Tag: ChatGPT

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PocketBible 4.18.0 Uploaded to App Store

Introducing AI Insights in the Autostudy Feature

October 29 Updates:

PocketBible 4.18.1 submitted to fix a couple small bugs in the original release.

PocketBible 4.18.0 was rejected due to objections from the Chinese Communist government over its generative AI content. We removed PocketBible from the Mainland China App Store and resubmitted. The app was immediately approved.

This morning (October 28, 2024) we uploaded version 4.18.0 to the App Store for approval.

The main motivation for this update was to fix several little problems that had shown up as the result of recent iOS updates. What frequently happens is that Apple makes minor changes to the sequence or timing of internal processes, or they unceremoniously stop supporting certain features, or change the behavior of others. These can show up as minor annoyances or they can eventually cause bigger problems.

While we were in the code, we took a look at the bug list and squashed a few of the bigger ones. And while we were doing that, we moved some code back into the iOS/macOS code base from the new Windows app in order to gain functionality. This turned out to mostly affect the Advanced Feature Set features — Autostudy in particular.

Here’s an annotated list of fixes in version 4.18.0. We’ll start with Autostudy, which is an Advanced Feature Set feature, then list other bug fixes and enhancements at the end.

Autostudy

Most of the work in this version turned out to be related to the Autostudy feature.

  • Letters with accent marks could break word and verse Autostudies. This was a fascinating bug to fix, only because it turned out to be a minor problem with code that has been in our apps for Pocket PC, Palm OS, Windows, macOS, and iOS since 2004. It had just never been invoked in exactly the right way to expose this bug. The fix was simple once we found it.
  • Changes to the verse, word, or date being studied weren’t always recognized. If you changed the verse without closing the Autostudy window and starting again, PocketBIble might not recognize the change. Another easy fix.
  • While the link on the word “Note” at the beginning of verses with notes was not there, the word “Note” was there. This one irritated me, because I’ve recently been using Autostudy Today for my devotional reading. So I fixed it.
  • Word Autostudies now support phrases, not just words. This was added in the Windows code then ported back to the macOS/iOS codebase where it came from.
  • Better algorithm for discovering sources of cross-references. We took some time during the Windows project to come up with a better algorithm for this. We look for books that cover a high percentage of the books of the Bible, which have a large number of links per entry, and in which links are a high percentage of the total text in the book.
  • Bible verses in date Autostudies can now appear in devotional order instead of date order. As you know, I’m a fan of doing my daily reading in chronological order. I tend to use resources like the One Year Chronological Bible or my own 7-Minute Bible for Bible reading. When using the OYCB, Autostudy would put the verses in biblical order instead of leaving them in chronological order. This defeats the purpose. This feature fixes that.
  • Navigation buttons at the top of Autostudy reports. This feature was borrowed from the work we did on Autostudies for the new Windows app. It puts a row of navigation buttons at the top of your Autostudy reports to make it easier to navigate those long files.

AI Insights in Autostudy

This one deserves its own section. We’ve integrated ChatGPT into PocketBible to generate custom commentary, original language insights, devotional thoughts, and other resources into PocketBible. This feature requires an active Advanced Feature Set subscription. It is not available to users still relying on the old “permanent subscription to the legacy AFS features” from version 3 of PocketBible.

Now, before you dismiss this innovative and useful feature, you need to give it a try.

As you may know, ChatGPT is a large language AI that is able to give in-depth, human-sounding answers to natural-language questions. The key to using ChatGPT effectively is to craft the appropriate instructions for it. We’ve spent a lot of time over the last year and a half designing prompts and instructions that cause it to give responses that are Bible-based and Bible-first. It avoids dogma and denominational bias and favors what it clearly reads in the Bible. It uses biblical terminology where political correctness would prefer non-biblical alternatives.

ChatGPT is trained on virtually everything that has ever been written about everything. As a result, it brings deep knowledge of biblical languages, of biblical and secular history, of of the geography, politics, and culture of the lands and peoples of the Bible.

