bible-gateway: A Two-Edged Sword in Emacs
Kristjon Ciko (he/him) - kristjoc@uio.no
The following image shows where the talk is in the schedule for Sun 2026-12-13. Solid lines show talks with Q&A via BigBlueButton. Dashed lines show talks with Q&A via IRC or Etherpad.
Format: 20-min talk ; Q&A: BigBlueButton conference room https://media.emacsconf.org/2026/current/bbb-bible.html Etherpad: https://pad.emacsconf.org/2026-bible
Etherpad: https://pad.emacsconf.org/2026-bible
Discuss on IRC: #emacsconf
Status: Waiting for video from speaker
Sunday, Dec 13 2026, ~11:30 AM - 11:50 AM MST (US/Mountain)
Sunday, Dec 13 2026, ~10:30 AM - 10:50 AM PST (US/Pacific)
Sunday, Dec 13 2026, ~6:30 PM - 6:50 PM UTC
Sunday, Dec 13 2026, ~7:30 PM - 7:50 PM CET (Europe/Paris)
Sunday, Dec 13 2026, ~8:30 PM - 8:50 PM EET (Europe/Athens)
Monday, Dec 14 2026, ~12:00 AM - 12:20 AM IST (Asia/Kolkata)
Monday, Dec 14 2026, ~2:30 AM - 2:50 AM +08 (Asia/Singapore)
Monday, Dec 14 2026, ~3:30 AM - 3:50 AM JST (Asia/Tokyo)
Description
bible-gateway is a simple Emacs client for BibleGateway 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.
Questions or comments? Please e-mail kristjoc@uio.no