A topical Bible study app that keeps passages, notes, and links together

Give each topic you study one place to live. A Scripture Deck collection gathers the passages on a theme such as grace, your notes about them, and the articles and videos that helped, and you can share it with a friend.

Start a topical collection See the Grace collection

Scripture Deck is free, with no subscription or card. An account is needed to save and share collections; once you are signed in, open Collections and choose New collection. Sign in if you already have an account.

See a topical collection on grace

Here is a small collection you could build for a study on grace. It is an editorial example: read each passage in its context before drawing conclusions, and open any reference below to see its chapter in the World English Bible.

Part of the collection	In the Grace example
Title	Grace
Description	Where grace comes from, how it saves, and how it shapes daily life.
Group and tags	Topical studies, with the tags `salvation` and `small group`
Connected note	Grace that saves and teaches
References	A sermon video on Ephesians 2, a podcast episode on Romans 5, and a book on grace
Shared with	A friend from your small group, who can read it but not change it

Its five passages, and why each is there:

Exodus 34:6–7 — God is proclaimed to Moses as “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger” (verse 6).
Psalm 103:8–12 — the psalm repeats that description (verse 8) and speaks of transgressions removed (verse 12).
Romans 5:15–21 — Paul contrasts the trespass with the free gift: “where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly” (verse 20).
Ephesians 2:8–9 — “by grace you have been saved through faith” (verse 8), as the gift of God and not of works.
Titus 2:11–14 — the grace of God that has appeared also instructs believers in how to live (verses 11–12).

On the collection page, the passages print verse by verse in the World English Bible, in Bible order. Because Grace holds passages from both testaments, buttons above them filter the list: All (5), Old Testament (2), and New Testament (3).

Build a collection around a topic

Open Collections and choose New collection. Give it a title, such as Grace, and, if you like, a description of what belongs in it. If Collections is not in your menu, turn it on in Settings under Study tools.
Under Add passages, type a list such as Exodus 34:6-7; Psalm 103:8-12; Romans 5:15-21; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 2:11-14 and choose Add. Commas add verses, a dash makes a range, and semicolons separate chapters or books.
Add more as you read. Select a verse or range in the Bible reader, choose Details, then Collection, pick the collection (or create one there), and choose Add to collection.
To change the title or description later, choose Edit collection, then Save collection.

A list with a mistake adds nothing until you correct it, and passages already in the collection are skipped. Each passage prints with its verse numbers, a copy button, and a link into the reader, and a bar of passage names at the top of the screen lets you jump between them.

Collection pages print the World English Bible, and Catholic books it lacks, such as Tobit, in its Catholic edition.

Connect notes and reference links

Connected notes

Connected notes sits below the passages. Choose Attach notes to bring in notes you have already written, found by title or tag, or New connected note to start one that already belongs to the collection. Connections save straight away, one note can belong to several collections, and detaching a note removes only the connection.

For Grace, a note called “Grace that saves and teaches” could hold one question: how does the grace that saves in Ephesians 2:8–9 relate to the grace that instructs in Titus 2:11–12? For writing the note itself, see Bible notes.

References

References ends the collection page, with links to articles, videos, podcasts, books, documents, and websites. Paste an address under Add a link and choose Add. A blank title, type, or source is filled in from the address, so a YouTube link becomes a Video from YouTube; More details lets you set them yourself and add a description of why the link helps.

Links open in a new tab, and you can reorder, edit, or remove them, or move one to another collection. From four links on, a search box appears, with type filters when the links are of more than one type. The same page cannot be added to one collection twice.

Compare passages and connect verses

Side by side

Tick Select on two or more passages and choose Side by side. Up to four columns open, each with its own passage picker and translation menu, starting in the translation you last chose in the reader. For Grace, tick Ephesians 2:8–9 and Titus 2:11–14 to read them next to each other, then switch either column to another of the app’s Bible translations. With one passage ticked, the button reads Compare translations and opens that passage beside itself in a second translation.

Add column adds a column, Copy all copies every column with its reference and translation, and Read the chapter opens a column in the reader. A comparison can be bookmarked, and on a phone the columns follow one another down the page. The same ticks can also send passages to a memorization deck with Add to deck; see Bible memorization.

