About The Memory Page Bible
Intro Last Updated: September 15, 2007

Why another online Bible? The goals:

• Colorful and memorable to stimulate interest in the Bible: There are dozens of kinds of store bought Bibles, all of them with cool colors and features. Most PC-based and online Bibles are just text. Why not make an online Bible just as good?
• Designed for memorization: The Memory Page Bible uses colors, pictures, and compact chapter/verse references to aid memorization. The related website, www.thememorypage.net, has many tips on memorizing the Bible.
• Linking Commentary with the Text: There are a lot of online Bibles with no commentary. Then there are some excellent commentaries and notes, but not with the text, or sometimes with text but with so much commentary that it's not easy to read or navigate the Bible normally. First, rather than doing a random Google search, I have found the best online commentaries and made links to them at the bottom of each chapter. One click and you're there. Second, I eventually plan to have shorter commentaries (such as short explanations of a word or phrase) next to the text itself on the right side (prototype is at Romans 1).
• Totally free: God's Word should be free to everyone and anyone so His Wonderful Plan of Salvation can be shared with as many people as possible and in as many ways as possible. Being free makes this happen. This will let you use the Bible online, or copy it to your PC or PDA, or print out pages of it, or whatever you would like to do. You should not have to be hindered by licensing restrictions. I'm trying to bring together the best free resources on the Internet into one place!
• Cross-References: Not available yet, but planned for the future. Many PC-based Bibles have this, but most online Bibles do not. My goal is to have multiple cross references for each verse of the Bible, with the reference clickable right by the verse. This is powerful!
• Translation Links: Not available yet, but planned for the future. I would like to have one-click links to other translations for easy comparison. Other web sites will be leveraged for this.
• Search Engine: Not available yet, but planned for the future. I will probably leverage Google's search engine to let you search the entire Bible and jump to the correct Memory Page Bible page.

My guidelines in creating The Memory Page Bible:

• All content (not including external links) must be from totally free sources. This includes the text itself and pictures, and eventually the cross-references (these must also be from free sources) and short comments.
• Keep in-line comments small and favor links instead. I want to have the material there for as quick access as possible, yet not clutter up each chapter's page with too much extra text or links.
• Limit personal comments. I may use my own short comments as a short of free comments (see Romans 1 prototype), but I want to be extremely careful that the words are true and supported by scripture, the original Hebrew/Greek, or main-line interpretations, and not my personal opinion. My emphasis is to be on the actual text, not on the comments. The actual text of the Bible is the ultimate authority, which is where everyone should be looking. The comments should help us understand the text but direct us back to the text.
• Careful selection of External Links. I don't want to include just anyone's commentary, but I am trying to make sure that the person making the comments is led by God and who feels that God's word is inerrant and that its interpretation should be literal - i.e., God means exactly what he says. With the links I have included so far I do not agree 100% with all comments, but I endorse most of them, but I do not want to subject my opinion as the correct one. I make the links available, and it is up to YOU to decide what is the truth, based on God's Word and God's leading. This is the essence of Bible study. Again my emphasis is on the actual text and the commentary is only a guide. Read the commentary, then read the text, and ask God to lead you to the truth.
• Prayer. I feel led by God to have embarked on this project, and I seek his guidance as to how to proceed.

This is a long term project. It would be easy if the Bible were only a few chapters long. But it actually is 1000+ chapters. This means I do not have time to individually update pages. In most cases, I am writing computer programs to automate the update process. For example, I might create the artwork and colors for Genesis chapter 1, then use an automated script to duplicate this artwork to the other 49 chapters. Then I need another script to grab links from an external website for commentaries on the 50 chapters, sort out which is which, and insert them into the correct chapter's page. I have already spent many hours on the project, and will spend many more in the future. You will see gradual improvements over time. Sometimes some books of the Bible may be updated, and others are lagging behind. For example, as of 9/14/07, all of the New Testament is colorized, but only the first four chapters of the Old Testament. Also Psalms is still partially messed up with the headings of each Psalm at the end of the previous Psalm. These things will gradually be fixed in the coming months.

Thank you and God Bless,

Kevin Jay North