We are pleased to announce the availability to order online the Blue Letter Bible CD designed for missionaries and others who have either limited or non-existent Internet access. Due to the space limitations of a CD, this software does not offer quite so robust a study experience as our website offers. For example, due to copyright restrictions, the CD does not contain the more modern Bible translations. However, the principle study tools are present. We hope that you, as missionaries, will find our tools useful to your ministries and personal studies. Each week we will make a limited amount of CDs available so that we can ensure we have the available resources to fulfill the orders. If you miss this opportunity, check back with us next week.

New! As part of our Blue Letter Bible Institute, we now offer printable Certificates of Completion for every course completed with a grade of C or better. Students may access their certificate in the Student Center.

Good news for those of you who have wanted the version-searching capabilities of our new Bible search but missed some of the nuances of our old search tool! We've made a concerted effort over the last weeks to work those features back into our new search program in order to eliminate your need to continue using the Prefer Old Search link. NOTE: if pages look odd, your browser may be using old formatting instructions. Try hitting Ctrl-F5 to make certain you're using the most up-to-date formatting.

First and foremost, we've added in the ability to view secondary results for your multiple word searches. Go ahead, give it a try, run a search for Jesus faith love Siloam. You'll note that there are no verses in Scripture that match your request. Now if you haven't already done so, click on the tab that says Secondary Results. This will display all combinations of your search terms to help you find the verse you had in mind—just like in the old search tool.

Next, we've heard the pleas of those who prefer point-and-click navigation to find Scripture references and brought that back as well. Even more, we determined to make it more friendly to those who suffer handicaps that make typing difficult. You should notice immediately above the search box, the term (abbreviations). Simply click on this to bring up our new drop-down menu—from which you may click to enter your entire Scripture reference (no more scrolling to find the book name you're looking for!).

Lastly, we've reintroduced the ability to view Strong's numbers with your word searches. You'll note that when word-searching in the KJV or NASB, we've added a small checkbox through which you can toggle on or off the inclusion of linked Strong's numbers. This feature is only available in the KJV and NASB, and will appear greyed out in other translations.

We hope you enjoy these additions!

The Blue Letter Bible Institute is pleased to present The Attributes of God by Dr. David Hocking of Hope For Today. This sixteen-part course that examines the characteristics and nature of Almighty God, as revealed in the Scriptures. Dr. Hocking conveys the fact that knowing God is the highest pursuit of human life. There is no better source than the Bible for learning about God’s ways and this course is replete with His Word. Answers are found to questions such as: Why should we worship God? What does it mean to fear the Lord? How can we understand the Trinity? These topics and a multitude of others are thoroughly discussed in the course material. There is nothing more important than having a personal relationship with the sovereign Creator. It is our hope that these classes will promote a vital, spiritual growth and maturity in the heart of every student. This class is available through the text or the audio version, and we encourage you to enroll today.Be sure to visit the Blue Letter Bible Institute (BLBi), which currently has a total of ten courses for your study of God’s Word. All the courses are free and may be completed at your convenience.

You may have noticed that we've changed our search tool a little bit. You can now search for word/phrase combinations and for verses from the same search box. It may take a little practice to get used to, but we are confident that once you do, you'll be enjoying our much more powerful search engine. Moreover, you can now search from any of our available Bible translations. We've also prepared an article so that you can learn more about some of the new features available with this change. And if you really don't like change at all and want to use the old search engine until you become more comfortable with the new one, just click on the text above that says, "Prefer the old search?"

As we remember Christ's resurrection this season, we are happy to inform you that we have just added four studies by John Walvoord on Jesus' resurrection and ascension. This series, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, consists of four articles by the late Dr. Walvoord that were originally published in the Bibliotheca Sacra journal. Many thanks to Dallas Theological Seminary for granting us permission to use these studies.

We are pleased to announce the addition of new audio commentaries:

• New Testament audio commentary by Joe Focht of Calvary Chapel Philadelphia
  
• Studies on the books of Judges, Mark, and Hebrews by Steve Mays of Calvary Chapel South Bay
  
• A study on the book of Job by Don Smith of the Evangelical Free Church of Laguna Hills
  
• A detailed exposition of the book of Romans by Carl Westerlund of the Calvary Chapel Bible College Graduate School
  
• And we have continued to add messages by Elisabeth Elliot
  

Our heartfelt thanks to all these contributors for providing these messages to the Body of Christ.

