The John Gill commentary app for iPhone
If you want the most thorough classic commentary in the public domain, it is hard to look past John Gill. His Exposition of the Old and New Testament goes through the Bible verse by verse, leaving almost nothing unsaid — and at 8.5 million words it is the single largest work in Scribe’s commentary library. Carrying it used to mean nine folio volumes. Now it is a search box on your phone.
Here is what Gill’s commentary is, where it genuinely shines, where to read it with care, and how to keep the whole thing offline on an iPhone.
Who was John Gill?
John Gill (1697–1771) was an English Baptist pastor and theologian, and a serious Hebraist. He spent decades preaching through the Bible and writing it up, drawing not just on the text but on rabbinic sources — the Talmud, the Targums, and Jewish commentators — to an extent few English writers of his era attempted. He wrote firmly within the Reformed (Particular Baptist) tradition, and his theology is never far from the surface.
What is Gill’s Exposition?
It is an exhaustive, verse-by-verse commentary. Where some writers summarize a passage, Gill works through it clause by clause, often pausing on a Hebrew word or a rabbinic parallel. In Scribe it runs to 8.5 million words across more than 29,000 notes, covering all 66 books, Genesis to Revelation — roughly 95 average paperbacks from this one author, and the most complete coverage of any commentary in the library.
That depth pairs naturally with Scribe’s own Greek and Hebrew word study: tap a word for the Liddell-Scott-Jones or Brown-Driver-Briggs entry, then read Gill’s note for how the term was understood in the Jewish and Christian tradition.
Is John Gill’s Commentary still worth reading?
Yes — for the right reasons, and with eyes open. Its strengths are thoroughness and its unusual attention to Hebrew and rabbinic background, which still turns up insight you will not find in shorter commentaries. The caveats: it is long and dense, so it rewards searching for the passage you need rather than reading cover to cover, and its theology is strongly and explicitly Reformed — read the doctrinal conclusions as Gill’s tradition, weighed against the text and the lexicons, not as the last word.
Reading it beside other voices keeps that balance. All twelve sources in the Classical Commentary Library — including Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes, and Keil & Delitzsch — sit side by side, so you can compare how each handles the same verse.
How do you read it on an iPhone, offline?
Most “John Gill” results online are websites that need a connection. A real John Gill commentary app keeps the full text on the device and searches it locally. In Scribe, Gill is part of the Classical Commentary Library:
- The complete commentary is on your phone — no connection needed to read or search it.
- Keyword search finds an exact phrase across all 8.5 million words; semantic search finds the right note when you only remember the idea.
- Because it is so exhaustive, search is how you use Gill well — jump straight to his note on the verse in front of you instead of scrolling volumes.
If you also use AI research, the assistant can search the library and quote Gill — and the other eleven sources — with author attribution, grounded in the passages you actually own.
Where to start
The Classical Commentary Library is a one-time $24.99 add-on — also included with the $4.99/mo subscription — that installs once and then works entirely offline. See what’s included, or read more on choosing an offline Bible commentary app. And because it — like Scribe itself — is a one-time purchase, Gill’s whole exposition is yours to keep, with no subscription.