Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Bible Study

In the first newsletter of this series, I discussed how I use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in my life and work. In the second newsletter, I reviewed Apple Intelligence, Apple’s AI tools added to their latest operating system updates. In this newsletter, I am going to survey the current state of AI tools in Bible study.

First of all, I personally use AI in a very limited instance in my Bible study. I still read with a print (leather) Bible, and the majority of the work I do with Bible study eBooks or Bible software involves non-AI-related tasks. I haven’t personally found a major need to incorporate AI into much of my Bible study. I also do not use any of the general AI “chatbots,” nor do I use Apple Intelligence in my personal Bible study.

The main AI tool that I use in my own personal Bible study is BibleMate.org. It is a free website that offers an AI “chatbot” similar to ChatGPT, but specifically geared for (and limited to) asking Bible study-related questions. I don’t use BibleMate.org extensively. However, I have occasionally used it to ask for a Bible verse when it would have been difficult to phrase the search in a Bible software app, or to ask it to summarize a theological position (although I still generally turn toward Bible dictionaries for these), or for quick questions (for example “What are the seven ecumenical councils?” or “Who were the minor prophets?”). I also used it once for converting a Greek font when publishing my PhD dissertation. I use it as a limited supplement to, not a replacement for, the work I generally perform with either print books or Bible software. Most of the time I use it, I use it in the built-in web browser inside Accordance Bible Software so that it is a click away when I am working inside Bible software.

Accordance hasn’t added an AI tool or AI features yet since Accordance is waiting to see what direction AI is heading into first, as well as wrapping up the remaining promised features in Accordance 14. However, as Accordance decides to ponder how it could potentially add AI features to Accordance, the main AI tool I would personally like to see come to Accordance would be similar to BibleMate.org, but draws directly on my own personal Accordance library so I know what particular sources the AI tool is pulling from.