# Cardinal Bible — Depth over distraction

> Focused Bible study with AI reflections, memorization, and offline access. (iPhone/iPad app by Jed Bridges.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cardinal-bible/id6758185643 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Jed Bridges](https://appshunter.io/developer/1844479841)
- Category: Education, Productivity
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 5.00/5 from 13 App Store ratings · 4 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 9+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 89 MB
- Languages: American English, French (France), German (Germany), Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Chinese (Simplified, China), European Spanish, Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan)
- Released: 2026-01-28
- Data updated: 2026-09-03
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cardinal-bible/id6758185643/reviews.md

## What is Cardinal Bible?

Bible apps have become social platforms, full of feeds and features that distract you from simply reading the Bible. Cardinal is different. It's just you, God, and Scripture. No noise.

Quiet Time: Your Daily Time Set Apart
A single guided sitting with Scripture every day. Pause, read, reflect, apply, pray, close. Each day offers a curated pericope of fifteen to twenty-five verses, the natural "scene" the text is built around, not a whole chapter dumped on you. Your journaling carries forward between sessions, and your archive is searchable and private.

Seven curated reading paths, from the Story of Jesus in John to the whole Bible in a year, or describe your own and let AI build it (Cardinal Pro). Tap Illuminate on any passage for historical context and Hebrew or Greek word studies (Cardinal Pro).

No streaks. No badges. No missed-day guilt. Just time set apart.

A Complete Bible
The KJV, Berean Standard Bible, World English Bible, and Majority Standard Bible are free. Always. Reading Scripture never requires a subscription. The NKJV, NASB, CSB, and NLT are licensed from their publishers and included with Cardinal Pro, each with a free day to try. Adjust text size, bold weight, and red-letter display from the reading menu.

Journeys: Walk Where It Happened
Follow the great figures of Scripture across the lands where their stories unfolded. Trace Paul's voyages, Abraham's road to the Promised Land, the Exodus, Passion Week, and more, flying place to place over real 3D satellite maps. Read each stop's story, hear it narrated, and open the verses right where they were lived. Sixteen journeys, free for everyone.

Listen as You Read
Hear Scripture read aloud while the words light up in time with the narration, in the Bible and in Quiet Time alike, with the page following on its own. Five narrators. Set a sleep timer, adjust the pace, send the audio to AirPlay or your car, and it keeps playing on the lock screen.

Ask: Your Personal Bible Scholar
Ever read a passage and think, "What does that actually mean?" Ask anything about Scripture and get verse-grounded answers in seconds: cross-references, Hebrew and Greek word studies, and historical context. Available with Cardinal Pro.

Notes: For Sermons You Hear and Sermons You Give
Sermon notes structured the way sermons are preached: big idea, main points with their own verses, application, and ways to serve. Group them by series, and tap any point for an AI "dig deeper" reflection (Cardinal Pro).

Studies is the workspace for preparing one (Cardinal Pro): gather verses, illustrations, and quotes as you read, shape an outline, and keep an archive of what you have taught. Send a verse into a study straight from the reader.

Verse notes stay on the passage itself, searchable and sortable in Bible order.

Prayer List
At the end of each Quiet Time, add what you prayed for to a running list beside your sessions. Mark prayers answered when God shows up. Private and never shared.

Scripture Memorization
A simple flashcard tool. Pick verses that matter to you, and Cardinal shows them as first-letter hints so you can practice recalling each word. Tap a letter to reveal it, or the card to flip to the full verse.

Highlights and Favorites
Liquid Highlight: long-press and drag across any words in the reader. Your highlight lands precisely on the words you chose, not the whole verse. Overlapping highlights merge into one. Save favorites and write in the margins.

Home Screen Widgets
Pin a Verse of the Day, today's Quiet Time passage, or your Memorize progress, so the first thing you see in the morning is the Word.

Works Offline
Memorize, study, highlight, and take notes anywhere. (KJV, BSB, and WEB are built in; other translations and audio stream on first open, and Ask needs a connection.)

Why Cardinal?
Cardinal is for people who want to read Scripture, sit with it, and talk to God. That's it.
Terms of Use: https://jedbridges.github.io/cardinal-legal/terms-of-use.html

## Key features

- Multiple Bible translations (NIV, KJV, ESV, NLT, NASB)
- AI daily reflections personalized to your study
- Generated prayer themes based on reading patterns
- Spaced repetition scripture memorization tool
- Offline personal Bible notes, highlights, and favorites
- Verse of the Day widget

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cardinal Pro | $2.99 | per month |
| Cardinal Pro | $19.99 | per year |


## Recent user reviews (4 of 4)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cardinal-bible/id6758185643/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Refreshing Bible App!!

*2026-05-06, version 2.23.0*

Loving the cardinal Bible app. Love the built in quiet time and the stillness this app brings to reading Gods word on the phone. Isn’t super busy and gets you straight into the word! Been loving the guided quiet times and Bible plans already set up!

