About ScrollCompass

What it is

ScrollCompass is a storytelling app for iPhone, iPad and Android in which the map is the story. It is not a Bible reader, a social network or a devotional app. Each journey answers a few plain questions: where the story began, where the people travelled, what happened at each place, how geography shaped the story, and where to read it in the Bible.

Five layers, kept apart

The app keeps what it says in separate layers, and never blurs one into another:

• The story: short summaries written for ScrollCompass.
• The passage: a book, chapter and verse reference, never a quotation.
• Historical context: geography, politics, roads, travel and customs.
• The reconstruction note: what was assumed in drawing a route or placing a site.
• Interpretation: where one is unavoidable, it is labelled as interpretation and says whose it is.

Neutral by intention

ScrollCompass prefers plain narrative facts and geography. It labels a denomination's interpretation as such, does not claim certainty where major traditions disagree, and does not quietly merge parallel accounts. The Birth of Jesus keeps Matthew's and Luke's accounts apart; Holy Week follows Mark and names what the other Gospels add. It also says whether an order of events comes from the text, from tradition or from reconstruction.

Uncertainty is shown, not hidden

Many biblical sites are known only approximately, and some are disputed. Every place in ScrollCompass carries one of six certainty levels, and every approximate, disputed or unknown one has a note that explains that case. Dotted lines and badges are never decoration: behind each one there is a real explanation.

Sources

Every place, route and scene lists the works it is based on. Where scholars disagree, the journey says so rather than choosing for you.

The maps are illustrations, not survey data. Coastlines are simplified, some distances are adjusted for legibility, and several locations are known only approximately. Each one carries its own note.

Scripture

ScrollCompass gives chapter-and-verse references and its own summaries. It does not reproduce a Bible translation.

Original map art

The five regional base maps are original renderings drawn by ScrollCompass's own code from Natural Earth public-domain geography. The parchment, coastal hatching, hill relief and compass roses are generated in the same way; no historical map was scanned, traced or copied. The Jerusalem city plan is original geometry written for ScrollCompass.

The maps contain no text. Every label is drawn by the app, so it can be shown in each language, enlarged and corrected without repainting a map. The round medallion illustrations are original emblems of places and objects.

What you will not find

• No AI features or chatbot.
• No social features, comments or user-generated content.
• No scoring, streaks, badges or leaderboards.
• No advertising, analytics or tracking.

Where things stand

ScrollCompass has not been released yet. The editorial, historical, rights and translation reviews by people are still under way, and none of the content will be described as reviewed until they are finished.