AI Insights in Verse Autostudies

  • Bible Commentary — Scholarly, accurate Bible commentary that is written at the level of an average Bible reader. Includes historical/cultural context, information about the author and original audience of the passage, the role of the verse in the surrounding passage, and practical application. The article will cite its sources if it refers to other Bible passages.
  • Cross-References — A list of cross-references for the topics in the verse or passage, organized alphabetically by topic.
  • Theological and Doctrinal History — Discusses varying interpretations of the passage or concepts covered by the passage and how they have been debated throughout church history.
  • Hebrew and Greek Insights — Lists key Greek or Hebrew words used in the passage, along with their meanings, usage in other contexts, and nuances that might affect the meaning of the passage. Words are transliterated rather than spelled out in the original languages.
  • Sermon or Lesson Title with Outline — Produces an alliterated outline (assuming the passage is long enough) and a suggested sermon title for the passage.

AI Insights in Word Autostudies

  • Bible Dictionary — An article about the word or phrase being studied, including a definition of the word(s), key Bible verses that use the word(s), and insights from the Greek and Hebrew words that are often translated using this word.

AI Insights in Autostudy Today

  • Inspriational Thoughts — An inspirational reflection on today’s Bible passage(s). The attributes, promises, and commands of God are emphasized. The goal is enriched worship and prayer, and a deeper personal connection with God.
  • Commentary — Basic Bible commentary on the passage(s), including background information, historical context, and explanations of key themes. Important Hebrew or Greek words are defined and their implications discussed.
  • Applying Today’s Verses — The focus is on the practical application of today’s passage(s). How do the teachings and principles in the passage(s) guide the reader’s behavior, decisions, and relationships as they live out the commands and promises of God in practical ways?
  • Today in Christian History — This article is different in that it is not about the Bible passage you’re reading but is about what happened on this date throughout Christian history. The emphasis is on known dates, not dates when events are traditionally celebrated, and on people and events, rather than on holidays and commemorations.

Other Features and Fixes

  • Some apps had trouble pasting text from PocketBible. PocketBible has been putting formatted text on the clipboard (actually called the “pasteboard” in macOS and iOS) since the first day it was supported. You probably have forgotten that the first two major releases of iOS (1.0 and 2.0) did not even have a clipboard. The clipboard was introduced in iOS 3.

    When apps put text on the clipboard, they have to identify the format of the text so that the receiving app knows what it’s looking at. Somewhere around iOS 17 or 18, certain apps stopped recognizing the original identifiers for some of the rich-text clipboard formats, and as a result would misinterpret text placed there by PocketBible. We’ve resolved this in a way that maintains compatibility with the past while adopting the newer identifiers.
  • Punctuation in selected or entered text could confuse search, look-up, and Autostudy features. We do a better job of filtering punctuation than we used to.
  • AFS subscription management on the menu was linking to the wrong URL. Apple changed the URL for subscription management and we didn’t notice it until recently.
  • The space after a trailing apostrophe was missing in certain Bibles. Instead of “Jesus’ disciples”, you’d see “Jesus’disciples”.
  • Searches for non-existent words could fool phrases searches. Searching for “grafted in” in a Bible that does not contain the word “grafted” would give the results for “in” instead of saying that the phrase doesn’t occur.
  • The “toggle play/pause” button on certain headphones didn’t work with the synthesized speech figure. This turned out to be a complete oversight on our part. Sorry about that.
  • Text would scroll some random number of pages up or down when the height of the window changed. This was usually the result of showing or hiding the toolbox on the iPad version of PocketBible. Apple changed the order in which certain things were done when resizing the window, which caused our attempt to keep the text at the same location to be defeated.

There is a small number of other fixes that aren’t worth mentioning. The new version was uploaded on Monday, October 28, 2024 and may take a day or two to get approved and released to end-users.

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PocketBible 3 for Windows Progress Update #19

Once again, we’re overdue for an update. I know it seems like this is taking a long time, but we really are getting closer to at least a beta release. You can watch the video if you want to see the program in action. It’s a long one this time.

Almost everything in this update is an Advanced Feature Set feature. As a reminder, if you have an AFS subscription (or if you own the “legacy AFS” before it became a subscription) for the Windows Store version of PocketBible, it will gain you access to the equivalent features in this new version. Since the features we’re going to talk about today are not present in the current Windows Store version, your AFS subscription for that version will not get you access to these features. You’ll need a new subscription to the new version for these features.

User Note Indicators

One thing that is not an AFS feature is the new indicator for user-created notes in the text. You’re used to seeing the word “Note” linked to your notes at the beginning of a verse. PocketBible 3 for Windows will let you select either a duotone solid or outline note icon to use in place of the word “Note”.

Position of Layout Tabs

In previous screenshots and progress report videos, you’ve seen that the row of layout tabs extended all the way across the screen, including the area above the study panel. We’ve modified the layout so that the tabs appear over the text panes only.

