The Wired Bible

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“Open 24 Hours!”—an apt slogan for computerized Bible study in 1996, thanks to the explosive expansion of the Internet this year. The hugely successful World Wide Web, by far the most widely used portion of the Net, allows you to trace the apostle Paul’s route to Rome, skim Cardinal Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua, update your Bible software with study aids, compare the original Hebrew of Genesis to the latest English translation, and purchase a Bible—at any hour and without ever leaving home.

Throngs of software companies are creating Web sites on the Internet, where some offer free access to Bible resources, allow users to update their Bible software and offer study aids for sale. And the software these companies are offering, whether via the Internet or in stores, is increasingly feature-packed and easy to use—even for beginners. If you have never seen a Bible program in action, do so. No doubt, you’ll want to buy your own copy.

With an eye to helping newcomers as well as old hands make sense of this burgeoning field, this article will survey the most recent developments in software for studying the Scriptures and will take a quick tour of some of the richest resources available on the World Wide Web.

What’s New

So, other than the ability to shrinkwrap CD-ROMs so tightly that you must struggle to unsheath your Scripture software purchases, what hath technology wrought in 1996?

The number of Bible software programs on the market has multiplied in the past couple years as computer users realize that their Macintosh or PC is the route to cheap and efficient Bible study. For serious students of the Bible, computer-aided text retrieval and word processing alone can justify the purchase of a computer. Remember, one $300 Bible product on CD-ROM (a compact disc for computers) can contain enough texts and reference materials to fill more than 30,000 pages, weigh hundreds of pounds if hardbound and cost thousands of dollars. With blinding speed, a Bible study program can search its component texts (Bible translations, original-language editions, dictionaries, commentaries and the like) and pull up every instance of every word or reference you seek. Even if you only remember part of a Biblical passage, the computer can find it, present it in a list or in context and let you copy what you want into the program’s notepad or your favorite word processor as you draft a paper, sermon, lesson plan or whatever. Most 059programs also let you attach notes to specific Scriptures—like an electronic Post-it note or marginal rubric.

Making the Best Choice

This article updates last year’s presentation in BAR.^a Although we can’t review every product, we’ll briefly survey 16 developers’ offerings of products that are new or have been updated in the past 12 months. The sidebar “Bible Software at a Glance” will help you better appraise each program’s features. It summarizes the products in terms of the computer platforms they work on—that is Macintosh, DOS, Windows or “32-bit” Windows 95 (Power Macintosh systems can run all four); the Bible translations they include or make available as add-ons; the study aids they include or make available as add-ons (Strong’s Concordance, Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, maps, the ability to use Hebrew or Greek); the possibility to add notes to passages or maintain a personal notebook; and their availability on CD-ROM.

If several editions of a product exist, the chart shows the most comprehensive edition and lists not just the translations and reference works that are included but also any that are available through add-on purchases. Third-party add-ons are noted if a study aid from another company will work with the product. Prices are not given for the products in the chart because they can vary from $40 to $400 or more per product, and total costs depend on how many translations or modules you want.

Virtually every program mentioned here sports features such as multiple-window views, bookmarks, attached notes, personalized notes and sophisticated search capabilities. To choose among them, you have to decide whether you want to do scholarly studies with heavy analysis of the Greek and Hebrew texts, serious study with occasional to moderate reference to the original languages (these can be transliterated into English letters) or devotional reading.

If You Know Your Pi‘s and Qoph‘s

If you enjoy wrestling with the case and tense of Greek and Hebrew words, if you speak of “parsing,” “morphologies” and “grammatical tags” with feeling, and if you’re eager to delve into the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, the Septuagint, the Hebrew Masoretic text and the Louw-Nida Lexicon, the following products are for you.

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Accordance 2.0, a Power Macintosh application from the GRAMCORD Institute, remains the most advanced Bible study program to date. Instead of making you enter search commands that resemble equations (for example, “Jesus AND prayed NOT Gethsemane”), Accordance has a uniquely convenient search mechanism. Accordance is fast, includes a variety of Bible translations and works well with the Greek and Hebrew texts. Version 1.2 in late 1995 added audio pronunciation of Greek and Hebrew. A detailed tour of the program is available at the GRAMCORD Web site (see the sidebar “Electronic Address Book”).

GRAMCORD for Windows 2.0 from the GRAMCORD Institute should be shipping by the time this article appears. While it runs neck and neck with Accordance for features, it will incorporate the latest revisions in the Hebrew and Greek morphological databases. (The GRAMCORD Institute is editing the Westminster morphological Hebrew database as we go to press.) Accordance will get the changes in a coming update. According to GRAMCORD’s Paul Miller, no Bible packages other than GRAMCORD’s provide completely “reliable access” to the Greek and Hebrew morphological databases.