### 5/5 — It’s an amazing app! 🥳

*2026-02-21*

Personally, sometimes I just need something quick while I’m on the go. The practice verse challenge is the best, I just learned how to flip back and forth with the simple button layout when a hard one comes up! Also, there is a cool app tracking software built in and it shows you your progress/stats! Tactical responsive button haptics is epic! Makes a great fidget tool imo!!! I’m impressed and I am glad I have this app! 
😎

### 5/5 — This app is amazing

*2026-02-07*

Very well designed and makes studying and memorizing scripture very easy. Would love to be able to add my own verses someday.

### 5/5 — The best bible app

*2026-01-30*

This thing is 3.6MB runs entirely on device, no cloud, no sub. This is the bible app for you, it will really help you memorize scripture, finally.

## Frequently asked questions about Cardinal Bible

### What Bible translations does Cardinal offer?

Cardinal offers the full Bible in five popular translations: NIV, KJV, ESV, NLT, and NASB. You can easily switch between them to compare passages and deepen your understanding.

### How does Cardinal's AI personalization work?

Cardinal's AI analyzes your highlighted verses, favorites, and personal notes to generate daily reflections and prayer themes tailored specifically to your scripture journey. This makes the content highly personal and relevant to your current reading.

### Can I use Cardinal offline?

Yes, Cardinal is completely offline. You can read, study, highlight, and take notes without an internet connection, making it ideal for use anywhere.

### Does Cardinal have ads?

No, Cardinal is ad-free. The app is designed to provide a focused and quiet study experience without any advertisements.

### What is the age rating for Cardinal?

Cardinal has an age rating of 9+. This indicates it is suitable for children aged 9 and older, offering content appropriate for that age group.

### How often is Cardinal updated?

The latest version of Cardinal is 2.8.0, which was last updated on March 23, 2026. Updates typically focus on improving features and user experience.

### What makes Cardinal different from other Bible apps?

Cardinal focuses solely on Bible study without social features, feeds, or community elements. It prioritizes a quiet, personal experience with AI-driven insights and memorization tools, distinguishing it from more platform-oriented Bible apps.

### What devices does Cardinal support?

Cardinal is available on iPhone and iPad. The app is optimized for these Apple mobile devices.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2.63.0 — 2026-09-02

Two bigger things this release. You can now record a voice note right on a verse: tap record, speak, and Cardinal keeps the audio alongside your written note, with a transcription. And your custom reading paths are yours to shape now. Edit any path you have generated, and every path you create is saved to its own library, so making a new one never overwrites the last. Sermon main points can be formatted, the compare column in the side-by-side reader loads bundled translations instantly and offline, and undo after a delete is easier to reach with VoiceOver. A handful of smaller fixes round it out.

### 2.62.0 — 2026-08-29

Threads is a new way into Scripture on the Explore tab. Twenty-four lives, from Hagar to Paul, each told in a handful of moments and flown over the whole Bible so you can see where the story actually falls, from a cluster in Genesis to a single leap into Hebrews. You start from something you are carrying, being afraid, grieving, waiting, and follow it into the verses themselves. Every thread is free. This release also adds Stillness, an optional reading mode that keeps the screen awake and holds back interruptions while you read, and it fixes a few smaller things: the app no longer backs up bundled Bible text to iCloud, comparison translations switch cleanly in the side-by-side reader, and the reader keeps its place when you decline a language change.

### 2.60.0 — 2026-08-22

The Bible reader is faster and calmer. Books open the moment you tap them instead of pausing first, scrolling stays smooth while audio plays, and the page gives you back a few more lines of Scripture at the top and bottom. Audio picks up properly when a book finishes, and the verse menu is quieter until you have actually highlighted something.

### 2.59.0 — 2026-08-21

Cardinal now asks which Bible you want the first time you open it, instead of starting you in the King James Version and leaving you to find the rest. Every licensed translation comes with a free day, and the free translations never need anything at all.

Explore's search covers journeys as well as packs, so typing a name finds the journeys about that person. Deleting a saved verse can be undone, the same way notes already worked.

Reading is cleaner. The play button and the chapter pill used to sit on top of the words, cutting a line in half at the bottom of the screen and again under the book name at the top. They now rest on the page instead of over it, so nothing covers what you are reading.

Books open faster. Tapping a book used to hold on a blank screen for half a second before the text appeared; now it lands straight on the first verse, and going back is immediate.

Dark mode is warm again. The paper Cardinal is set on stayed warm in daylight but turned cold and grey at night, and it no longer does. Verse text also gets a little more room between lines in the dark, where light type needs it.

Tapping a verse is clearer now. The actions you use most sit in a row at the top, and anything that opens another screen is grouped below it, so you can tell at a glance what will keep you on the page.

Verse notes finally have a search field, and you can sort them in Bible order instead of by date, which makes finding what you wrote on a particular book much easier. When you write a note, Cardinal now suggests the cross-references for that verse so you can attach one with a tap instead of typing it out.

### 2.58.0 — 2026-08-14

Every note in Cardinal now opens the same way. Studies, sermon notes and verse notes used to each work differently, and now there is one screen per note, no Save button to hunt for, and one clear way to delete anything with an undo if you change your mind. Your writing is kept as you type, and now the app says so.

Studies comes with a finished example you can read through, so you can see what a week of preparation actually looks like before you start your own.

Catching a thought while you read is faster too. A verse note takes one screen instead of four, and Cardinal will tell you what's new in each release right inside Ask.

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-03.*
