I use Accordance almost every day in my research and study of the New Testament and related literature. One of the great advantages of Accordance over other software packages on offer is their proven commitment to providing tagged texts of all relevant primary literature for the study of the Bible. Competing software packages simply follow Accordance’s lead. For example. recently Accordance has published tagged texts of the Apocryphal Gospels and the Christian Apologists (Ireaneus, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, and Theophylus of Antioch). These are not available with any other software program of which I'm aware.
I have used Accordance for research in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Aramaic Targums, the Mishnah, the Pseudepigrapha, Josephus, the Septuagint, the Apostolic Fathers, Ireneaus, and Justin Martyr. The Dead Sea Scrolls, Aramaic Targums, and the Mishnah tagged texts saved me countless hours of time I would have otherwise spent on painstakingly looking up the words in a Hebrew/Aramaic Lexicon. In addition, because most of this literature is unpointed, I have been able to work with it much more easily thanks to Accordance. Recently, my research has shifted into early Christian literature and I have used the tagged Greek texts of the AF, Ireneaus and Justin to great effect. While I infrequently conduct detailed grammatical research, Accordance provides the most user-friendly and intuitive search engines out there.
Without getting into a detailed discussion of using Accordance for research, I’ll be content to mention one very convenient feature. If you are working with a Greek text (or Hebrew or Aramaic for that matter) and you want to research a word in the various tools that you have (including Lexicons, Grammars, Commentaries, Bible Notes, etc.) you simply right click the mouse and select “Search All Tools”. A list of all the occurrences of that word in all your tools is generated. You simply select which the tool you want to look at and a new window appears with that tool.
I have used Accordance for research in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Aramaic Targums, the Mishnah, the Pseudepigrapha, Josephus, the Septuagint, the Apostolic Fathers, Ireneaus, and Justin Martyr. The Dead Sea Scrolls, Aramaic Targums, and the Mishnah tagged texts saved me countless hours of time I would have otherwise spent on painstakingly looking up the words in a Hebrew/Aramaic Lexicon. In addition, because most of this literature is unpointed, I have been able to work with it much more easily thanks to Accordance. Recently, my research has shifted into early Christian literature and I have used the tagged Greek texts of the AF, Ireneaus and Justin to great effect. While I infrequently conduct detailed grammatical research, Accordance provides the most user-friendly and intuitive search engines out there.
Without getting into a detailed discussion of using Accordance for research, I’ll be content to mention one very convenient feature. If you are working with a Greek text (or Hebrew or Aramaic for that matter) and you want to research a word in the various tools that you have (including Lexicons, Grammars, Commentaries, Bible Notes, etc.) you simply right click the mouse and select “Search All Tools”. A list of all the occurrences of that word in all your tools is generated. You simply select which the tool you want to look at and a new window appears with that tool.
5 comments:
Joel,
I concur. Four years ago I switched to Apple from PC for the sole reason to use Accordance (I used BibleWorks in my unregenerate days ;-)
I also have Logos. But I have to say that Accordance is the most sophisticated and intuitive Bible software program for serious students, particularly for the languages.
Being able to search cognate Biblical literatures with Accordance's robust engine still impresses me today.
The folks at Accordance has done the Church a great service for what they have accomplished.
I just use gramcord...but it definitely does not have all of those other texts...
What happened to the Bibleworks posts?
The interface of Accordance is smooth as silk. I use it for exegetical studies and highly recommend it to any Mac user. Also I don't have access to a large seminary library, I supplement it with titles from Logos. Accordance and Logos make a powerful combination and at times it seems like there is not much you can't do!
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