Bible Software and Free Stuff
Posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Being a professor has certain advantages. One of them is that book and software publishers are often willing to sell academic titles at a substantial discount. The reason is pretty clear. If the professor uses the book as an assigned text in class, there will be lots of copies sold. I know that I personally have been responsible for selling hundreds of Mounce’s Basics of Biblical Greek or Carson, Moo, and Morris’s (now just Carson and Moo) Introduction to the New Testament.
As long as I don’t take advantage of the process, I almost never have to pay retail for theological books. Some I buy for half off, some are given to me, and some are thirty to forty percent off. It is one of the great little perks of being a professor. What kind of special perks does your job offer you? You know, what things that are really cool, but that people who are not in your line of work would never know about?
I bring this up because this Saturday I watched a demo of Logos Software’s new syntax searching capabilities. It is, to put it mildly, amazing. This software enables the owner to do searches that would have taken months with any other software. The show was truly an amazing demonstration of how far computer search capabilities have come.
The amazing thing is that Logos software is not just a Greek or Hebrew searching tool. It is a library searching tool. One starts off with certain bundles (I started with the “scholar’s library� more on that in a moment) of books which include commentaries, grammars, English Bibles, lexicons, Bible introductions, maps, etc. One of the capabilities of the software is to find every mention of a particular text in every book in your library! That is quite a research tool.
I was in my office on a Saturday afternoon watching a computer demo because the fine people at Logos had promised me a “Scholar’s Library� (retails for around $650.00) as a gift just for watching the demo. A $650.00 Bible program for watching a demo for an afternoon? I would have glued my head to a desk for an afternoon if they had asked. It was all pretty simple, I watched, and now I am excited about getting my program.
Upon getting that program I will be using it, talking about it in the classroom, and telling students about the values of it which is exactly the reason that Logos wanted to make sure that I had it.
What kind of Bible software do you use? What do you find the best features to be? Thus far I have used BibleWorks, which is a program made primarily for searching the Greek/Hebrew text of the Scriptures. It is not full of other books like Logos, but there are a few, very important texts that come along with it. I have loved BibleWorks for searching the text of Scripture, but I am excited about seeing what this new software can do. I will let you know.
Study Hard
DrSamLam
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Comments
1Daniel Foster:Monday, January 22nd, 2006 at 4:46 pm
It’s awesome to see your excitement about the tool, Dr. Lamerson! I think you’ll find that Logos Bible Software 3 opens up new vistas in Bible study and boosts your efficiency in research and writing.
As you’re reviewing the software on your blog, feel free to drop me an email if you have questions about whether the software can do a particular task or how best to do it.
Students who would like to see a demo of the software may want to visit [url=http://www.logos.com/demo]http://www.logos.com/demo[/url]. This is a general purpose (not specifically academic-oriented) overview of Logos 3. Some 80 additional videos are at [url=http://www.logos.com/videos]http://www.logos.com/videos[/url].
Daniel Foster
Press Relations
Logos Bible Software
2SamLam:Monday, January 22nd, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Daniel,
thanks so much for the update. I will make sure that I point these links out to my students. I can’t wait to get the program and start using it. Thanks again
Samlam
3Ernie Abrams:Monday, January 22nd, 2006 at 11:08 pm
I use accordance for MAC It works however I’d rather have Logos, so I could use my Macarthur Life Works Library. Now the Lifeworks stuff in my opinion is great!
4Wayne Brooks:Sunday, February 18th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
Hi, I’m just a CRPC member stopping by to download one of Dr Lam’s
MP3 sermons and was looking around and found this - - -So I thought I would post a comment.
I don’t get discounts,commisions, rebates or kickbacks either ,BUT before any one shells out hundreds of dollars on a software program and get thier head glued to a desk for a program that was designed to “sell” and not “use” you should check out: esword.com which will do everything Logos will do
plus more! And the amazing thing about this one is IT IS TOTALLY FREE ! and user friendly !
It was designed by a Christian Programmer/Schoolteacher in Tenn as a ministry - It also has a palm pilot program you can download!
Check it out — I seem to recall it has already reached the seventh million
download -
5Kendell:Wednesday, April 11th, 2006 at 12:05 am
Wayne,
Your statments above are very miss leading!!!!!
1st - esword is located at (http://www.e-sword.net/) not esword.com
2nd - Rick Meyer asks for a donation if you download the software.
3rd - You your statement that e-sword is the same as Logos Bible Software is crazy. Have you ever used or seen Logos? Logos is in a completely different category (or world) then e-sword! And I bet that Rick Meyer of e-sword would agree.
I started using e-sword about 4 yrs. ago and still use it for my PDA. It is a very nice bible software program. It allows you to do basic searches and make notes and read the bible and some commentaries. But it is very limited in what your able to do. It’s focus is for general reading on your computer or PDA.
Where all the short comings that e-sword has Logos is a great solution for anyone that wants to take their studying of our Holy God’s Word!!! Logos does everything that e-sword can do and a whole lot more. If you are interested in just the tip of the iceburgh of what Logos can do with God’s Word and other books that focus on the Bible (Logos has over 7,000 books in it’s electroninc library) please check out these free training videos at (http://www.logos.com/videos)
Please Stop Miss Leading People with False Statements. If you would like further information on this please let me know.
Kendell