BibleWorks for Windows 3.5 by Hermeneutika runs in the same pack as GRAMCORD for Windows in complexity, yet is relatively simple to use and master. It’s a clear leader in the elegance and flexibility of its Windows interface and in the amount of materials included on the CD-ROM. BibleWorks includes Lotus ScreenCam videos in its tutorials, and its Web site hosts updates and workarounds for minor bugs.

Bible Windows 4.5 is a respected and capable program for those who prefer to read their Bible in Greek and Hebrew. Bible Windows can access all the Bible translations and study aids that come on The Online Bible for PC users, but it adds a Windows 95 flavored interface (as does BibleWorks).

Bible Windows can also dial out through an Internet connection to access the New American Standard Bible (NASB) and New International Version (NIV) and the full 2,000-page text of the Liddell-Scott Greek-English Lexicon, which is “the largest Greek lexicon in existence,” says Silver Mountain Software’s John Baima. In addition, a demo version with the books of Jonah and 1 John in King James Version (KJV) only is available via the Silver Mountain Web site.

Will You Wrestle with Hebrew?

The following software products are for serious Scripture readers who want access to the original Greek and Hebrew, but not at a scholarly level.

An excellent product, Logos Bible Software 2.0 features an extensive and rapidly growing library of study materials, known as the Logos Library System. The first CD-ROM includes 74 add-ons (which Logos calls books); a second CD-ROM adds 55; and another 75 are being prepared, from the Ante-Nicene Fathers to the works of Luther and Calvin and Francis Schaeffer. Books cost from $4.95 (for the works of R.C. Sproule) to $99.95 (for the Septuagint with morphology); you simply call or access the Web site to unlock the books you want to purchase.

Users can search and annotate any book created using the Logos Library System plus generate correctly formatted bibliographical citations and library catalogue cards. Logos 2.0 comes with an introductory video.

Bible Research Systems, the developer of Verse Search, is cooperating with another electronic-document standard, STEP, which lets publishers convert books for use within any STEP-compliant program, such as Verse Search or QuickVerse. Verse Search 6.2 ships this October and is available for Macintosh, DOS and Windows systems. Users who find classical languages daunting will like the program’s ability to transliterate Greek and Hebrew into English letters.

The PC Study Bible for Windows Reference Library Plus from BIBLESOFT is a 064well-integrated and popular product. Version 2.1 adds the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible.

Kirkbride’s Thompson Chain HyperBible for Windows 4.0 adds a color interface and additional study materials to what was already quite a variety—plus, through the magic of digital audio, Strong’s Greek and Hebrew words can pronounce themselves. For serious users of the Thompson Study System, only its owner, Kirkbride, includes the up-to-date Thompson Chain-Reference Bible in its HyperBible product. Other companies offer the Marginal Chain-Reference Bible based on a 1917 editon, now in the public domain, of the Thompson Study System.

The Online Bible 2.5.3 for the Macintosh has the most comprehensive set of study aids among Mac Bible programs. This speedy program does Greek and Hebrew, and sports an interface that’s extremely easy to learn, customize and use. This is simply the best program for Mac users who aren’t dyed-in-the-wool Greek and Hebrew scholars.

If You Only Speak English

These programs are aimed at Bible readers who want all their materials in English.

QuickVerse 4.0 is an elegant, superfast program that began as a devotional aid and has risen high on its ease-of-use laurels. Parsons Technology has jumped aboard the STEP wagon, so QuickVerse can access any “book” that’s published in the STEP format. In fact, you can download free copies of the QuickVerse demo, Parsons’ STEP reader and Easton’s Bible Dictionary from the company’s Web site; more books will be made available for download in the future. Like PC Study Bible, the Windows version of QuickVerse on CD-ROM comes with the DOS version.

WORDsearch is an attractive and practical program for DOS, Windows and Mac users. A $9.95 CD-ROM includes extensive study materials plus Life Application Notes and LESSONmaker—and lets you “try before you buy” additional modules.

BibleMaster 3.0 is a well-designed program published by the Lockman Foundation, purveyors of the NASB. It’s a pleasure to use, and both the Macintosh and Windows versions come on CD-ROM.

Bible Explorer 2.0 is a Windows-only 066program, newly shipped on CD-ROM a year ago, that now comes in five editions. It represents a good value, starting at $39.95, and contains 250 color photos of the Holy Land. Family members can also create their own “desktops” and return to study sessions exactly as they left them.

Finally, The SAGE Digital Library comes in Adobe Systems’ Acrobat (PDF) format on one hybrid Macintosh/Windows CD-ROM; a DOS file reader is also included. SAGE Software (800–297-4435) offers the compendium of nearly 100 commentaries and reference works for $39.90.

