From Data Nerd to Bible Nerd

I've spent 40+ years behind the keyboard, writing code. I've had some incredibly rewarding experiences building software and software companies, and today I'm excited to share what we've been working on most recently.

Like my previous companies—Wily Technology and New Relic—this project started with me writing software to solve my own problem. But instead of addressing my previous frustrations ("How do I debug my broken software in production?"), I'm scratching a new itch—and dare I say, a deeper one: "How can I instantly find trustworthy answers to my specific questions when reading the Bible?"

Anyone who has spent time reading the Bible knows the feeling. You're reading through Romans or wrestling with a passage in Ecclesiastes, and suddenly you have countless questions. Why did Jesus curse the fig tree? Who were the Amalekites? Every verse can surface new questions, and each question is an opportunity to understand Scripture more deeply.

So I did what I always do: when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. My hammer is coding.

Meet Gamaliel

Gamaliel.ai is an AI-powered Bible study companion named after the rabbi who mentored the Apostle Paul. Everybody needs a mentor. Luke Skywalker had Yoda. And Paul—author of half the New Testament—had Gamaliel. It's designed to be a thoughtful study partner for anyone seeking to understand Scripture more deeply, whether you're a curious seeker or a lifelong believer.

As we shared this idea with friends, pastors, and scholars, we kept hearing the same concerns: "How can I trust the AI?" and "What if it gives bad theology?"

Fair questions. And honestly, the right questions.

Trust Through Transparency

But how do we deliver an AI that bible readers can trust? The best approach I can think of is transparency. People trust Linux and other open source software not because every developer has personally inspected the source code, but because experts have—and because anyone can. We want that to be true for Gamaliel as well.

That's why we decided to open source all of Gamaliel's prompts, guardrails and theological guidelines. Our long-term plan is to engage a community of scholars, theologians and experts to review and improve these templates and AI instructions over time.

Accessible and Free

If we can successfully deliver high quality, trustorthy, biblical answers to genuine questions, then this is something we believe that can benefit anyone who has an open mind to what the Bible has to offer. We want anyone and everyone to use Gamaliel with no friction or barriers.

No signup required, no app to download, and never any fee to pay or advertisement to dismiss. Just click a link, ask your question and get an instant answer—with Scripture, in context. The goal is completely frictionless, trustworthy AI-assisted Bible study for all, free forever. Longer term, we want to support many translations and languages. Stay tuned.

Customizable...

Everybody's spiritual journey is different. You may be a curious seeker who has never read the Bible before, or you may be a lifelong theologian who spends daily time deep in the Word. Specify where you are on your journey by providing your user profile, and further customize it by specifying your theological perspective/denomination, including Catholic, Reformed, Charismatic, Eastern Orthodox and several others. AI gives us the opportunity to customize the response to meet the reader where he or she is at.

We're also building customization features for churches, ministries, and Bible study groups—always within proper theological boundaries, but personalized for specific communities.

...Yet Fully Biblical

But customizability and the LLM itself need boundaries. So we decided to adopt the guardrails that have aligned billions of believers worldwide for millenia:

1. the Nicene Creed
2. The belief that the canonical Bible is the infallible Word of God

No doubt there will be many who disagree with these ground rules, and we respect that.

Provide a modern AI model with these open guardrails and instructions, and nothing but Scripture as context, and we've been genuinely impressed by the answers. Hopefully they will impress you too!

Our goal is to provide down-the-middle biblical answers. Is there a risk of Gamaliel dispensing bad theology? To be sure. But that risk exists in the real world too.

Where We Are Now

Early. It works, but the cement is still wet. We're eager for feedback—try it out, tell a friend, and let us know what you'd like to see different.

But let us be clear about what this isn't: Gamaliel is not a substitute for Bible study. Read the Word. We designed this to be a study companion. Every answer is grounded in Scripture—go back to the text and read it for yourself. And keep reading! And when the next question comes up (it will!), you're a tap away from a biblical answer.

We know we're doing things right if Gamaliel makes you want to read the Bible more often and more deeply.

If you're both a Bible scholar AND familiar with GitHub, peek at our public repository with all the prompt templates, doctrinal guardrails and theological guidelines. The long-term goal is fully open source prompts developed by the community.

Forty years ago, I started writing code to help developers understand what was happening inside their applications. Today, I'm writing code to help myself—and hopefully others—understand what's happening inside the most important book ever written. I'd love for you to try Gamaliel and share your feedback.

Lew Cirne
Cofounder and Chairman, Beloved in Christ Foundation

Try Gamaliel at gamaliel.ai or explore our open source approach at github.com/gamaliel-ai