Navigator

The Navigator is a featured ported from the macOS version of PocketBible. It allows you to see a list of all the places in your entire library (or a subset of your library that you define) where the current verse is mentioned. The Navigator can be set up to display its results based on which of your books contain the most references to the current verse, or it can be configured to always show your books in an order you choose.

When you select a link from the Navigator pane, you’re taken to the section of the book where the active verse is mentioned. You can configure the Navigator to always be active or you can disable the continuous updates and manually refresh its content when you need it.

Library Search

As you may have guessed, the Library Search study panel is where you perform searches across your entire library — or the portions of your library that you select. Library Search does not perform the full range of searches (such as “sounds like” and “root word”) that the single-book search does. Instead it looks only for exact matches, so that it can search your entire library quickly. To perform a deeper search of any single book, you can select the magnifying glass icon next to that book.

Searching your entire library can take time, so we provide a way for you to select only those books that you are most interested in searching. You can also control the order in which results are displayed — either by putting the books with the most search hits on top, or by following the order that you choose.

Verse Autostudy

If you’ve used PocketBible for Android, iOS, or macOS, you’re familiar with PocketBible’s Autostudy feature. It lets you easily collect material from your library that is related to a given verse (or passage), word (or phrase), or date. Autostudy will be implemented in PocketBible 3 for the first time on the Windows platform.

Verse Autostudy works on a single verse (“John 3:16”) or on a contiguous range of verses (“John 3:16-18”). You select the books that you want included in your results, and the order in which the books should appear.

For the Windows version we’ve improved the method PocketBible uses to determine if a given commentary is a “book of cross-references”. Previously, only the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge qualified. PocketBible 3 for Windows can look at a book at runtime and decide if its cross-reference density is high enough to make it useful for this function.

We’re introducing AI Insights as an experimental feature in this version of PocketBible. PocketBible can perform custom queries of ChatGPT to create Bible commentary for the passage, generate a list of topical cross-references related to the passage, provide theological and doctrinal history as it relates to the passage, give you insight into key Greek or Hebrew words used, and even generate a sermon title and alliterated outline. (We’ve found the alliteration to be hit-and-miss, but it does reasonably well on creating an organized outline.)

Any time that a Bible reference appears in your Autostudy reports, it is “hot” — click on it and PocketBible will go to the selected verse. This applies to your AI Insights as well — that is, the links to Bible verses are added to ChatGPT output so that references in its output can link to PocketBible. In addition to Bible verses, any links in the books that are in your Autostudy output are active as well.

This linking feature is also present in Word and Today Autostudy results.

Here is a link to the Verse Autostudy we did in the video.

Word Autostudy

Similar to Verse Autostudy, you can ask PocketBible to collect information from your library on a given word or (new in the Windows version) phrase. For the Windows version, we’re adding the AI Insights feature. PocketBible will use ChatGPT to generate a Bible dictionary entry for the word or phrase you give it.

Here is a link to the Word Autostudy we did in the video.

Autostudy Today

The purpose of Autostudy Today is to collect all the Bible verses you need to read on a given day. Assuming you’re doing one of our read-through-the-Bible plans, this can be very convenient.

AI Insights is also coming to Autostudy Today. You’ll be able to generate three types of devotional readings: An inspirational reading that focuses on the praise, prayer, and the attributes of God as revealed in the passage you’re reading; a commentary on the passage, providing background and interpretive information on the passage; or an applicational article, encouraging you to apply and practice what you’ve learned. You can also get an article entitled “Today in Christian History” that gives you information about key events that took place on today’s date in the past.

Here is a link to the first Today Autostudy we did in the video, and here is a link to the second one we did, which included the AI insights.

External Windows

A couple of interesting synergies happened as a result of implementing Autostudy. First, the dialog that lets you choose the books you want included in the Autostudy came in very handy for choosing the books you want to include in the Navigator and Library Search features.

Second, we needed a way to display Autostudy output. After some experimentation, we came up with the idea of using an external window with its own controls to allow you to save, copy, and print your Autostudy reports. It wasn’t much of an extension to this feature to make it so that you can re-open a saved report. And if you can re-open a saved report, you can open any HTML document in one of these windows. And if you can open any HTML document, you can open HTML documents that you create yourself, and any links you put in those documents can link to PocketBible.

