Trying to decide between Logos, Accordance, or Bibleworks? Want to get more out of the platform you already have, or what you’re missing? Check out this post from Justin Taylor, who is compiling some material from David Instone-Brewer at Tyndale House in Cambridge.
Dec 112010
David Stark at New Testament Interpretation reports on the (still beta) roll-out of Biblia.com, an excellent web resource for Biblical Studies. Check out the full report here, or if you’d just like to see the goods, check that out here.
I don’t use the software and so cannot comment on it personally, but Mike Aubrey has a thorough review of the new version of the always well-received Logos platform of bible study tools Check it out. I have been particularly interested in the sentence flow diagramming feature of the platform. Someday I will be able to try it out, but those who are already using Logos should comment on your experiences below!
In addition to their excellent reftagger plugin, which provides blog readers with Bible verse popups whenever they hover over a Biblical reference (try it with Heb. 1:1), Bible.Logos.com is now offering a free Bible Search Bar widget to put in your sidebar. Biblical Bloggers should definitely look into this as it makes things easier for your readers. Logos explains:
If you have biblical content on your website or blog, you’ll definitely want to consider adding the new Bible Search Bar to your sidebar. RefTagger allows your readers to have instant access to the Bible passages that you cite in your post, but what if they want to look up a verse that you don’t mention or launch a search for a word or phrase that you discuss? They could manually navigate to Bible.Logos.com, but the Bible Search Bar makes it even easier for your readers to find what they’re looking for.
The sidebar add-in comes in many shapes and sizes, and should be a convenient addition to any biblical blog. You can get it here. And don’t forget reftagger, if you don’t have it installed already, here.
From the Logos blog:
The Göttingen Septuagint (a.k.a. Septuaginta: Vetus Testamentum Graecum. Auctoritate Academiae Scientiarum Gottingensis Editum) is the most important edition of the Greek translation of the Old Testament ever published. At present it spans 24 print volumes and nearly 7,000 pages, setting the bar high for text-critical studies.
For optimal use in Logos Bible Software, these 24 print volumes will be split into 65 digital resources. This means you’ll be able to view the Greek text right alongside of the apparatus, and in several cases multiple Greek translations with multiple apparatuses. By linking them all together, they will stay in sync as you scroll or jump from passage to passage.
Logos is making this resource available for $299.95 for a limited time. Get it here.
You can find a short but concise introduction to this edition of the LXX here. If you would like to learn more about the relevance of the Septuagint for Old and New Testament studies, Karen Jobes’s Invitation to the Septuagint is an excellent resource.
Feb 262009
NTGateway.com, an excellent repository of resources and articles about the NT, has recently been upgraded to make it more searchable, maintanable, and easier to navigate. Check it out.
You can read about the background for this upgrade here. From that post:
We’ve moved all of the content over to WordPress, slightly reworked the organization, added site navigation in the sidebar, and given it a fresh new look. Mark Goodacre will continue on as the editor and will continue to update the site.
Mark has moved the old NT Gateway blog to a new location and will continue to blog there. He has a new RSS feed, so you’ll need to subscribe to it to get all of the new content syndicated. The NT Gateway blog is restarting from scratch. It, too, has an RSS feed that you can subscribe to.
Phil Gons has a short little guide on how to import your Logos Libronix Library into Zotero’s database.
Jan 282009
New features at an already great site
I’ve mention Bible.Logos.com before. It’s a pretty handy and fluid online Bible. Today it gets an upgrade:
As you navigate through the Bible, we dynamically pull relevant content—both sermons and illustrations—from our Sermons site and display the top three hits with a link to all of the other contributions that deal with the passage of Scripture you’re in.
The coolest part is that no matter where you are in the Bible, the list is automatically updated so there are always related sermons and illustrations just a click away.
This is definitely worth checking out. Logos has put together one of the better web-based Bibles out there. In addition to a variety of English translations they have recently added a number of additional Greek texts, including novum testamentum graece (in Unicode). The site is intuitive and the searching features are robust enough to find what you need. Give it a try.
If you need better Greek searching and features, try Zhubert.
Jan 122009
The UBS Reader's Greek NT
For those trying to decide which Greek Bible they should purchase, Mounce has posted a helpful rundown of your options.
If you’re serious about learning and using Greek, I recommend you get two Bibles. (1) First, you need a Greek NT with a critical apparatus, either the UBS 4 or the NA 27 (both editions optionally include a Greek glossary). (2) Second, I heartily recommend the UBS Reader’s Greek NT. It will make actually reading the NT in Greek all that much more enjoyable.
Mounce also mentions a black-leather “stealth” NA that he uses. I was not able to find this. Anyone know where to get one? I always do feel a little self-conscious using my GNT in church…
Update: Phil Gons additionally recommends (see the comments) this post, which in turn links to this article describing the differences between the NA27 and the UBS4. The article will be of particular interest to those using Logos’s Bible Software.
I love all my gadgets and widgets, my beeps and bops and all the many tools I use to make sure I’m always connected all the time. But there is a danger—all these technological tools tend to feed my idolatry. From Mark Driscoll:
As I drifted off to sleep, it dawned on me that I had not had one minute of silence during my entire day. It was possible, I realized, that I could live the rest of my life without ever again experiencing silence.
In that moment, God deeply convicted me that I was addicted to the false trinity of our day, the gods known as Noise, Hurry, and Crowds. I remembered the words of missionary martyr Jim Elliot, who said, “I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, crowds . . . Satan is quite aware of the power of silence.”
The Bible also describes multiple benefits of purposeful silence, including:
- hearing from God (1 Kings 19:11–13)
- waiting patiently for the Lord to act (Lamentations 3:25–28)
- worshiping God (Habakkuk 2:20)
- knowing God better (Psalm 46:10)
- praying effectively (Luke 5:16)
Since God convicted me of my addiction to noise, I have sought to conform my life more to the pattern of Jesus’, which has proven quite helpful. I try to spend at least five minutes an hour in silence, at least thirty minutes in uninterrupted silence each day, and a full day in silence once a month. During those times I find myself going for silent prayer walks to listen to God, writing in my journal, and sometimes doing nothing at all, which for me has become an act of faith that God is at work even when I am not.
Read the whole thing. Of course Mark is not talking about just technology, but all the many ways in which we avoid the silences that surround us. But for me, technology is my number-one crutch.
Vern Poythress makes some similar remarks, though with a slightly different focus. From a secular perspective, Peter Sagal has some thoughts on the subject.
