Logos Bible Software is not so much Bible Software, but a full electronic theological library. It combines the power of Bibleworks’ searching with the ability to read some of the very best commentaries, dictionaries, systematic theologies and even books. Most of these are available as add-ons, which can quickly get pricey. However, when you make your initial purchase of Logos you could choose a package that had many of them included, usually at a substantial discount.

Let me give you a flavour of some of the commentaries that are available: Kistemaker/Hendriksen (12 vols, £110), Bible Speaks Today NT (22 vols, £70), Calvin (22 vols, £70), Focus on the Bible (coming soon – 32 vols, £200), Welwyn (coming soon – 49 vols, £210), Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (21 vols, £350), Keil & Delitzsch OT (10 vols, £85), Lenski’s NT (12 vols, £210), New International Greek (12 vols, £375), Pillar NT (8 vols, £175), Word Biblical Commentary (59 vols, £490).

Logos has an astonishing array of resources. The screenshot shows just my commentaries on 1 Corinthians!

Of the other resources the best include a set of IVP dictionaries (17 vols, £90), and the Theological Journal Library (500 vols, £240). Those who enjoy historical theology might appreciate the works of Luther (55 vols, £140), John Bunyan (61 vols, £55), Richard Sibbes (7 vols, £55), Thomas Goodwin (12 vols, £125), John Owen (17 vols, £210), John Knox (6 vols, £70), Richard Baxter (23 vols, £125), Thomas Manton (22 vols, £140), or Francis Schaeffer (22 vols, £70). Partial sets are also available of Spurgeon’s sermons (63 vols, £68), Warfield (20 vols, £210), Jonathan Edwards (2 vols, £85), Boettner (8 vols, £55), Berkouwer (14 vols, £230), Philip Schaff (21 vols, £100), A. A. Hodge (10 vols, £55), A. T. Robertson (15 vols, £105), A. W. Tozer (57 vols, £280), A. W. Pink (40 vols, £175), Lloyd-Jones (10 vols, £105), and John Piper (24 vols, £140).

Systematic theologies include Strong (£30), Hodge (£25), Geisler (£85), Reymond (£30), Grudem (£30), and Erickson (£20). Greek lexicons include BDAG (£105), Liddell-Scott (£95), Friberg (£20), Louw-Nida (£30), Strong’s (£18), and TDNT (10 vols, £140). In Hebrew you can choose from HALOT (£110), Brown-Driver-Briggs (£35), DBL (£28), and TLOT (3 vols, £70). Believe it or not, that’s only a tiny fraction of what’s available – literally everything from Max Lucardo’s Travelling Light to The Ugaritic Textbook (revised edition).

If your Greek or Hebrew is less than you’d like, then Logos has some wonderful features that set it apart from other packages. The most useful are reverse interlinears. Usually interlinears focus on the Greek (or Hebrew) text, and have a very wooden translation in English that follows the Greek word order. John 3:16 in a standard interlinear might read ‘Thusly for loved the God the world so that the son the only born he gave…’. Reverse interlinears do the opposite – they preserve the English word order by moving the Greek words around. The great thing about this is that you can work with the English text (ESV or NRSV), but still have access to all the Greek morphology. You can even search for Greek/Hebrew words and have the results come back in English!

The other key aids in Logos are the exegetical guide and passage guide and bible word study. These effectively bring all your resources together – necessary because the sheer number of Logos resources can make them hard to find. The exegetical guide takes a bible passage, and splits it up into its original words, giving you at-a-glance access to all your resources that relate to each word. The passage guide searches all your commentaries, maps and other resources and displays everything that relates to that passage on one easy-to-access page. Finally the bible word study takes a word (Greek, Hebrew, English – even Syriac or Coptic!) and shows links to dictionaries and details about how that word is used and translated in the Bible.

Verdict: Nothing else comes near Logos for breadth of resources. If you want to use your computer to go beyond searching bible texts, Logos is your best choice.

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