I’ve kindly been afforded the opportunity
to review BibleWorks 9. I confess I’ve
never been entirely thrilled about Bible software but agreed to this
opportunity because it would give me the opportunity to see if my initial
concerns were warranted. I gather that
I’m not alone in this matter, but I’ve always been hesitant to use Bible
software because I didn’t want it to become a crutch. In undergrad and seminary, the students who
used it all the time tended not to be the best at the languages. Thus, I’ve never had BibleWorks or Logos on a
personal computer until now!
I’ve got BibleWorks 9 loaded now, though,
and I’m looking forward to becoming more acquainted with it. When it opens up, there’s a nice set of
tutorials that I’ll no doubt use. I’m
anxious to see what non-biblical primary texts they have. I’ll report back soon, just in case any of
the rest of you are as behind the time technologically as I am.
I'm more of a Mac person than a PC user, and hence use Accordance, but my experiences with BibleWorks were never very user-friendly (I hope yours are different!). I've heard better things about Logos. Additionally, Logos has a large library of sources to go with it, including non-biblical texts.
ReplyDeleteI'll also add that while students who use only Bible software will be less effective in the original languages, the software gives you many more resources at your fingertips, far faster, than simply availing hard copy books. (This is coming from somebody who *likes* hard copy, I might add.)
ReplyDeleteI use Logos because that's what was on special at the bookshop I wandered into with a bit of spare money years ago. I like the bible search facilities and I have Semeia and Nag Hammadi Library in English, which means I can search both them easily, but I must admit that I don't use most of the tools because they don't seem useful enough for me to bother working out how to use them. They are designed for use by people who work differently with the text to the way I do. And I don't preach regularly. And most of the things I am offered by Logos come from a theological position that I don't find particularly helpful. And I hate reading books on the screen, so if I have something on screen I will tend to do keyword searches and find bits that are relevant, whereas in hard copy I am much more likely to work my way through the whole book and get an overview of what the author is trying to say. I will be interested to hear what you think of BibleWorks, though.
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