Logos Bible Software v3 (£300 – £1,000)

19 April, 2009 by 1 Comment

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). [Read more...]

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Bibleworks v8 (typically £250)

18 April, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Bibleworks does one thing very well, very quickly. It allows you to view, search and analyse the Biblical text. Bibleworks deliberately avoids commentaries, theological dictionaries and other ‘books’, and puts all its effort into the Bible text. It’s lightning-quick, relatively cheap, and very powerful.

Bibleworks is designed for people who are familiar with the original languages, or you want to become so. There’s no interlinear included, for example, which would display the Greek/Hebrew text, but under every Greek/Hebrew word give an English translation of that word.  There’s also few ‘extras’ to buy (which many people think is a blessing – you get almost everything included for your initial fee). The only ‘extras’ most people would consider would be the BDAG, HALOT and perhaps Liddell-Scott lexicons, which weigh in around £100 each. [Read more...]

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Understanding advanced Bible software

17 April, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Before we compare the different products available, let’s look at what marks out these packages from the more basic ones that we looked at in the last issue. In two words: morphological tagging. Let me explain what that means.

Each of the packages I’m going to review offer the Bible in English and in the original languages. They also offer several lexicons (i.e. Greek/Hebrew dictionaries). But simply having the Bible in Greek or Hebrew is of limited value. Most teachers of the Bible know that ἀγαπάω (agapaō) means ‘to love’. But did you remember that ἀγαπήσεις (agapēseis) is finite, second person, singular, future, indicative and active, and is usually translated ‘You shall love’? No, nor did I. That means you don’t just need a Greek text, you need a morphologically tagged Greek text. These texts have tags hidden in every word in the Bible that explain exactly the form of every word, and tell you what the lemma (root word) is. [Read more...]

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The best Bible software for bible teachers

16 April, 2009 by 4 Comments

Bible and laptopBefore Christmas, I looked at some of the best Bible software packages that were designed for those who have little knowledge of Hebrew or Greek, and were studying the Bible for their own growth, or for teaching in Sunday School classes. In these follow-up posts, we’re going to look at software for those who need to dig a little deeper. These recommendations are therefore for people who teach the Bible to adults, or who want to study Greek/Hebrew.

At this end of the market, the choice of software is actually quite limited. Although there are plenty of software packages that include Greek/Hebrew texts (see the previous review), most of them are dated and unreliable. [Read more...]

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The best Bible study software – Postscript

16 December, 2008 by 2 Comments

giantappleaquaIf you’re a Mac user, both QuickVerse and now Logos is available for the Mac. There’s also a Mac-only product called Accordance which costs between £35 and £2,000. It’s considered to strike a helpful balance between ease of use and power. If you want software for free, you should try MacSword, which is similar to e-Sword, although not as friendly.

There are also an increasing number of online tools, so if don’t have your only access to a computer is at the library or a friend’s home, they could be very helpful. The best are The Sword and The Blue Letter Bible. If you just want to read the Bible in many versions, try BibleGateway.

Finally, one further package deserves a mention: Ilumina Gold. It’s marketed as a “digitally animated encyclopaedia suite”. It’s good for bringing the Bible to life through animated sequences of Bible stories, virtual reality tours of important Bible places (e.g. the temple), and photos and maps of Bible lands. It’s therefore potentially helpful for families wanting to encourage children in Bible study. It’s available for Mac and PC.

That just about wraps up this little mini-series on the best Bible study software. In a future mini-series, I hope to be able to make some recommendations about software for pastors and preachers.

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The best Bible study software worth paying for

15 December, 2008 by 9 Comments

Logos Bible Software

Logos Bible Software 3

Logos is to Bible software what John Lewis is to shopping – wonderful choice, but sometimes bewildering. It has far more than you could ever need, and often more than you can really afford. In fact, Logos has almost every resource offered by all the other publishers combined (except Pradis), and plenty more besides.

There are two major downsides. One is cost. The most expensive “base” package in Logos is Scholar’s Library Gold, which costs almost £1,000, and even that includes ‘only’ 700 of the 9,000 titles available. The rest have to be added at additional cost. Having said that, few users will need Scholar’s Library Gold. A far cheaper option is the Bible Study Library at £180. This still includes 18 English Bible versions, and over 150 other resources, which are a nice mix of contemporary and historical. [Read more...]

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The best nearly free Bible software

14 December, 2008 by 2 Comments

sword-searcherSwordSearcher 5

SwordSearcher is excellent value for money, at just $50 (about £35). It includes 10 English versions, more than 20 commentaries (including Barnes, Calvin, Keil-Delitzsch, Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, etc.) 10 dictionaries, hundreds of maps, and several other books. There are no additional modules available, and no modern Bible versions or commentaries. But although they are all out of copyright, these are high-quality resources, – the publisher hasn’t simply stuffed the product full of light resources you’ll rarely use, simply in order make the product look bigger. It is also excellent value for money. Just adding Calvin’s Commentaries to WORDsearch or Logos would cost you twice as much as buying SwordSearcher 5 with Calvin included.

Another strength of SwordSearcher is the links between the various resources. It is very easy to move between the various resources, and (for example) to find dictionary entries that relate to the verse you are currently studying. Even more impressive is the search facility, which is not only incredibly quick, but also very comprehensive.

Verdict: SwordSearcher is the best of the packages that focus on out-of-copyright resources. It’s cheap, fast, easy-to-use, and has higher quality resources that all of its competitors.

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