Xiphos (formerly known as GnomeSword) is a Bible study tool written for Linux, UNIX, and Windows under the GNOME toolkit, offering a rich and featureful environment for reading, study, and research using modules from The SWORD Project and elsewhere. It is open-source software, and available free-of-charge to all
I have used Logos Bible software, e-Sword, as well as other Bible study software in the past. Logos especially is a very good program. The only problem is that on an assistant pastor’s budget, it costs a large sum of money. I have to constantly be aware that I need to be a good steward.
Xiphos, on the other hand is open-source software. Simply, that means I am allowed to go into the program code myself and modify it to behave how i wish it too and use it in the manner I wish. I am legally allowed to share the software, and even encouraged to do so! And for the my bottom line – it is free. Free as in freedom and price.
This is my go-to resource for Bible research and study. I can also easily copy verses to put on handouts and tests in classes. Let’s see how it works.
Getting Started
In the module manager (Edit > Module manager) you can add your source from the list. Since I am not living in a persecuted country, I added all of the internet (remote) sites. Then, refreshed my list and chose my Bible texts, Commentaries, Dictionaries, etc. for installation. There are many resources available, including a fair number of maps from the Xiphos repository.
Workflow
The layouot is extremely customizable and each area can be easily resized by clicking and dragging. In the standard view of the Scripture passage you are looking at, you can scroll through the chapter you are in plus one verse before and one verse after. Sometimes this isn’t enough to get the context, but chapters are easy to change with the dropdown list above. You can also open different passages in new tabs. This makes working with multiple passages very easy and effecient. Speaking of effeciency, the search is one of the fastest I have used in a Bible study program.
There are a couple of options for keeping one’s own notes within the program itself. There is a personal commentary as well as a “studypad” which is essentially a trimmed down text editor. It took me some searching to figure out how to use the Personal commentary. You have to right-click on the Personal commentary in the Module Panel (the one with the tree-view). Then, the studypad opens and you can make your notes. After saving, your notes show up in the Commentary view.
It isn’t quite perfect . . .yet
Overall, this is a great program, but it is not without its shortcomings. A great feature to be implemented would be opening Libronix files (Logos’ proprietary format). Many preachers, myself included, have purchased Libronix files. It would be wonderful to incorporate them into Xiphos and expand its capabilities. I am sure this program imporves as the developers are busy resolving features between the Linux and Windows versions and improving other features.
Have you used Xiphos? What do you think of it? Leave your thoughts below.
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I have tried xiphos as well…but use e-sword primarily, because of the following:
xiphos search function is slower, and not as customizable
in xiphos it is difficult to acquire commercial versions of Bibles, etc
e-sword has built-in, fully functioning word processor (MSWord/OpenOfficeWriter near-equivalent)
However, these are reasons to choose xiphos over e-sword:
Open source
using other packages (such as, festival ) one can have the bible text “spoken”
revdjenk, thanks for the comment. I do notice the lack of a full-functioning word processor. Then again, I do most word processing initially in a plain text editor and format later. The lack of commercial versions of Bibles does not bother me as I use the KJV and Geneva Bibles in xiphos. The cross-platform in xiphos is important to me as I primarily use linux. I don’t seem to suffer slow searches in xiphos – at least not noticeably.
Good day. I’m project admin for Xiphos. Some responses to the comments above.
Searches in Xiphos are extraordinarily fast if one builds an optimized (“lucene”) search index — see Module Manager, Maintenance page, notice the tooltips on icons at the top, and the Index button at the bottom. Sidebar search uses optimized search by default, and falls back to straight linear (“multiword”) search if there is no index. Advanced search is selectable for either lucene or multiword mode, also with fallback (and notification).
The integrated WYSIWYG editor used for personal commentary, studypad, and prayerlist/journal editing is rather thorough, as word processor-oriented sorts of facilities go. If one has done personal commentary editing, I wonder how one might have not noticed it, and used some of its capability? Font choices, text alignment, indentations, bullet lists…also linking to other module references.
Access to publisher-restricted Bibles is a problem. We who work under The Sword Project umbrella struggle with publishers who are unwilling even to negotiate with us for access to their texts. Last summer, I contacted the folks who control RSV/NRSV, whose response to my inquiry was bluntly, “we do not authorize access for open source projects.” There is some sad idea that somehow “open source” equals “insecure,” yet huge amounts of most users’ computer-based lives are driven by open source software (web transactions using Secure Sockets Layer, for example). Modules produced for Sword Project applications like Xiphos can support encryption, so that users must purchase unlock keys to get access to text, just as for many other Bible study programs. We have a few modules like that already (NET “premium” [full notes] module, a German bible called Hfa, and soon a NASB set [Bible + Heb/Grk lexicons]).