We are pleased to announce the addition of some specific content geared to our female users. We have added several messages by Elisabeth Elliot. This is just a taste of what is to come, as several more messages are being remastered and prepared for inclusion on the Blue Letter Bible. Our heartfelt thanks to Elisabeth and her family for providing these messages to the Body of Christ.

The Blue Letter Bible Institute is pleased to present Searching for the Truth on Origins by Roger Oakland of Understand the Times, International. This twelve-part course addresses the controversy surrounding the origin and history of life from the opposing views of both Creationists and Evolutionists. The course discusses topics such as: how and when life began, the possibilities of life resulting from random processes, inaccuracies in evolutionary evidence of the fossil record, and the probabilities that our planet experienced a catastrophic flood as recorded in the book of Genesis. The course reveals the impact of the evolutionary view on human morality and spirituality, speaking from a biblical worldview and presenting examples from current events. Be sure to visit the Blue Letter Bible Institute (BLBi), which currently has a total of nine courses for your study of God's Word. All the courses are free and may be completed at your convenience.

We have recently added the English Standard Version (ESV) to the Blue Letter Bible. The ESV is a new Bible version that employs an essentially literal translation while paying attention to literary excellence and readability. To find the ESV on our site, simply click on the button or locate it on the "Read/Print" drop-down menu at the top right of any Bible page. See Isaiah 53 for an example of the ESV. Thank you to Good News Publishers/Crossway Books for allowing us to use the ESV. Visit the ESV website for more information on the translation.

The New International Version (NIV) has been added as an additional reading version. The NIV can be accessed either from the button or the drop-down at the top of any Bible page. See Philippians 2 for an example of the NIV. Thank you to the International Bible Society for permission to utilize the NIV.

We are pleased to announce the addition of two new text commentaries. First, Alfred Edersheim's classic volume Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ. This author transports the reader into the land and life of Palestine during the time of Jesus, providing a deeply colorful context for understanding the New Testament. Secondly, we present a fine study on the book of Job by Pastor Donald R. Smith called The God of the Whirlwind: God's Supremacy in Job's Trials. In the study, Pastor Don Smith exhorts us to “love and trust God even in our adversity because He first loved us and entrusted us with His grace.”

We are happy to announce that David Guzik's Study Guides have been updated and expanded. Guzik's Study Guides are one of the more popular commentaries on our site and with the recent updates they now cover nearly the entire Bible. We would like to extend a special thanks to David Guzik and Enduring Word for sharing this resource with us.

Earlier in this year we added the New Testament portion of J. Vernon McGee's Through the Bible study. We are pleased to announce that the Old Testament section has now been added and so J. Vernon McGee's entire 5-year study from Genesis to Revelation is now available. Thanks to Thru The Bible Radio for allowing us the opportunity to utilize Dr. McGee's materials!

Pastor Chuck Smith's series on the Holy Spirit entitled The Person and Gifts of the Holy Spirit is now available on the Blue Letter Bible. You may enroll in the Blue Letter Bible Institute course, listen to the audio, or even read it as a text commentary.

Some terrific new audio studies have been added:

• The New Testament portion of J. Vernon McGee's 5-year study Through the Bible. Look for the Old Testament audio within a few weeks! Thanks to Thru The Bible Radio for allowing us the opportunity to utilize Dr. McGee's materials!
  
  
• Biblical studies by Pastor Bob Hoekstra on the following subjects:
  • Family God's Way
  • Counseling God's Way
  • The Church How Jesus Builds It
  • Humility & Faith
  • Book of Ephesians

Two new resources by Pastor Chuck Smith have been added to the site. Chuck Smith's Sermon Notes and Transcriptions of the C2000 Series join the existing Study Guides on the Blue Letter Bible. There are three ways to access this material: (1) by navigating the Commentary Menu, (2) by clicking on the L button, or (3) by using our new keyword search of Chuck Smith's content.

