Larry Sanger launches a free Bible study platform
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger has turned his attention to helping people explore the Bible. His new project, Deep Dive Bible, brings Scripture, commentaries, reference materials, and group discussions together in one online tool.
The site launched November 2 and is free to use. You can start reading without creating an account, which makes it easy to have a look around before deciding whether to sign up.
Sanger says Bible readers often have to move between an app, reference materials, and a separate group study. Deep Dive Bible is designed to bring those pieces together. He describes it as a lasting gift to the Church, and says it will remain free, with donations helping cover costs.
Plenty to explore
The site offers 15 English translations, including the King James Version, English Standard Version, New International Version, and New American Standard Bible. Readers can view translations side by side and consult commentaries on individual verses without leaving the reading page.
There are also 55 commentaries, 15 reference works, and 220 maps. More advanced study features include Hebrew and Greek tools, interlinear texts, cross-references, and audio readings.
You can use the site without registering. A free account adds features such as saved reading progress, notes, highlights, and group studies built around particular passages and topics. The project is still in beta.
From skeptic to believer
Sanger’s interest in Bible study grew out of a long personal journey. Raised Lutheran, he lost his faith as a teenager and spent more than 35 years as an agnostic. He later earned a doctorate in philosophy, co-founded Wikipedia, and devoted much of his career to organizing information online.
In December 2019, he decided to read the Bible from beginning to end. He says he wasn’t trying to convert; he wanted to understand a book he had dismissed without really studying it. He began reading with study Bibles, maps, dictionaries, and commentaries, and found the process more engaging than he expected.
By late February 2020, he had privately come to believe in God. He didn’t publicly identify as a Christian until five years later. Sanger has said his conversion wasn’t a sudden, dramatic experience. It came gradually, through reading, questions, and reconsidering arguments he had once rejected.
Questions welcome
Sanger continued studying and, in April 2020, started an online Bible study group on YouVersion. It later moved to Telegram. In September, he gave the group its own website and brought its earlier discussions along.
The software behind Deep Dive Bible, called Chatiferous, was built with help from Anthropic’s Claude AI, with Sanger directing the project. It is released under a free-software license, and the site is being made available to other Bible study groups.
In an earlier guide to reading the Bible, Sanger recommended using commentaries, maps, encyclopedias, and study groups. He also stressed that readers shouldn’t shy away from questions. In his view, asking them—and finding answers—is an essential part of studying Scripture.
