Bible Gateway: 5 Facts About the Searchable Bible Website

Bible Gateway is perhaps the most popular online Bible database. BibleGateway.com attracts tens of millions of monthly visitors, who commonly search the site to find Job, Psalm 91, Psalm 23 and other parts of Scripture. Of course, visitors also search for the verse of the day.

Bible Gateway’s History

Bible Gateway is almost as old as the World Wide Web. Calvin College student Nick Hengeveld founded it in 1993. It was then that Hengeveld pursued his “visionary passion to make the Bible digitally accessible to everyone” on the internet. Formerly owned by Gospel Communications, Bible Gateway was acquired by Zondervan in 2008. It is a part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. The site currently has numerous translation and reference partners.

Bible Gateway’s Resources

Home to more than 200 translations of Scripture in 70 languages, the site really is a gateway to the Bible! In addition to translations in English, Bible Gateway offers Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, French, and dozens of other versions of the Bible.

Readers can choose to listen to the audio version of some translations. These audio versions feature the voices of Max McLean, Steve Cook, Kelly Ryan Dolan, and others. The site’s free Android and iPhone apps make its resources even more accessible.

Bible Gateway’s Staff

One might think that a powerhouse website like biblegateway.com would have a massive staff. But, according to its LinkedIn page, the site has anywhere from 11-50 employees. Four specific individuals are listed on the Bible Gateway blog contributors page, including Rachel Barach.

Barach is described as providing “leadership and direction to the Bible Gateway team.” Her job involves a little bit of everything, according to a 2015 interview.

“With tremendous help from my incredible team, I oversee the product development and design, our content strategy and objectives, our licensor and content provider relationships, our sales and revenue objectives, and even our marketing and customer support work,” she explained at the time.

Bible Gateway’s Top Searches

Visitors to Bible Gateway seem to love reading Psalm 23—in the KJV, NIV, and ESV especially. King David wrote the popular psalm, which probably has one of the most recalled lines of the Bible: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” The comforting psalm, which speaks of God’s care and protection, includes just six lines. In addition to Psalm 23, readers also seem to often search for Psalm 91 and John 3:16.

Bible Gateway’s Competitors

It may be among the most popular websites for Bible readers, but Bible Gateway isn’t the only online Scripture database. Some of its competitors include Bible Hub, Bible Study Tools, and YouVersion. While Bible Gateway offers a breadth of resources, some of its features are only available through its paid membership. Its listed competitors, however, don’t seem to charge visitors to access any part of their resources. Whatever the case, readers clearly favor Bible Gateway—except when it comes to phone apps; YouVersion tends to lead in that category.