For those of you who have not yet discovered Biblearc, now may be a good time to check it out. Biblearc is a handy tool for semantic and thought flow diagramming of Biblical passages, which is often a very helpful step in exegesis. I teach various kind of sentence diagramming in my exegesis classes, and I usually use BibleArc as a quick way of demonstrating some of the tools available.
They have recently updated their webapp with some significant improvements that make it much more usable. My favorites include:
- The addition of WLC, NA27 and the new SBL Greek New Testament as primary language resources.
A brand new and fairly decent syntax diagramming component. I had a little trouble getting certain words and components to “stick,” and I’m not sure yet how to diagram subordinate clauses (though I’m sure that’s because I refused to read the directions), but it’s actually pretty slick, especially if you don’t want to shell out a lot of $$$ for similar functionality in Bibleworks or Logos.- A radically new look that is both easier and more functional. It now looks like a modern webapp. Kudos to the designer!
- The addition of BDB and Thayer’s is nice, as is the parsing module. Thayer’s is no substitute for BDAG, though.
- Easier sharing and printing. But there is no way to save as PDF or PNG, which would have been nice.
All in all, a great update. I still have some quibbles, though. There is no way to mark prominence in the semantic diagramming module, for example, and I don’t like some of the categories and descriptions they use (I prefer the methods discussed by Cotterell in this book). But if you are look for an inexpensive and helpful way to move through the exegetical process, BibleArc can help.
