BibleGateway is a
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
website designed to allow easy reading, listening, studying, searching, and sharing of the
Bible in many different versions and translations, including
English,
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
,
Spanish, and other languages (see below). Its mission statement is "To honor
Christ by equipping people to read and understand the Bible, wherever they are". The website is free to use, but also offers Bible Gateway Plus, a membership program with enhanced services. It is currently owned by
Zondervan.
Bible Gateway's engagement features include the ability to display a single bible verse in all English bible translations, the ability to display and compare up to five Bible translations side by side at once; its daily Blog; more than 60 email devotions, Bible reading plans, and verses-of-the-day; an award-winning free mobile app; audio Bibles; video interviews; Bible reference books; shareable widgets; advanced search tools; Bible Gateway Blogger Grid; a retail store; and the Bible Gateway Deals discount program. Bible Gateway's online bookstore offers more than 500,000 Christian resources. It is an affiliate of
Christianbook.com
Christianbook, LLC, formerly known as Christian Book Distributors (CBD), is a Christian catalog and internet retailer.
Christian Book Distributors was started in 1978 by Stephen Hendrickson, 19 years old and a sophomore at Central Bible College ...
.
History
Founded by Nick Hengeveld in 1993 at
Calvin College
Calvin University, formerly Calvin College, is a private Christian university in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1876, Calvin University is an educational institution of the Christian Reformed Church and stands in the Reformed (Calvinist) ...
,
Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bible Gateway was initially planned as a static
HTML presentation of the
Bible. In 1995, the site moved to the new Gospel Communications Network (a part of
Gospel Communications International
Gospel Communications International (formerly Gospel Films) was a non-profit Christian organization and the founder and parent organization of several Christian websites based in Muskegon, Michigan.
Gospel Communications Network was founded in ...
). The Bible Gateway website was originally written as a
CGI script in
Perl. Later versions were written in
C++,
PHP and
Ruby.
Bible Gateway gradually expanded its database by acquiring the rights to more English and foreign language translations, including translations published by
International Bible Society,
The Lockman Foundation
The Lockman Foundation is a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian ministry dedicated to the translation, publication, and distribution of Bibles and other biblical resources in English and other languages.
The foundation's core products are t ...
and
Wycliffe Global Alliance.
In late 2008,
Zondervan (the
Evangelical Christian publisher of the
NIV and
TNIV Bible and a wholly owned subsidiary of
HarperCollins) acquired Bible Gateway from Gospel Communications. The sale of the site came after two years of continued financial difficulties on the part of the donation-driven GospelCom ministry.
In June 2009,
Joseph Park was hired as president of BibleGateway.com. Park was co-founder and former CEO of
Kozmo.com
Kozmo.com was a venture-capital-funded online company that promised free one-hour delivery of "videos, games, dvds, music, mags, books, food, basics & more" and Starbucks coffee in several major cities in the United States. It was founded by yo ...
,
which was the subject of the documentary film ''
e-Dreams''. He was also co-founder and former CEO of
Askville
Askville was a user-driven research site founded by Amazon.com. It was opened to the public on December 8, 2006, and shut down on October 25, 2013.
History
Askville was co-founded by Korean-American former investment banker Joseph Park, previ ...
, which was owned by
Amazon and closed in 2013.
In May 2010, Rachel Barach replaced Park (who became Senior Vice President of Consumer Products at parent company
HarperCollins Digital, Consumer) as General Manager of Bible Gateway.
, Bible Gateway hosts 232 versions of the Bible, in 74 different languages. Its
Alexa ranking is #744.
References
{{HarperCollins
Android (operating system) software
BlackBerry software
Christian websites
Electronic Bibles
Internet properties established in 2008
IOS software
Online Scripture Search Engine
Universal Windows Platform apps
Bible versions and translations
Internet properties established in 1993