1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
|
[[!meta title="bible-gateway: A Two-Edged Sword in Emacs"]]
[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2026 Kristjon Ciko"]]
[[!inline pages="internal(2026/info/bible-nav)" raw="yes"]]
<!-- Initially generated with emacsconf-publish-talk-page and then left alone for manual editing -->
<!-- You can manually edit this file to update the abstract, add links, etc. --->
# bible-gateway: A Two-Edged Sword in Emacs
Kristjon Ciko (he/him) - <mailto:kristjoc@uio.no>
[[!inline pages="internal(2026/info/bible-before)" raw="yes"]]
[bible-gateway](https://github.com/kristjoc/bible-gateway) is a simple Emacs
client for [BibleGateway](https://biblegateway.com) that fetches verses,
passages, and search results directly into Emacs.
Unlike other approaches to reading the Bible in Emacs, bible-gateway doesn't
require installing extra programs, downloading Bible text modules, or signing up
for an API key or subscription. It simply works by fetching and parsing web
pages, and stores almost nothing locally: just a small cache for the verse of
the day and a short preview of each verse you're memorising. It currently
supports 14 public-domain Bible versions in several languages, all fetched live.
In this talk, I'll walk through the main features with quick demos:
- Verse of the day, usable as an emacs-dashboard footer or a `*scratch*` buffer message
- Insert a Bible passage at point
- Read a passage in a dedicated buffer, with n/p verse-by-verse navigation
- Listen to a Bible chapter as audio, opened in the browser
- Search the Bible by keyword, with clickable, paginated results
- Follow a daily reading plan from a CSV file, with automatic progress tracking
- Compare two Bible translations side by side in one window
- Memorise verses using a touch-typing practice mode with live feedback
- Switch between the 14 supported Bible versions/languages
About the speaker:
Kristjon Ciko is a postdoc in the Department of Informatics at the University of
Oslo. His research focuses on computer networks, transport protocols, and Wi-Fi.
Kristjon has been using Emacs since 2020 and now uses it for nearly everything:
email, Zulip, Org mode, LaTeX, and coding (C/C++, Python, and various scripting
languages). He originally built bible-gateway to show the verse of the day in
the emacs-dashboard footer. Over time, the package grew into a toolkit for daily
Bible reading, memorising Scripture, and preparing devotions and sermons, all
without leaving Emacs.
[[!inline pages="internal(2026/info/bible-after)" raw="yes"]]
[[!inline pages="internal(2026/info/bible-nav)" raw="yes"]]
|
