Tag: BibleWorks

BibleWorks Announces Closing

20180601banner
Image via BibleWorks.com

 

I was surprised and saddened to receive an email the other day announcing that BibleWorks is closing:

BibleWorks has been serving the church for 26 years by providing a suite of professional tools aimed at enabling students of the Word to “rightly divide the word of truth”. But it has become increasingly apparent over the last few years that the need for our services has diminished to the point where we believe the Lord would have us use our gifts in other ways. Accordingly as of June 15, 2018 BibleWorks will cease operation as a provider of Bible software tools. We make this announcement with sadness, but also with gratitude to God and thankfulness to a multitude of faithful users who have stayed with us for a large part of their adult lives. We know that you will have many questions going forward and we will do our best to answer some of them here.

The use of Bible software has been integral to my sermon preparation and teaching and small group leading these last five years. BibleWorks was my first foray into Bible software and always will hold a special place in my heart. One of my very first blog posts was this one on BibleWorks and the Septuagint, followed by a post called “BibleWorks in the Pew?” That led to a six-part review of BibleWorks 9, followed by some posts on BibleWorks 10, the 2015 and most recent release. From there I reviewed Accordance and Logos, culminating in this 2012 comparative review, which is by far the most-visited post at this blog.

The BibleWorks transition to Mac has been a little bumpy, so I haven’t used it nearly as much in the last couple years, although I still remember buying a used PC laptop for the sole purpose of having a machine to run BibleWorks on!

In the meantime, BibleWorks 10 is set to receive support for existing users for the foreseeable future, and until June 15, you can purchase it at $199, by far the lowest price the program has ever been.

There is some ambiguity remaining with the program’s future, although founder Michael Bushell has since elaborated on a forum post here. It looks like either open-sourcing BibleWorks or selling it are not on the table.

BibleWorks has been a big part of my ongoing journey through the Bible via Hebrew and Greek, so like many others, I am sad to see it close. Thanks be to God and to the staff for the many years of ministry and good programming BibleWorks has offered!

6 Most-Visited Posts at Words on the Word

It’s been a quiet week at Words on the Word. Don’t worry–I’ve been working on some future posts, not the least of which is a review of the new Caspian record. In the meantime, just for fun, here are the top six posts that keep people coming back to the blog, based on traffic, in increasing order.

6. First Look at Logos 6: New Features and Screenshots

5. How to Read and Understand the Göttingen Septuagint: A Short Primer, part 1

4. Why did Jesus tell the disciples not to tell anyone about him?

3. Review of Sony SRS-BTS50 Bluetooth Wireless Speaker

(I’ve got a review of Logitech’s new BOOM 2 coming soon….)

2. Bonhoeffer’s Last Words, Before He Was Hanged (70 Years Ago Today)

1. Which Bible software program should I buy? Comparison of BibleWorks, Accordance, and Logos

(This review is three years old, and could be updated to include the new versions of all three, but many of the comments still hold.)

More anon….

Full PDF: Comparative Review of Software for Septuagint Studies

JSCS (2014) Cover
JSCS (2014) Cover

 

I’ve received permission to post the full .pdf of my comparative review of software for Septuagint studies. It appears in volume 47 (2014) of the Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies (JSCS). In the review I consider and evaluate Accordance 10, BibleWorks 9, and Logos 5, specifically with an eye toward their use and resources in the field of Septuagint studies.

Since I wrote that review, new versions of each of those programs have appeared: Accordance 11, BibleWorks 10, and Logos 6. Perhaps the biggest change worthy of mention is that BibleWorks now offers as part of its program the New English Translation of the Septuagint.

Here is the offprint of my review.

You can subscribe to JSCS and see information about the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies (IOSCS) at this link. Journal Table of Contents are on Eisenbrauns’s site here.