The new year brings a new tool for the Blue Letter Bible: the Daily Bible Reading Program. Now you can use the Blue Letter Bible to assist you in reading through the Bible in a year's time. You can choose between different translations and different reading plans. We are releasing this tool as beta, which means that we are relying upon user input to make the program work nicely and easily for our users.

We are pleased to announce the addition of Gesenius's Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament. Gesenius's Lexicon is a standard reference work for students of the Old Testament. This version, translated by Tregelles (with additional notes) is available through the BLB lexicon. For more information on accessing the BLB lexicon, see the help tutorial on the button. To view an example, see the word checed (mercy).

Martin Luther's classic Commentary on Galatians is now available on the BLB. Luther's work on Paul's epistle to the Galatians and his understanding of justification by faith is what helped ignite the Protestant Reformation.

New audio commentaries added! Brian Brodersen, Damian Kyle, Dave Shirley, and Bob Davis join nineteen other audio commentators and are available via the Audio/Video button on the navigation bar.

Can You Lose Your Salvation is one of several topical audio messages by the late Dr. Walter Martin that have been added to the site.

We recently added The Biblical Basis of the Doctrine of the Trinity by Robert Bowman, which, we are confident, will be a blessing to all those who read it.

We have just updated The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK). This includes a revision of the content as well as a new system of displaying the data for ease and convenience. See the TSK entry for Philippians 4:8 as an example. There is also a help tutorial designed to show how to access and use the TSK.

Added the following books:

• Salvation, by Lewis Sperry Chafer.
• The Two Covenants and The Second Blessing, by Andrew Murray.
  
  

We have just added over 200 additional sermons by Charles H. Spurgeon. You can view a complete list of all 806 available sermons in a concise list or detailed list.

As we remember Christ's death and resurrection this season, we hope that you will enjoy our newest addition to the site: The Passion of Our Lord. This is a ten-minute image player of thirty-three engravings and related audio reading of the scripture, depicting Christ's Passion Week. The player utilizes the free Macromedia Flash Player, which is usually pre-installed with your browser. For those using broadband Internet connection, it is approximately a ten-second download; for those using a dial-up connection it is approximately a four-minute download.

Added The Fundamentals edited by R.A. Torrey. The Fundamentals is a compilation of 96 articles on the fundamentals of the faith.

Two new courses are available at the Blue Letter Bible Institute (BLBi):

• Christology: a fourteen part course covering the study of the doctrine regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. This course is taught by Dr. David Hocking (Hope for Today).
• Survey of the Bible 2 (Isaiah-Malachi): the second installment of three courses surveying the Holy Canon. This installment covering the prophetic books of the Old Testament was taught by late Pastor Ray Stedman (Ray Stedman Memorial Library).

The BLBi now has a total of six courses for your study of God's Word. Visit the BLBi at blbi.org.

We have added MP3 versions of three translations, performed by world renown voice actor, Stephen Johnston. Available are the New King James Version (dramatized), the New Living Translation (dramatized) and the King James Version (narrated). There is an audio link on each of the Bible pages for these translations. Here are some examples:

• Genesis 1—King James Version
• Psalm 23—New King James Version
• John 18—New Living Translation

The files play in a specially designed player. Please note that these are subject to copyright and are at this time only available for web streaming. We ask you to respect the copyright.

We are making some changes to the look and feel of the website. The changes will be gradually implemented in different sections of the site, as there are literally hundreds of thousands of pages to change. We ask for your indulgence during the update. Our goal is to provide a consistent appearance across all the pages. Pray for us, please!

We added the New Living Translation in verse format as a companion to the paragraph format. On any main Bible page just use the new "Read / Print Another Version" to select the NLT and there will be a buttom to switch to the verse formatting. We changed the name of this function from "printer-friendly" because it was far more than that. You can read about a dozen versions including the Hebrew and Greek, whether you want to print them or not. And you can now listen to the chapter in three different translations. So we made them more nicely formatted for both reading and print purposes.

Revised the King James Dictionary to be keyword searchable. The King James Dictionary contains 837 words and phrases to help the reader deal with somewhat archaic words and phrases like: espy, gird or whet.

