and the notes export's quotes. The page fetches it ahead and writes it with the webview's own clipboard API, with no plugin or extra permission.
• Links: the page never opens a web page itself. Release notes, the cross-references' credits and the Support link open in your browser through the backend, which opens only addresses on its own fixed list. A link you put in one of your own notes opens in your browser only when you click it, and only if it's a web address (http or https).
• Content Security Policy: the webview loads only the app's own scripts, styles, fonts and images, and nothing in the page can reach the network; only the app's backend can.

Tests

# From the repository root; each line runs on its own.
trunk build --release                          # the page, into dist/ (the backend embeds it)
(cd ui-leptos && cargo test)                   # the page's Rust pieces: their pure logic
(cd src-tauri && cargo test)                   # backend: database, upgrades, search, references
(cd tests/frontend && npm ci && npm test)      # frontend behavior (builds the page itself)

The frontend tests load the real ui/index.html into jsdom and answer its calls with the app's real command code and a throwaway database, through a test-only bridge (src-tauri/examples/frontend_bridge.rs). CI runs both, plus cargo fmt and Clippy.

Data provenance and textual integrity

No verse text is altered, cleaned up or "corrected"; every translation is stored exactly as its source provides it.

• KJV comes from the dataset thiagobodruk/bible, which is MIT-licensed; the KJV text itself is public domain. That source marks translator-supplied words and marginal notes inline as {...}, in about 56% of verses. These are kept verbatim, including a few places where the source's own markup is broken (Hebrews 10:34 has an unmatched }). The only changes are structural: removing the file's byte-order mark and reshaping the JSON. The stored text keeps the markup; the app only changes how it's shown. The reader, Copy, search and Export notes… present it as print does: supplied words in italics (plain in Copy and search, italic in Copy as…'s Markdown quote), and margin notes as lettered footnotes in the reader, left out of Copy, search and the export. The four verses with broken markup are shown as stored, braces and all. Copy as…'s formats change no words: they differ only in the verse numbers, the reference and the punctuation around them, and leave out the KJV's margin notes and the BSB's footnotes.

• WEB comes from TehShrike/world-english-bible, which has no licence file of its own; the WEB text it carries is public domain, via ebible.org. Verses the source splits into several entries, as in the Psalms' poetry, are joined back together in the source's own order, with nothing added, removed or reworded.

• BSB comes from Berean's own downloads (berean.bible). It's public domain (CC0) since April 30, 2023, and Berean asks that only its verbatim text carry its name. Two of their files are kept in sources/bsb/, exactly as downloaded:

  • bsb.txt, sha256 2ac3af1d…ca96, gives the verse text byte for byte. Reading it only drops its byte-order mark and splits it at its CRLF line endings.
  • bsb_usfm.zip, sha256 f0c56438…5f87, gives the 4,854 footnotes, each kept as its own USFM characters. Each is placed where the USFM puts it, found by lining up the USFM's wording with the text's.

  The USFM's wording differs from the text's in 1,375 verses (spaced dashes, stray marks, spacing slips). The text's wording is used, and the differences are listed in sources/bsb/artifacts.tsv, never shown. The 16 verses the BSB doesn't number (Matthew 17:21, 18:11, 23:14; Mark 7:16, 9:44, 9:46, 11:26, 15:28; Luke 17:36, 23:17; John 5:4; Acts 8:37, 15:34, 24:7, 28:29; Romans 16:24) are left out where they fall, and the footnote on the verse before each gives its wording. The Psalm titles are in verse 1, as Berean has them, and section headings aren't shown. A test derives the bundled BSB from these two files again and fails on any difference.

Cross-references are from OpenBible.info under CC BY 4.0.

Support

Gospel Getter is free and always will be. If it helps you, you can leave a tip on Ko-fi or on the website. It's entirely optional and changes nothing in the app.

License

MIT.