Once we had this capability, it solved another problem. Many of you have asked for a way to copy search results to the clipboard. We used external windows to not only give you the ability to copy search results to the clipboard, but to allow you to print or save them. And since links in external windows are active, when you output your search results to an external window, it behaves a lot like the Search pane in the Study Panel — select a search result to cause PocketBible to show you the verse in context.

And then, once we had the ability to output search results, it wasn’t much of an extension to also output lists of bookmarks, highlights, and notes, and also to output your Library Search and Navigator results.

Any external windows you have open when you exit PocketBible will be re-opened when you launch it later.

What’s Next

  1. We believe the app is “feature complete”. There’s nothing major that needs to be added before it will be ready to ship. There are a couple small features that are “on the bubble” and either could or couldn’t be added before we release at least a beta version. But for the most part, it’s safe to say that there are no major features left to be added.
  2. There are a number of bugs on our list that need to be found and squashed. None of these are large, but sometimes you can’t tell how hard it’s going to be until you get into the code and figure out what’s going on.
  3. We are very sensitive to maintaining the integrity of your user-created notes, highlights, bookmarks, and devotional reading progress. We’ve been testing this code as we’ve implemented it, but I want to take a step back and re-run the full test suite on this code before we trust it with your data.

We’re not announcing any ship date at this point, of course, but we anticipate that our next update (whenever that might be) will be to announce a beta version. No promises. Just letting you know what we’re thinking at this point.

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Tech Talk: The Dingus and the Gooberizer

If you want to think of this as a PocketBible 3 for Windows progress update, you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. You will surely be disappointed, but you won’t technically be wrong.

The Dingus

We’re experimenting with giving you access to AI-generated commentary and other tools in the Autostudy feature in PocketBible 3 using the ChatGPT API. You won’t have to have a ChatGPT account to use it; we’ll create the prompts and automatically submit them and get responses for you to include (if you’d like) in your Autostudy output.

ChatGPT uses Markdown in its responses. Markdown is an easy way to create formatted text with a plain text editor. PocketBible use HTML for this purpose, which is a very different and more difficult way to create formatted text. So we have to convert from Markdown to HTML to display ChatGPT results in PocketBible. This is not straightforward, as Markdown wasn’t “designed” so much as it was pieced together as needed.

When the nerds who power our tech economy were asked to come up with a “standard” for Markdown, they discovered that even its most formal definition was ambiguous. If someone asked, “What happens if you overlap bold and italic markers in the text?” the only way to find out was to try it and see what happened. In order to make it easy for users to experiment and deduce the rules, they produced what is known simply as “the CommonMark Dingus” — as in “that whatchamacallit on their website”. The Dingus lets you enter text using CommonMark syntax and it shows you how it will render and what HTML tags are required to get the same result.

AI-generated instructions for use of the dingus. Pretty simple once you get it turned on.

The Laridian Dingus

After laughing about the CommonMark Dingus every time I used it, I realized the only way I was going to be able to interactively test my server-based Markdown to HTML converter was to write my own “dingus”. Turns out it’s actually not a bad idea. I see now why they created it.

The Gooberizer

While writing this, I (Craig) was reminded of some PocketBible code. Back around 2002, my programming partner, Jeff Wheeler, was working on the DailyReader app. At the time, daily devotional books and Bible reading plans were not a part of PocketBible, but rather, you needed a separate app called DailyReader.

Since DailyReader didn’t know how to read PocketBible books, and since Palm OS, the hot mobile operating system at the time, didn’t have a file system (!!!), we had to come up with a way to store the text of reading plans and devotionals in a way that would be compatible with a Palm OS database, would be quick and easy to decode, and wouldn’t be readable by humans.

Of the two of us, I was the guy who had experience with encryption. I had implemented a simple encryption algorithm that we were able to use on our website and in our apps when we needed something “secure enough” — not something you’d trust your credit card number to, but good enough to obscure other sensitive information that we don’t want you messing with. So Jeff came to me to figure out how to obfuscate his DailyReader data.

“I don’t need some kind of unbreakable encryption. I just want to goober up the text enough that it can’t be read by the average user,” he said. I picked up on Jeff’s goofy terminology and created the skeleton of code called “The Gooberizer“. I created a simple encryption algorithm with a symmetric key — as long as the producer of the encrypted file (his little program that created DailyReader books) and the consumer of it (the DailyReader app itself) use the same key, one can encrypt and the other can decrypt the data. In order to make it slightly more secure, the secret key is not something stored in the program, but rather is computed based on the data in the book. This made it harder for a nefarious (or curious) user to break the code and ungooberize the text for himself.