Cross references

A cross reference joins one verse to another and lives with the verses rather than inside a collection. In the reader, select Titus 2:11, choose Details, then Cross reference. Under Connect to verse, type Ephesians 2:8; under Relationship, describe the link, such as “grace that saves”; then choose Save reference. The link appears under Cross references in the details of both verses, so each leads to the other. The same details panel lists the collections that hold the verse.

Two passages from the Grace collection side by side: Ephesians 2:8–9 in the World English Bible next to Titus 2:11–14 in the King James Version.

Organize your Bible study with groups, tags, and search

Groups, tags, and search make the Collections page a Bible study organizer. Each collection sits in one group, or in Ungrouped, which always comes last, and can carry up to 20 tags for themes that run across groups.

Groups adds, renames, reorders, and deletes groups. While you have none, it suggests a few, such as Personal Bible Study.
Organize, on a collection’s card or page, picks its group and tags; then choose Save organization.
Tags adds, renames, and deletes tags across all your collections.
Reorder, beside a group’s heading, moves its collections up and down, and the heading itself folds the group away.

Deleting a group moves its collections to Ungrouped, and deleting a tag only takes it off its collections. Neither deletes a collection, passage, or note.

To find a collection, use the search box on the Collections page: each word you type must appear in its title, description, or tags. You can also narrow the list to one group, choose tag chips to show collections carrying every chosen tag, and sort by your own order, by title, or by most recently updated. The main Search finds collections by title or description too, alongside Bible verses and the rest of your study.

The collections page: a Grace card in the Topical studies group, tagged salvation and small group, with 5 passages, 1 note, and shared with 1 friend.

You can share a collection with a friend who has a free Scripture Deck account. You become friends only when they agree, and nothing is shared until you choose a collection to share.

Add a friend

Open Friends, beside Settings in the sidebar or under More on a phone.

By email: under Add a friend, type their address and choose Send request. They choose Accept or Decline on their own Friends page. If they have not registered yet, the request waits until they sign up with that address.
By invite link: under Invite a friend, choose Get my invite link, then copy it, share it from your phone, or send it with Email invite. Your friend creates an account through the link, or signs in and chooses Accept and become friends. New link makes the old one stop working.

Friends see each other’s name and email address, so before you share, check that the name and address on your friends list are really your friend’s.

Open the collection and choose Share. The panel first lists what a friend will be able to read: the title, the description, the passages, and the full text of the connected notes. Choose Share beside each friend you want, or Stop sharing to end it for one. A friend with a confirmed email address may also get an email about it, unless they have turned off Shared collections under Email notifications in Settings.

What your friend sees

The collection appears under Shared with you on your friend’s Collections page and opens read-only, with:

the title, your name and email address, and the description
the passages in the World English Bible, with copy buttons and links into the reader
your connected notes, each folded under its title until they choose Show note
the References list and its links

Your friend cannot edit, tick, delete, or add anything, and they see your current version, including what you add later. To compare or memorize the passages, they choose Save a copy, which gives them their own collection with the same title, description, and passages. The copy leaves out your notes and links and does not follow later changes to yours. Remove from my list takes your collection off their list without changing it.

Mind maps, memorization decks, and reading plans are never shared. Notes travel only as the connected notes of a shared collection, and your groups, tags, and cross references stay in your own account.

Questions

Topical Bible study app questions

Is Scripture Deck free?

Yes. There is no charge to create an account, build collections, or share them with friends, and no subscription or card. If optional paid features are added later, the tools you use today will stay free.

Does Scripture Deck come with ready-made topics?

No. Each collection is a topic you build from passages you choose. Use Search to find verses with a word such as “grace” and open them in the reader, or type references straight into Add passages. New to Bible study? The beginner’s guide starts with a single passage.

Does my friend need an account?

Yes, a free one, and the two of you need to be friends: they accept your request or join through your invite link. Collections you share then appear under Shared with you on their Collections page. If one does not, they can check that Collections and Friends are turned on in Settings under Study tools.

Can my friend change or copy my collection?

They cannot change it; only you can. Save a copy gives them their own collection with your title, description, and passages, without your notes or links, and the copy does not follow later changes.

Open the collection, choose Share, and choose Stop sharing beside the friend. Removing someone from your friends ends everything the two of you share, and each of you keeps your own collections and notes.

Scripture source: Quotations from Exodus 34:6, Romans 5:20, and Ephesians 2:8 are from the World English Bible, public domain, in Scripture Deck’s pinned source edition; see the World English Bible publisher.