Leningrad Codex in BibleWorks 10

"Leningrad Codex Carpet page e" by Shmuel ben Ya'akov - [2]. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
“Leningrad Codex Carpet page e” by Shmuel ben Ya’akov. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
The Leningrad Codex is the basis for the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS), the critical edition of the Hebrew Bible. Leningrad is the earliest complete Masoretic manuscript still available to us, dating from the 11th century. BHS is what’s called a diplomatic edition–it uses Leningrad as the best available text with a critical apparatus at bottom.

Images of Codex Leningradensis, as it is also known, are available freely online. (See here, for example.) But users of Bible software still have hoped for something more integrated and easier to use than a .pdf.

BibleWorks 10 offers Leningrad images, fully integrated with the rest of the software’s texts. There are even verse markers so you know where you are in the manuscript. You can toggle verse markers off if you want to read through with no help.

Here’s what it looks like:

 

Click image or open in new tab to enlarge
Click image or open in new tab to enlarge

 

You can see in the image above that I can view the Leningrad Codex (with verse markers) in tandem with BibleWorks’s Search Window (far left), Browse Window (second from left and showing multiple versions of my choosing), and Analysis Window (second from right, here featuring lexical data that automatically appears as I hover over words in the Browse window).

It’s possible to zoom in and out of the image at far right to get a closer look at the manuscript detail if you desire. Or you can open it in its own window, like so:

 

Leningrad Images
Click image or open in new tab to enlarge

 

Now you can navigate the Leningrad Codex using the sidebar at left.

One other really cool feature–by hovering over the verse reference in the codex, you bring up a pop-up window showing you multiple versions:

 

Click image or open in new tab to enlarge
Click image or open in new tab to enlarge

 

Very impressive. Note, too, the nifty blue and yellow color scheme in the image above.

My only critique of this new, flagship feature (which is executed really well) is that there’s not a keyboard shortcut to zoom in and out of the codex images. You have to right-click, then navigate through the contextual menu for the zoom percentage you want, then select it. Somewhat making up for this, however, is the ability to simply click-hold and drag your way through the images.

Check out a short video of the codex in BW10 here:

 

 

BibleWorks 9 took a huge leap forward in offerings of Greek manuscripts:

 

Alexandrinus longer ending

 

Now BibleWorks 10 starts to bring the program’s Hebrew offerings to parity with the Greek. There is still much more by way of Greek MSS in BW10 (might we hope for the Aleppo Codex in BW11?). But BibleWorks is the first software to offer the images of Leningrad to its users. A big step forward to readers and students of Hebrew.

See more of what’s new in BibleWorks 10 here.

 

 

I received a free upgrade to BibleWorks 10 for the purposes of offering an unbiased review. See my other BibleWorks posts here. You can order the full program here or upgrade here. It’s on Amazon, too.

BibleWorks 10, Just Released

 

 

BibleWorks 10 just came out today. From the press release:

After four years of intensive development, BibleWorks 10 is now available – with a substantial list of valuable additions that will enhance your ability to study God’s Word. Please click HERE to watch our introductory video.

In BibleWorks 10 you will find an impressive array of new search capabilities, along with some important exegetical resources, that significantly enhance its already substantial toolbox:

• High-resolution tagged images of the Leningrad Codex
• Two new NT manuscript transcriptions
• Nestle-Aland GNT 28th Edition
• New English Translation of the Septuagint
• Danker’s Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the NT
• Instant lemma form usage info for Greek and Hebrew
• 1,200+ high resolution photos of the Holy Land
• EPUB reader & library manager
• Complete audio Greek NT
• Customizable window colors
• Dynamically adjustable program text size
• Mac and PC versions.

We have a series of videos HERE that give you more info on each of these!

I hope to write more soon. Check out www.bibleworks.com in the meantime. 

My Comparative Review of Software for LXX Studies, Published in JSCS

I’ve just come home to the new Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies (JSCS) in my mailbox. This volume (vol. 47, 2014) publishes an extensive comparative review I wrote of Bible software programs for Septuagint studies. In the review I consider and evaluate Accordance 10, BibleWorks 9, and Logos 5.

I’m excited to see it in press! Here are the journal cover, the contents, and the first page of the review. You can subscribe to JSCS at this link.