Jeff fleshed out the code from my design and DailyReader soon had fully gooberized text.

AI-generated instructions for use of the Gooberizer. Pretty simple.

PocketBible and the Gooberizer

Three years later I was adding some code to PocketBible and needed a way to authenticate an LBK (Laridian Book) file. We had decided to release our BookBuilder app as a commercial product but didn’t want a rogue competitor to use it to reproduce our entire library and put us out of business. So we put information into the LBK file that tells us that the file was built by the consumer version of BookBuilder. We needed a way to verify that these imaginary rogue competitors (who were growing more vile and contemptible the more we thought about them) weren’t tampering with the info to convince PocketBible that their books came from Laridian.

Then I remembered the Gooberizer. I rejiggered the Gooberizer code so it could produce a one-way hash of any string you gave it. The idea is that BookBuilder would build a string based on critical values in the LBK file, then store the gooberized string in the LBK itself. When PocketBible opens the file, it builds its own copy of the critical-values string and produces its own gooberized representation of it. If the stored goober and the runtime goober match, you get to read the book.

But seriously…

It can be embarrassing when the terminology you use around the office to describe something makes its way into public. You casually refer to your experimental test page on the website as “that dingus” and the next thing you know it becomes the most important part of your project.

Fortunately, we don’t foresee any need to give the public access to the Gooberizer. So for now it’s our little inside joke. Until somebody decides to write a blog article about it.

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Happy Candlemas! (Groundhog Day)

Recently discovered Byzantine representation of an ancient Candlemas celebration, as recreated by ChatGPT

Groundhog Day, celebrated on February 2nd, has its roots in an ancient Christian tradition known as Candlemas Day, which marks the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. On Candlemas Day, clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter, and the candles represented how long and cold the winter would be.

The choice of February 2nd is rooted in early Christian tradition and Jewish custom, which mandated a period of purification for a mother after giving birth, followed by the presentation of the child at the Temple. For a male child, this period was 40 days, and since Jesus’s birth is celebrated on December 25th, the 40th day thereafter is February 2nd.

The weather lore associated with Candlemas, however, has pre-Christian roots.

Pre-Christian Traditions

The tradition of observing weather patterns around the beginning of February can be traced back to pre-Christian times and is linked to ancient Celtic festivals, particularly Imbolc. Imbolc is celebrated on February 1st and marks the beginning of spring in the Celtic calendar. It was a time for weather divination, and the weather on Imbolc was thought to predict the weather for the coming spring and the remainder of winter. This period, falling halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, was a significant seasonal marker in many ancient agrarian cultures.

Candlemas and Weather Lore

When Christianity spread throughout Europe, many pagan traditions were Christianized or absorbed into Christian celebrations. Candlemas became one such feast where pre-existing weather lore was integrated into Christian practice. Sunny weather on February 2nd indicated more winter to come, similar to the Groundhog Day belief that if the groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.

This lore found expression in various regional aphorisms:

England

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.

Scotland

If Candlemas Day is bright and clear,
There’ll be two winters in the year.

Germany

For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day,
So far will the snow swirl until May.
For as the snow blows on Candlemas Day,
So far will the sunshine before May.

America

If the sun shines on Groundhog Day;
Half the fuel and half the hay.

Germanic Influence and the Emergence of the Groundhog Tradition

The specific tradition of using an animal to predict the weather on this day is more directly traceable to Germany and surrounding regions. Before the tradition was brought to North America, Germans looked to the badger as a weather prognosticator. When German settlers arrived in North America, particularly in Pennsylvania, they adapted the tradition to use the groundhog due to the absence of badgers in their new homeland.

Early German settlers in America mourn their inability to predict the weather in their new homeland due to the scarcity of badgers. Fortunately, groundhogs were plentiful.
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PocketBible for Windows Progress Update #16

ChatGPT attempts to render my Windows programming workspace based on a general description.

I told myself I’d write a progress update after the first of the year. Suddenly that’s where we’re at.

As you recall from updates 14 and 15, we had a bit of a crisis of our own creation happen toward the end of 2022 which required us to update both BookBuilder and PocketBible on every platform. We had to modify our Bible format and make sure all versions of PocketBible (with the exception of the old/current Windows versions) could read the new format.

