Logos Bible Software is not so much Bible Software, but a full electronic theological library. Verdict: Perfect for those who are comfortable with the languages and want to focus on exegesis.
The only ‘extras’ most people would consider would be the BDAG, HALOT and perhaps Liddell-Scott lexicons, which weigh in around £100 each. There’s also few ‘extras’ to buy (which many people think is a blessing – you get almost everything included for your initial fee). 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. It’s lightning-quick, relatively cheap, and very powerful.īibleworks is designed for people who are familiar with the original languages, or you want to become so. Bibleworks deliberately avoids commentaries, theological dictionaries and other ‘books’, and puts all its effort into the Bible text. It allows you to view, search and analyse the Biblical text. You’ll never have a messy desk again! Bibleworks v8 ( typically £250)īibleworks does one thing very well, very quickly. In other words, software like this should replace all your bibles (English and original language), your concordances, your interlinears, your lexicons, and most of your grammar books – perhaps even your commentaries. You’ll be glad to know that they all come with tutorials that help you find your way through the complexities. I’m struggling to think of why you might want to this, but the point is that if you want to search for something – anything! – these programs will make it possible. You could find all instances of a dative or accusative participle not immediately preceded by an agreeing article, and followed by an agreeing article and noun, excluding cases where a word from a specified list intervenes. If grammar scares you, skip to the next paragraph, but for those who are interested let me give you an idea of the power available. You can also do more complex searches, such as searching for every time ἀγαπάω (agapaō) is given as a command. You will also be able to parse any word, usually by just hovering your mouse over it.Ī morphological text also allows you to search for every instance of every word, regardless of its inflection. 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.Ī morphological text means that you can jump quickly to a lexicon in one click from any word, without resorting to looking up reference numbers.
That means you don’t just need a Greek text, you need a morphologically tagged Greek text. 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. Most teachers of the Bible know that ἀγαπάω (agapaō) means ‘to love’. But simply having the Bible in Greek or Hebrew is of limited value. Let me explain what that means.Įach of the packages here offer the Bible in English and in the original languages.
#Bibleworks 10 paragraph markers Pc#
If you’re somewhere in between, and want to focus on searching in both English and the original languages, but occasionally consult a commentary or dictionary, then consider Accordance (Mac only, PC via free emulator).īefore 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.Logos is also perfect for those whose Greek or Hebrew is not up to scratch, so if you didn’t understand the previous bullet point, choose Logos! If you want to do all that, but also want to use your software to consult a wide range of commentaries and theological dictionaries, then Logos (PC or Mac) will be just right for you.If you’re a whizz with the languages and are only interested in exegeting the text (in other words, using the software for morphological searching and lexical analysis), then put Bibleworks (PC only) at the top of your list.Choosing between them is actually quite easy: If you want to refer to the original languages you should be using Logos Bible Software 3, Bibleworks 8, or Accordance 8. Although there are plenty of software packages that include Greek/Hebrew texts (see the previous review), most of them are dated and unreliable. These recommendations are therefore for people who teach the Bible to adults, or who want to study Greek/Hebrew.Īt this end of the market, the choice of software is actually quite limited. In this follow-up article, we’re going to look at software for those who need to dig a little deeper. In the last issue of the magazine we 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.