Celebrating 20 Years of Blue Letter Bible

In March of 1996, Blue Letter Bible went live on the Internet. That was 20 years ago, and we thank God for graciously guiding and growing this ministry. In Psalm 138:2, God tells us that He is exalted according to the truth of His Word. This truth has fueled our desire to make an in-depth study of God’s Word digitally available to everyone free of charge, so that people might “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

“To Him be the glory both now and forever”—2 Peter 3:18.

Blue Letter Bible's growth over the past 15 years in website pageviews, Bible pageviews, and searches.

Snapshots of Blue Letter Bible's 20-Year History

Initially, our website was composed of the KJV translation, a concordance, a lexicon, the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, and a growing pocket of commentators. Just for fun, take a look at Blue Letter Bible as it appeared for the first four years of its existence.

We have gone through several stages of growth over the years, and with a limited number of programmers and designers, change has happened slowly. Eventually the site’s collection of study tools and resources grew large enough that BLB needed a redesign. So in 2000, we unveiled our second version of BLB (Version 2.0), adding dictionary tools, public domain Bible translations, and image galleries. Additionally, we introduced a set of six tools next to each Bible verse:

These buttons gave users easy access to a selection of tools directly related to the passages they studied, including the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (K), an interlinear concordance with connected lexicon (C), a list of related commentaries (L), selected images and hymns (I), access to alternative Bible translations (V), and related dictionary and encyclopedia entries (D). And for those who prefer that 6-button format, it is still available today on the current BLB site.

Here is a snapshot of the Blue Letter Bible homepage from 2000.

Over the next several years we refined our tools, added the lexiconc, and added many more commentaries. In 2004 we launched the Blue Letter Bible Institute, a set of online learning resources (featuring Bob Hoekstra, Don Stewart, and David Hocking, among others). The major part of our work, however, took place behind the scenes as we overhauled our site’s programming in ways that made room for future development.

And then throw on a new coat of paint and you’ve got BLB version 2.5, which made its debut in October of 2008.

A couple of years later, we began to develop a way for individuals to personally customize their experience of the site through a variety of preferences and widgets. This all came together (along with improved search results and better access to Bible tools) in BLB version 3.0, which went live in September of 2013. This is the site you are probably familiar with and currently using:

In the last five years, we have also developed free Blue Letter Bible apps for Apple and Android devices, so everyone can have access to in-depth Bible study resources wherever they go!

We continuously pray for God’s direction in planning for future resources and updates that will help users like you better study the truth of God’s Word. One exciting project is an innovative digital resource called ScriptureMark, designed to assist with inductive-style Bible studies, offering advanced notetaking options and specialized mark-up tools. Stay up-to-date with the newest BLB content and study resources by signing up for our digital newsletter.

Whether you are new to BLB or you have been using our tools for the past two decades, we are grateful if we have been used by God to enrich your study of His holy Word.

BLB’s vision for the next twenty years is to make our free Bible study resources better and more widely available to the world, enabling teachers to be equipped and people to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. We believe most of our users are unaware that Blue Letter Bible depends on financial support to help us sustain and grow this ministry. Would you join our growing number of partners? Together we can fulfill the vision for God's Word to reach the world.

Click here to read an Open Letter to all BLB Users from Jim Milligan, CEO/President.

Blue Letter Bible is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization in the USA. All gifts in the USA are tax deductible for income tax purposes.