Our newest course, Survey of the Bible 1 (Genesis-Song), is available on the Net Bible Institute, brought to you by Blue Letter Bible. Our vision is to provide an in-depth course of study about the Bible and Christianity. We currently have three other courses available: Matthew, Growing in the Grace of God, and God's Sufficiency for Godly Living . Visit the Net Bible Institute at nbi.blueletterbible.org.

Added the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia to our list of Study Tools. This multi-volume work was edited by James Orr, and features an entry on every word in the Bible which has a distinct Scriptural meaning.

Two audio series on How to Witness to Mormons and How to Witness to Jehovah's Witnesses by Dr. Walter Martin complement his series on Hermeneutics.

Added the New King James Version for reading. You can access the New King James Version (NKJV) via the printer-friendly menu near the top of each Bible page. Here is a sample page for John Chapter 3.

Added new commentaries:

J.B. Lightfoot's essays on St. Paul's History After the Close of Acts and Chronology of St. Paul.

Pastor John Brown's text commentaries and audio commentaries on Nehemiah, Hosea and Jonah.

The Blue Letter Bible has obtained a 1653 Polyglot Bible with ancient Bible texts in Hebrew (interlinear with Latin), Samaritan, Greek, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Persic. The possibilities are endless! Please be in prayer for both time and resources to take advantage of this vast 6000 page reference. Here are part of the resources for Genesis 1:1

Our newest course, God's Sufficiency for Godly Living, is available on the Net Bible Institute, brought to you by Blue Letter Bible. Our vision is to provide an in-depth course of study about the Bible and Christianity. We currently have two other courses available: Matthew and Growing in the Grace of God. Visit the Net Bible Institute at nbi.blueletterbible.org.

The Hermeneutics audio tape series by Dr. Walter Martin is a fantastic twelve part series on how to interpret Scripture! The class is presented in the context of Scripture twisting by the cults.

Explore the latest additions to our Study Tools section: Exposé on Jehovah's Witnesses and Exposé of Mormonism.

Announcing the Net Bible Institute, brought to you by Blue Letter Bible. Our vision is to provide an in-depth course of study about the Bible and Christianity. We currently have two courses available: Matthew and Growing in the Grace of God. Visit the Net Bible Institute at www.nbible.org.

New Word Search Option: combine English and Strong's numbers for Greek or Hebrew. Mix and match up to 5 total. Example: lov* 5368 searches for all appearances of words starting with "lov" combined with Strongs Number 5368 (= Phileo or love)

Sir Isaac Newton's Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John is the latest addition to our text commentaries.

New Word / Phrase Search Feature: the wildcard (*) can be used after 3 letters to find more search results: Example lov*

Enjoy our new Study Tools Section! Filled with charts and study guides to assist the student of Scripture, this section will help to put biblical events into better perspective.

Daily Bible Promise. Each day of the year, read a different promise from the Bible!

As the Christmas season is upon us, we invite our visitors to check out the Christmas Page, which has Bible readings in both text and audio, hymns, commentaries, audio sermons, and images relating to Christ's birth.

Passover and Resurrection Day Page. Read day-by-day through the Passion Week, or view illustrations, or experience The Passion of Our Lord (a ten-minute image player and related audio readings of the scripture), or watch the Special Israel video and lots more!

The Jewish Festival of Hanukkah is now going on from sunset on 12/4/2007 through sunset of 12/12/2007. What is this festival? Is is Biblical? Dr. David Hocking answers this question in his message, What is Hanukkah? You can play it below using the mp3 player (double-click the play icon) or download it to play on your local device.

In honor of Reformation Day. The preservation of the gospel of Christ is always worth celebrating, now as in any era. In 1517, one such notable defense was carried out by Martin Luther as he strove to return the church to purity of faith in the midst of growing corruption. His challenge to draw the church from the interference of merely human influences and back to a life founded upon the Word of God was issued in the form of ninety-five theses. In honor of the 31st of October's Reformation Day (a day meant to celebrate the preservation of the glorious gospel of our salvation), we present Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. In addition, here is an mp3 audio message on Reformation Day, by Pastor Kevin Otsuji of Reverence Bible Church.