We started with our BookBuilder and PocketBible apps for macOS, since these two share a lot of code and doing them at the same time gave us a platform on which to test our new Bible format. We held off on releasing BookBuilder in case we discovered anything we needed to fix as we rolled out the changes. We released the macOS version of PocketBible in May with updates following into June.

This allowed us to turn our attention to the Android version, which was problematic because of Google shenanigans. An initial version was released in September to address new Play Store requirements. We spent the next 6-8 weeks implementing the Bible changes and doing updates to fix various problems discovered after the release of the new version. This was our first update in 5 years for the Android app, so there were some issues.

That brought us to the Thanksgiving/Christmas season, which is our busiest time of year. There are two large tasks that I’m personally involved in because they impact code on the website — creating the 2024 editions of the Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Emerald PocketBible Library collections, and implementing the end-of-year “name your price” sale. Because these tasks have to be done every year, some of the process is automated. But it still requires a bunch of my time.

Despite the distractions, progress was made on the Windows app during this time.

The app is very close to being feature-complete, at least for the standard (non-AFS) feature set. One of the next big tasks that, oddly enough, consists of a lot of unknowns is being able to build a Windows EXE suitable for distribution.

As I’ve explained before, we do all of our development and testing on macOS. We’ve done occasional debug builds for Windows, but we’ve never been able to generate a stand-alone EXE like we’ll have to do when we release the product. So even though we’re not quite there yet, I have someone looking into those issues.

This has taken us down two dark alleys. One was compatibility problems with the versions of the Electron and Vue frameworks we’re using in the app. In order to build an executable that works, I think we’re going to need to be running newer versions of those foundational tools. Electron isn’t much of an issue, but Vue has undergone breaking changes in its most recent major update. This requires that we make significant changes just to get our code to build with that version.

The second issue is code signing. Code signing is a process that is supposed to do a couple of things. First, it assures you that the software you download from our website really is from us and not some other company pretending to be us. Second, it assures you that the code hasn’t changed between the time we signed it and the time you downloaded it. This is meant to make you safer (or at least make you feel safer). But if you think about it, code signing is arguably pointless. No malware you’ve ever been a victim of is stopped by a code signing requirement. If this requirement were lifted, all the same malware would continue to work just fine.

Anyway, signing our executable and getting it to work after it is signed has been a challenge. But we’re working on it.

Meanwhile, I’ve been able to get back in my coding chair and have been porting the new Bible format to the Windows code. One unexpected benefit is that I’ve gotten to re-think the way we had ported this code from C++ to JavaScript in the first place and make some changes that will make it easier to maintain. I’ve borrowed some from the C++ (macOS and Windows) implementation and some from the Java (Android) implementation. This gives us good consistency between all platforms and will make maintenance easier in the future.

To sum up, after a detour to do a lot of work on other platforms, we’re back to work; we’re close to feature-complete (at least for the standard feature set); and we’re focusing on tasks that are necessary to move from development to beta to release.

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Practical Steps for Effective Bible Study

Studying the Bible can be a deeply rewarding process, but it can also feel overwhelming due to the length and complexity of the text. Here’s a simple process that you might find helpful:

Pray: Start with a prayer for understanding and wisdom. This sets the tone and prepares your heart and mind for learning.

Select a Passage: If you’re new to the Bible, it’s easiest to start with the New Testament, particularly the Gospels, before moving onto the Old Testament. If you’re a seasoned Bible reader, a topical study might be interesting.

Read: Read the passage slowly and carefully. Consider reading aloud or listening to an audio version. Reading a passage more than once can also be beneficial.

Observe: As you read, note down what stands out. Who are the main characters? What events are taking place? What are the key themes or ideas?

Interpret: Try to understand the meaning of the passage. What is the author trying to communicate? How would the original audience have understood it?

Consult Additional Resources: Use study Bibles, commentaries, or Bible dictionaries for more insights and historical/cultural context. Bible study guides or a trusted spiritual leader can also provide guidance.

Reflect: Think about how the passage applies to your life today. What lessons can you take from it? How can it influence your thoughts, actions, and attitudes?

Journal: Write down your insights, reflections, and any questions that arose during your study. This not only helps you remember what you learned, but allows you to track your spiritual growth over time.

Pray: End your study time with a prayer. You can thank God for His word and ask for help in applying what you have learned.

Share: If possible, discuss what you’ve learned with others. This could be in a Bible study group or with a mentor or friend. They can offer valuable perspectives and insights.

