theWord (previously known as In The Beginning Was The Word) is a free Bible study software application for Microsoft Windows, first released on October 28, 2003, and developed by Costas Stergiou. It is distributed free of charge and is not open source; the source code is not publicly available.
Overview
theWord is designed to provide Bible study tools including multiple Bible translations, commentaries, dictionaries, general books, maps, and search capabilities. It supports Bibles in several languages and includes features such as Strong's Numbers, Greek and Hebrew morphological analysis, and cross-referencing. The software is copyrighted by Costas Stergiou and is available under a license that permits free personal use and distribution but prohibits commercial resale or bundling without written permission.
Features
- Search: Ability to search through Bible texts and annotations.
- Non-Bible resources: Support for commentaries, dictionaries, and generic books.
- Parallel/Compare view: Display multiple Bible translations side by side.
- User modules: Creation and editing of custom modules (dictionaries, commentaries, maps, etc.).
- Cross references: Embedded or user-defined cross-references.
- Hyperlinking: Links within modules to Bibles, internal locations, or other modules.
- Clipboard monitor: Displays text of copied verse references.
- Inline commentaries and word lookup dictionaries.
- Right-to-left language support.
- Strong's Numbers and Greek morphological codes.
- Footnotes.
- Library search capabilities.
- User markups and highlighting.
- Verse lists.
- Support for purchasing copyrighted, priced modules.
Version History
- Version 1.0: First non-beta release; introduced Clipboard Monitor.
- Version 1.1: Printing of Bible texts and personal notes; export of personal notes.
- Version 1.2: Improved Greek support in non-Greek environments.
- Version 2.0: Multiple Bible windows, Bible text formatting, dockable windows and layouts.
- Version 3.0: Integration of non-Bible resources with search; priced copyrighted modules; user-created modules.
- Version 4.0: New program icon; first alpha implementation of hybrid modules; new default theme.
- Version 5.0: Integrated module downloader for browsing and installing modules from within the program.
- Version 6.0: Spell check for user-created modules; enhanced search capabilities.
- Version 7.0: Released with additional features; latest stable release as of August 2025 is version 7.1.0.1574.
Platform and Portability
theWord primarily runs on Microsoft Windows (Windows 98 through Windows 11). It can also run on Linux via Wine and on macOS via Wine or Crossover. A portable version (theWord Portable) can be installed to a USB flash drive. A pre-configured USB drive version called "theWord toGo" is also available for purchase.
Module System
theWord uses an open and documented module file format, allowing users to create their own Bible, commentary, dictionary, book, and map modules. The software includes an Importer Tool for converting modules from Unbound Bible, Zefania XML, and free e-Sword formats. A library of free and paid add-on modules is available, including Bible translations (KJV, ESV, HCSB, NET Bible, etc.), Greek and Hebrew texts, dictionaries, commentaries, and other reference works.
Languages
The program interface is available in English, Afrikaans, Albanian, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Malay, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, and Thai.
Official Website
The official website is www.theword.net. The official online store for electronic titles is www.thewordbooks.com.