By comparison, I have to observe that e-Sword’s UI is still stuck in 2000. For example, it doesn’t even support Bibles with paragraph markup — strictly one verse per line. Its search cannot encompass multiple modules. It has no tabbed interface, for instant access to more than one complete study context. Recent versions (just v8 and later) tout internationalization, with a dozen translations, but Xiphos has been i18n’d since its inception a full decade ago, and today has more than twice as many, 7 or 8 of which have arrived in just the last year. e-Sword does not support bookmarking as well as Xiphos, I’m not sure if its searches can yet be saved as bookmarks (single or sets, as Xiphos can), and it does not provide user annotations on verses, which Xiphos does in a yellow-highlighter-with-margin-note metaphor. e-Sword needs a special “graphics viewer,” yet Xiphos provides image support integrally as part of any module, even Bibles, and provides external image viewing besides, for those images too big or detailed to be seen well within the program panes. e-Sword’s module management scheme of “download a pile of *.exe, run each separately, click OK buttons a half dozen times each” is…well, deranged — compare with the integrated module management of Xiphos, by which we help the user to look through multiple module repositories, select a whole set to install, and then get them all with a single Install button click. Dozens of other usability features could be listed, but this paragraph is too long already.
Surely e-Sword is a good program for some, and has wide use in the Windows community, but Xiphos can win any challenge against it on usability and feature set, while also stepping over the cross-platform border. (Note that MacOS support is in progress as well.)
Regrets, there is no hope of Logos module support. Those modules are locked and accessible within Libronix exclusively. Similar thoughts apply to e-Sword modules…which is odd, considering that Meyers trumpets “just keep it free” about use of e-Sword, yet when asked directly in early 2009 about us providing e-Sword module access in Sword Project apps, his response was to go silent while ripping out v8′s use of MDB module files and replacing it with SQLite…so fast and so buggily that he had to put out 3 point release fixes in v9′s first month. Note that the inquiry wasn’t about subverting these modules — the basis of the inquiry was the user having already legitimately acquired e-Sword modules, and then merely using them in other applications.
We welcome feedback, feature requests, and bug reports on Xiphos, and we have one of the fastest development paces to be found anywhere in the Bible software universe: We Get Stuff Done, and 3.1.3 was released 2 weeks ago. Please feel free to contact us any time.
Karl Kleinpaste
I like Xiphos, but I miss Greek accents in the Greek Modules and because of that I`ve used BibleWorks8 through Wine when it comes to paste Greek Text inside Xiphos Personal Commentary. I`d like to see Xiphos Greek module with accents. Also I would like to see Greek and Hebrew words meaning by just hovering the mouse point over them, instead of using KJV with Strong for WLC and Strong numbers for TR, for example.
Some modules support accents and some do not. It depends on the module content and its encoding. Please see e.g. the TischMorph module in the Xiphos repository as a good example. The context (right-click) menu enables accents for those modules which have support for it.
Xiphos’ method for Strong’s display is also enabled on the context menu. The very recent module OSMHB (open scriptures morphological hebrew bible) has Strong’s numbers. And some of the Greek NTs also have them as well, including TischMorph and others.
There has been an open feature request for a long time to have Strong’s display on mouse hover, but it has not yet been acted on because it represents a need for serious internal restructuring in order to support such a thing.
I have tried to use Personal to make my notes. I write the notes, save it, but it does not show up when I access the verse again! How to I save it and link with the verse I am commenting?
Please help me here
I have not experienced the issue you are referring to. What version are you using?
I have already fixed that. I was about user write permissions. Many thx
I mean, “It was about (…)
I am currently using Xiphos and BibleTime under Ubuntu Linux 9.10. While they are both kind of OK, they lack an interlinear Bible which would make a world of difference in both of them. They are both somewhat awkward to use. I have been using PC Study Bible 2.0 for Windows since the mid 1990s and there is absolutely nothing on the market that can compare to its completeness and ease of use. Hopefully, some day both Xiphos and BibleTime will be more complete and easier to use.
The Sword Project doesn’t have an interlinear because no one has yet seen fit to produce one with/for us. But given Xiphos’ ability to display blocked Strong’s and morphology, the day someone provides a properly encoded interlinear, Xiphos will support it directly: Lemmatization is supported equivalently with blocked Strong’s, and will display identically. See the TischMorph module (Xiphos repository, not CrossWire) as an example of a module which provides base lemmatization with variants, enabling lemmas but not Strong’s in the context (right-click) menu. The same facility will provide interlinear display for an English/Greek encoding.