Remember, studying the Bible is not about how quickly you can get through it, but rather about deepening your understanding and relationship with God. Take your time, be consistent, and don’t be discouraged if you don’t understand everything right away.

I’ve been exploring how ChatGPT can help me study the Bible. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence language model developed by OpenAI. It uses machine learning techniques to generate human-like text based on the input it receives. It’s trained on a diverse range of internet text, but it doesn’t know specific documents or sources used in its training. As a language model, it generates responses to prompts and doesn’t have beliefs, opinions, or consciousness. It’s designed to assist with a wide variety of tasks, such as answering questions, writing essays, tutoring in various subjects, translating languages, simulating characters for video games, and much more. (It wrote this description of itself.)

I asked ChatGPT how to study the Bible and it produced this article. I made only two edits — adding the bit about choosing a topical study and moving “Journal” above the second “Pray” step. I continue to be impressed with what ChatGPT can do. The topic of this particular article is simple, but it wrote it without intermingling negative comments or opinions. It even acknowledged the importance of prayer.

The image at the top of this article was generated by DALL•E 2, another artificial intelligence program developed by OpenAI. While GPT-4, the technology behind ChatGPT, is focused on understanding and generating text, DALL-E is designed to generate images from textual descriptions.

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From Bethlehem to Calvary: The Life of Jesus and Our Role as Believers

Following up on our last post, I asked ChatGPT 4 to summarize the life of Jesus as presented in the Gospels, then explain what the New Testament says our response to his life, teachings, ministry, and example should be. It generated a dozen titles for this article and I asked it to pick the best one. It picked the one you see above.

I then asked DALL•E to create an image that depicts an event in the life of Christ in a “realistic, Renaissance style” to use with this article. It seems to have depicted Jesus’ birth going on in his tomb while he teaches at some kind of a dog fight and a two lame men crawl to him to be healed. DALL•E has a ways to go, in my opinion.

The Life of Jesus

The life of Jesus Christ, as depicted in the New Testament’s four gospels, begins with His miraculous birth in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary and her husband, Joseph. This event, heralded by angels and later celebrated by the visit of the Magi, confirms the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies regarding the coming of the Messiah.

As an adult, Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, marking the beginning of His divine mission. This event is immediately followed by a forty-day period of temptation by Satan in the desert, which Jesus resists. He then commences His ministry in Galilee, recruiting His first disciples – Peter, Andrew, James, and John.

Among the most significant events during Jesus’s ministry is the Sermon on the Mount, where He delivers profound spiritual truths and moral guidelines, including the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus’s time on Earth is also marked by numerous miracles, demonstrating His divine power through acts such as healing the sick, casting out demons, feeding a multitude, and walking on water. He conveys His teachings through parables, offering lessons about the Kingdom of God, forgiveness, and love.

At one point, Jesus is transfigured on a mountaintop before Peter, James, and John, where He converses with Moses and Elijah, further affirming His divine nature. Eventually, He journeys to Jerusalem, resurrecting Lazarus from the dead along the way. His triumphant arrival in Jerusalem, marked by crowds greeting Him with palm branches, signals His role as the prophesied King.

During His final week in Jerusalem, Jesus cleanses the Temple and engages in heated debates with the Pharisees and Sadducees. He foretells His death and resurrection and, at the Last Supper, establishes the practice of sharing bread and wine as symbols of His body and blood.

The climax of Jesus’s life story unfolds with His betrayal by Judas, subsequent arrest, trial, and crucifixion under Pontius Pilate. However, death does not claim Him; on the third day, He rises from the grave, first appearing to Mary Magdalene, then to His disciples. After spending forty days further instructing His followers, Jesus ascends to heaven.

Although the Apostle Paul does not contribute directly to the gospel narratives, his epistles provide profound insights into Jesus’s teachings and their implications. Paul emphasizes Jesus’s role as the Messiah, advocating for justification through faith in Christ, the transcendence of the law by God’s grace, and the concept of the Church as the body of Christ. His teachings illuminate the transformative power of God’s love in Christ, the reconciliation between God and humanity through Jesus’s sacrifice, and the hope of eternal life offered by His resurrection.

Our Response to Jesus’ Life

In response to Jesus’ life, ministry, teachings, and example as depicted in the New Testament, there are several fundamental actions that individuals are encouraged to take.