JSCS (2014) Cover
JSCS (2014) Cover

 

JSCS (2014) Contents
JSCS (2014) Contents

 

First Page of the Review
First Page of the Review

A Hidden Gem in BibleWorks

Luke 18:1-4
Luke 18:1-4 (click to enlarge)

A hidden gem in BibleWorks is the “MacDonald Greek Transcription.”

BibleWorks comes with sentence diagrams for the Greek New Testament. They are also useful and look like this:

Luke 18:1-2 (click to enlarge)
Luke 18:1-2 (click to enlarge)

The MacDonald transcriptions above, however, replicate something I haven’t seen in any other Bible software (EDIT/UPDATE: Logos has a “clausal outlines” module, minus the color coding), which is the sentence flow method of representing and visualizing a sentence. He uses color coding and spacing to line up parallel ideas and repeated words, making them easier to see than in just the text or even the diagrams.

It’s a great way to get at the motifs and important words of a given passage. And I’d forgotten about it until recently, but am now using it most weeks in sermon preparation.

The full title of the resource above is Syntactic and Thematic Greek Transcription of the New Testament, by William Graham MacDonald, 2008. BibleWorks is available here. Its full contents list is here.

What BibleWorks on iPad looks like

The headline is not in error. BibleWorks does not make an app for iPad, still, but Parallels has just released an app called Parallels Access that allows you to use an iPad to access any computer–PC or Mac, desktop and laptop alike. They write:

Parallels Access ‘applifies’ your Windows and Mac applications, letting you remotely access and experience them as if they were made for iPad.  Tap, swipe, pinch and scroll any Mac or PC software application – even if they were not optimized for the iPad – and get more done on-the-go!

More about the Parallels Access app is here. It’s free in the App Store, and you get a two-week free trial. After that it’s a fairy expensive (as apps go) subscription rate of $80/year. I hope to offer further insights about the app in the future on this blog, but for now, I’m pretty impressed that you can use your desktop and laptop programs as if they were (more or less) native to the iPad.

And more to the interests of this particular blog, here is what BibleWorks (using Mac Public Preview) on iPad (!) looks like, via Parallels Access (click to enlarge):

BW on iPad

Here are the sentence diagrams. Click to enlarge, and notice how crisp everything looks. (This is on an iPad mini.)

bw diagrams

Most remarkable to me is that the Use Tab feature works–in the desktop/laptop version of the program, this works by hovering over a word. In the Parallels Access version of BibleWorks, a single click on a word in the Browse Window activates the feature.

Astounding. As my friend and long-time college roommate would say: We’re in the future.

Books for Sale (Word Biblical Commentary, 9 vols., others)

wbcI’m looking to sell 9 volumes of the Word Biblical Commentary set. I’ve listed them (with full condition details) here. If you want to contact me directly about a possible purchase (i.e., not through ebay), feel free to use this form, and we’ll talk. (UPDATE: Books are now sold.)

———

A few more books for sale:

IVP Bible Background

IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
Like New
ISBN: 978-0830814053
Used just a few times. No markings. In great shape.
$22 (SOLD)

bdag

Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG)
for BibleWorks Software
 Compatible with BibleWorks 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. I’ve been in touch with BibleWorks to confirm that on completion of sale, one user license transfers to the buyer with no fee, so that you can use BDAG in your BibleWorks. (Must have purchased and own BibleWorks to be able to use this.)
Significant discount from buying new (where it’s $150).
$99 (SOLD)

Ezra Nehemiah BHQ

Ezra and Nehemiah: Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ)
Like New
Taken out of shrink wrap and used just once or twice.
Excellent condition.
$40 (SOLD)

Greek Grammar Wallace

Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics
Very Good/Like New
Just some edge and cover wear. Light blue cover as pictured, but same contents as dark blue cover.
$22

Free shipping on all orders. If you’re interested in buying–or just have questions–you can reach me using this form, and we’ll go from there. (I use PayPal; shipping is free only domestically.)