At the moment, you may find the ABP (Apostolic Bible Polyglot) as a worthwhile module for its Strong’s encoding and in-the-text notation of original Greek word order. There is a companion bible ABPGRK (Greek).
If you feel there are awkward points about Xiphos, you are more than welcome to post feature requests for improvements.
I’ve been using Xiphos on Ubuntu for a while now. This was my experience
1. Once I had installed it, it came without any bible modules by default, and I could not figure out how to add them. I had to do a google search just to figure out how to do it.
2. Search was really slow. I don’t care if you can make it faster by building an index. The default experience is slow, very slow and the average user will never ever learn how to speed it up. I have been using it for over a year and I never knew you could speed it up until I read this.
3. Load times are slow. It takes ages to startup.
4. User interface is very cluttered, buttons and frames everywhere. I had to turn to the internet to work out how to do the simplest of tasks.
I have been working on a much simpler and faster alternative its called WideMargin. It’s still in the early stages but already implements as you type searching (in most cases will find what you are looking for before you finish typing). It starts instantly and features a tabbed based interface and global search / navigation bar that anyone who has used a modern web browser will instantly understand.
The code is hosted at here: https://bitbucket.org/trampster/widemargin/wiki/Home
It still is sometime before packages are available, and the feature set will initially be very limited. But for what I need (fast and simple) it is perfect.I am already using it for my bible software needs.
That looks very interesting. I will take a look at it later. Do you think the issues you mention with Xiphos could be addressed? If so, what is the reason for making a new project instead of helping to fix the problems of Xiphos?
Xiphos doesn’t include any Bibles because Xiphos proper is software only, and is extraordinarily international, far beyond others you’ll find anywhere. We have wider language coverage than any other Bible software on the planet, both in Xiphos’ program localization and in Sword’s Bible modules available. Ergo, it is inappropriate to contemplate provision of some anglocentric choice like KJV or even ESV. This will not change. Xiphos starts with the module manager including a tutorial on how it is to be used. If there are suggestions to improve this, we are always open to listen, but simply saying it’s wrong is neither useful nor appropriate.
Measured startup times, on my T60p laptop:
Cold basic start (cleared memory/buffer cache), invocation to splash: 9.3sec.
Cold full start, invocation to main display and shutdown: 33.9sec.
Warm start, invocation to main display and shutdown: 8.1sec.
If that’s too slow for you…sorry, live with it or move on. Compared to the startup times for other heavyweight systems (e.g. Libronix), Xiphos is quick.
There is assist over and over in how to get fast search. We have considered beginning to distribute pre-built indices with some modules from Xiphos repo, but there is a serious concern about this because a lot of the aggregate Sword Project userbase uses older or lightweight computers, often with weak/slow network connectivity and less than huge storage, and sucking down and storing an additional 8M of index for the sake of the bigger, more detailed, better-annotated Bibles, commentaries, and general books is a large, dark question, esp. going into 3rd-world environments.
Claims of a cluttered UI make my Hmm Detector go haywire. The main window has one set of 4 buttons in upper left to select what shows in the sidebar. Other than that, the only buttons are tabs and navigation selectors. It has a fixed orientation of 3 subwindows, optionally becoming a 4th only if the user chooses to put the previewer under the Bible. This is not cluttered by anyone’s definition. The manual is included (Help – Contents) in all distributions and is reasonably complete. If you consider Xiphos cluttered, I expect you must also consider e.g. e-Sword cluttered, considering that its basic, initial layout is similar, though e-Sword has stayed stuck in a late-’90s UI design otherwise.
Regrets if you’re disappointed. We can hope you’ll be happier with your own solution.
Don’t get me wrong Xiphos is a great project, and ideally suited to the advanced user, It has a huge number of features which makes it great for the serious bible study student.
Wide Margin will not be attempting to compete with Xiphos on features. Or to attract the advanced user.
It is designed to be quick and simple for the beginner. Which just wants to read the bible or quickly find a verse or passage.
I did not feel this could be achieved within the Xiphos project. Xiphos big advantage (its impressive feature set) made it incompatible with the goals of Wide Margin as a project) If you want evidence of this look at karl’s explanation of why quick search can not be included by default. Then look at wide margin which has quick search by default, and yet faces none of the problems karl uses as reasons it can not be done. (it builds the index client side on first run very quickly)
I wish Xiphos all the best for the future and I do not believe the two project compete as they target different types of user.
I haven’t used Xiphos yet. This review is very useful to me.
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