A few years ago, Scott Smith realized he needed to organize all the information he had gathered through teaching Sunday School: historical, archeological, and theological notes along with maps. He wanted to put everything into one place that others could reference easily. He started to write a book.
Then he developed an app.
In 2025, that app, OT in Context, became available for public use.
“It was mainly a tool for myself as I was writing to try and understand all these maps [of places in the Bible],” explains Smith, a member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Traverse City, Michigan.
But now the app he developed almost by accident helps people well beyond the walls of his church deepen their understanding of Scripture.
For Smith, developing OT in Context is a natural extension of the work he has done for years.
Growing up in a Christian home, he poured over the maps in the back of his Bible, only to grow frustrated about how difficult they were to harmonize with each other and how it seemed impossible to visualize in real life the places depicted on the maps.
“I’d look at those maps, and they’re cool,” Smith said. “But it’s like looking at a map of Narnia. I didn’t know what to do with it.”
He’s spent his career helping people understand how the images they see in drawings will look in the world around them. More than 25 years ago Smith founded a visual design firm that produces 3D renderings of architects’ work so the architects and their clients can see how the buildings will look when completed.
“I look at plans that architects make and realize [non-architects] can’t understand what that is showing,” he said
The OT in Context app takes the same approach to the geography of the Bible.
The app centers around a map of Israel and surrounding countries and a timeline that covers from 3,500 to 0 B.C. Users can configure the map so that different ancient cities and archeological sites appear on the map as they move along the timeline. They can also see what events in the Bible and world history occurred along the timeline, or watch videos and read articles about archaeological finds that date back to those times.
Users can also arrange the information so they can see the map, the world history timeline, and the Bible timeline all at once.
“It’s not exhaustive, but it’s enough to give you a flavor of who they were and what was going on in the world, and then point you off into the other studies you can go to learn more,” said Smith.
The app is free, but paying subscribers can access exclusive content, including 3D maps, additional timelines, and access to more commentaries and historical information. Subscriptions cost $60 or $100 a year, depending on the plan.
While Smith created the app to aid his own personal Bible study and teaching, Bible teachers across the country have found it helpful. Lindsay Brooks, a ruling elder at Cresheim Valley Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, uses the app regularly when he prepares to preach.
“It deepens your relationship with the text, and it really does help you have some context for the thing that you’re reading,” said Brooks.
Even though the app focuses on the Old Testament, Brooks says it provides helpful context for events in the New Testament, like the magi visiting baby Jesus.
“All of these names and places [in the New Testament] have a history, and that history is often laid out in the Old Testament,” he said.
Smith says understanding the historical and cultural background of the Old Testament can help readers better understand how it points to Jesus. The people Jesus spoke to specifically understood Jesus’ cultural or historical references. They were not automatically thinking about how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy, for example.
“I want to understand [what they heard] before I understand later how Jesus could say, ‘This is obviously [about] me,’” he said.
Smith admits he can be a Bible nerd; he used biblical archeology videos to help one of his daughters fall asleep when she was young. But he says knowledge of the Bible is used best when it helps users recognize God’s sovereignty in their lives and the world, and when it helps them serve the church.
“The gifts of the Spirit are given to the church,” he said.
In Philadelphia, Brooks says the app has reminded him of God’s rule over history and the present.
“[God] works with real nations in real places that have real consequences over time,” he said. “That just helps me as a believer to understand that the same God that worked then works now. That God cares about the righteousness of nations now. That God cares that his word goes out to the entire world now, and he’s walking with his people as that’s happening through history.”