Uncharted Territory

Some products do not appear on the chart because they take a simpler approach to Bible software, often including just one Bible translation or reference work.

The Venture Bible 2.0 from Augsburg Fortress Publishers (612–330-3300) delivers the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) and apocrypha as well as maps and other study modules on a Windows disk ($69.95).

The New Oxford Annotated Bible: Electronic Edition from Oxford University Press (800–334-4249) comes on five disks for the Windows version and four disks for the Macintosh (either version $79.95); it includes the NRSV with apocrypha. The version on CD-ROM for Windows users should be available by the time this article is published, and for Macintosh users in January 1997 (either version $99.95); it will add The New Oxford Maps and The Oxford Companion to the Bible.

Our Sunday Visitor publishes the New American Bible-only Deluxe Bible for Windows (3-disk set, $39.95; CD-ROM, $39.95) and a growing group of Roman Catholic documents on diskette and CD-ROM: Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Enyclopedia & Catholic Dictionary (10-disk set, $49.95; CD-ROM, $49.95), Our Sunday Visitor’s Enyclopedia of Catholic History & Catholic Dictionary (CD-ROM, $49.95), The Catholic Answer Books (3-disk set, $14.95), and Catechism of the Catholic Church for Personal Computers (3-disk set, $39.95; CD-ROM, $69.95). All titles are for Windows 3.1 users, but the Catechism also comes in a Macintosh version. In addition, this month The Encyclicals of John Paul II will become available on a “hybrid” Macintosh/Windows CD-ROM ($49.95).

Ark Multimedia Publishing (800-552-2807) produces Ark Multimedia Bible Interactive, a topical presentation of the Bible based on the New Century Version and The Living Bible translations, interspersed with video clips of personal testimonies from students and personalities such as Charles Colson. A Bible dictionary and detailed maps fill out the offerings on this CD-ROM for Windows users.

Word (800-933-9673) now sells Disciple’s Diary, a KJV-only product aimed at devotional reading, for Windows 3.1 or Macintosh users ($49.99).

White Harvest Software (800-318-7333) is producing HeavenWord, a professionally recorded “audio Bible for Windows” on CD-ROM; it comes with the KJV, NKJV or NASB translation. HeavenWord focuses on such devotional aids as building a daily Bible-reading plan and playing passages in a loop for effective memorization.

MANNA (708-584-7848) sells Bible Maps 4.01, a program that contains 35 color maps depicting the journeys of the twelve tribes, Jesus and the apostle Paul, as well as 225 cities and sites (Macintosh, $24.95).

Using the Folio Views text reader, Galaxie Software (800-GALAXIE) has put the last 41 years of the scholarly journal Bibliotheca Sacra on CD-ROM ($149.95) and 16 years of the Westminster Theological Journal on CD-ROM ($99.95). Both are Macintosh/Windows compatible.

Davka Corp. (800-621-8227) produces a number of Judaic CD-ROMs for both Macintosh and Windows users: Soncino Midrash Rabbah ($179), Soncino Talmud ($299), Soncino Zohar ($179), Encyclopedia Talmudit ($499), Igros Moshe ($79.95), Book of 075Legends ($59.95), Mishnah Berurah ($39.95), Encyclopedia of Judaism & Dictionary of Jewish Biography ($79.95), Judaic Classics Limited ($49.95), Judaic Classics Deluxe ($399), CD-ROM Bible ($49.95) and Soncino Classics Collection ($589), which includes the Midrash, Talmud, Zohar and Bible.

Torah Productions (414-445-2002) publishes all 30,000 pages of Torah for the People on a Macintosh-Windows CD-ROM ($850). Any of this title’s 105 books is also available individually ($19.95 and up).

For students of the Hebrew and English texts approved by the Hebrew Society, Bible Land Software (800-925-6853) sells Bible Scholar (DOS, $199) and Old Testament (Macintosh disk or CD-ROM, $89). These products have not been updated in 1996.

Handheld computer users need not feel left out either. Apple Computer’s “Newton” MessagePad has the largest pool of software available for purchase direct from the developer or online. Even so, the most advanced Bible product for the Newton is The Holy Bible, King James Version ($39.95) from K2 Consultants. It’s indexed and fast, but it’s just the KJV.

“Open 24 Hours!”—an apt slogan for computerized Bible study in 1996, thanks to the explosive expansion of the Internet this year. The hugely successful World Wide Web, by far the most widely used portion of the Net, allows you to trace the apostle Paul’s route to Rome, skim Cardinal Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua, update your Bible software with study aids, compare the original Hebrew of Genesis to the latest English translation, and purchase a Bible—at any hour and without ever leaving home. Throngs of software companies are creating Web sites on the Internet, where some offer free […]