The cornerstone of this response is faith, a deep-rooted trust in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and acceptance of His sacrifice for humanity’s sins. This faith goes beyond intellectual agreement, involving an inner commitment to Jesus as one’s savior, leading to salvation and eternal life.

Repentance is another pivotal aspect. It means turning away from sin, acknowledging our shortcomings, and striving to change our ways to align our lives more fully with God’s will. It’s an ongoing process of spiritual growth and moral improvement that Jesus’ teachings continually emphasize.

Love, as taught by Jesus, is central to the Christian response. This involves the Greatest Commandment: loving God wholeheartedly and loving our neighbors as ourselves. It means embracing kindness, compassion, and justice, reaching out to others in empathy and understanding.

Obeying Jesus’ teachings and commandments is another vital response. Adherence to His guidance involves ethical and moral conduct such as honesty, forgiveness, humility, and non-retaliation. It’s about living out the principles laid out in the Sermon on the Mount, embodying the values Jesus championed.

Jesus also calls for followership, a commitment to follow His example of humility, service, and sacrificial love. This means willingly bearing individual crosses, forsaking selfish desires, and potentially suffering for Christ.

Finally, Christians are charged with spreading the Good News of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to all people. Jesus commissioned His followers to share His message, to engage in evangelism and discipleship, leading others to faith and supporting them in their spiritual journey.

Overall, the New Testament presents a transformative response to Jesus’ life and teachings, calling for personal faith, repentance, love, obedience, followership, and commitment to sharing the gospel.

How Did it Do?

ChatGPT 4 did a good job summarizing the life of Christ and teachings of the New Testament, without adding a bunch of expected disclaimers about how opinions vary and that the authenticity of the accounts should be questioned. It also taught me and my spell-checker a new word, “followership”, which is the capacity or willingness to follow a leader.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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The Story of the Old Testament, by ChatGPT

I asked ChatGPT to recount the history of the Old Testament, without getting bogged down in the details — just focusing on the significant parts of the narrative. I then asked it for a creative but appropriate title for its work. I have to say, it pretty much nailed the assignment.

DALL•E kind of punted on generating an appropriate image, but hey; it’s just an AI so cut it some slack.

From Creation to Covenant: Unveiling the Tapestry of Ancient Israel

In the beginning, according to the Old Testament, God created the heavens and the earth, forming the world and everything in it. Adam and Eve, the first humans, were placed in the Garden of Eden but disobeyed God’s command and were banished from paradise.

The narrative then moves to the story of Noah and the Great Flood. God saw the wickedness of humanity and decided to cleanse the earth. Noah, a righteous man, built an ark and saved his family and pairs of animals from the floodwaters.

Next, the focus shifts to Abraham, who is considered the father of many nations. God made a covenant with Abraham, promising him descendants as numerous as the stars. Abraham’s son Isaac and his grandson Jacob continued the lineage.

Jacob’s twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel, and his son Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers but rose to power in Egypt. Through a series of events, Joseph eventually saved his family and brought them to Egypt during a severe famine.

Generations later, the Israelites became enslaved in Egypt. God raised up Moses as their leader and used him to deliver the people from bondage. Through miraculous signs and wonders, God brought about the Exodus, leading the Israelites through the Red Sea and into the wilderness.

In the wilderness, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and established a covenant with the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Moses led them on a journey towards the Promised Land, but due to disobedience and lack of faith, they wandered for forty years.

Joshua succeeded Moses as the leader, and under his command, the Israelites conquered the land of Canaan. They established themselves as a nation and settled in the Promised Land.

The Israelites went through a cycle of obedience and disobedience to God, with various judges rising to lead them during times of crisis. Eventually, they desired a king, and God anointed Saul as the first king of Israel. However, due to Saul’s disobedience, God chose David as his replacement.

David, a renowned king, established Jerusalem as the capital and desired to build a permanent dwelling place for God, but it was his son, Solomon, who built the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem.

After Solomon’s reign, the kingdom split into two: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The prophets played a crucial role during this time, calling the people to repentance and warning of the consequences of their actions.

The kingdoms faced threats from various empires, leading to the exile of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians and the eventual destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians. The people were taken captive to Babylon.

After seventy years, the Persians conquered Babylon and allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple under the leadership of figures like Ezra and Nehemiah.

The Old Testament concludes with prophecies of a coming Messiah who would bring salvation and establish an eternal kingdom. These prophecies set the stage for the events of the New Testament and the birth of Jesus Christ.