Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Bible Works 8 - Part 1

Before I start my review of Bible Works 8, I need to recollect my first encounter with the program. I vividly remember when I first met my one-day-to-be-wife and thinking to myself, "She's kinda cute". And then I learned that she was only seventeen so I backed off for obvious legal reasons - well, until she turned eighteen. However, I did have a similar (but less intense) experience when I first met Bible Works! I'd started doctoral studies and I was still, can you believe, using the Englishman's Greek Concordance for word searches. Then I got given a copy of BW 5 and it was like I had met the enchanted princess of the Shangrila of biblical software. "Where have you been all of my life baby?" I had instant access to Greek and Hebrew texts and various English translations at my finger tips. Since then I've been a fan of Bible Works as it has saved me so much time and the features that it adds keep getting better. In later Bible Works versions, having English and Greek texts of Philo and Josephus were smashing as I use them frequently. Also, being able to have BDAG and HALOT data appear as you put the cursor on certain words makes preparing exegetical notes a dream. Likewise, the complete text of Metzger's textual commentary on the Greek NT was also very handy. You can also get additional resources from the Bible Works Blog. Well that's how it all began. In my next post on BW I'll talk a little about the new features of BW8.

6 comments:

Keith Mathison said...

Just recently had the opportunity to review BW 8 myself.

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/2009/07/bibleworks-8---a-review.html

Great software program!

I look forward to reading your thoughts on it.

Wieland Willker said...

A little more enthusiasm, please!

E.g. Michael Patton wrote: "I tell my classes that I am not really sure I was a Christian before Bibleworks was created and that if I ever lost my Bibleworks I would sit out on a mountain and simply await the second coming. Yes, it is that good."

Alison B said...

How much do I get paid if I don't repeat here the comment you made about Naomi when she was in the flat at Bible college and still a teenager.

If you've forgotten it, I'll give you a hint .... something about "bare feet".

I miss not having access to some of these tools but as I'm desperately trying to get my head around Indonesian my Greek is going to pot!

Thanks for the review though! :)

David Reimer said...

So if I first started using BWks at version 3.0...

Naomi said...

Well, Dunc, Mike has told that one many many many times over the years.
More times than I can count!!!

Alison B said...

Darn!

And here I was trying to exploit a lecturers shame over his previous comments... never mind, I'll try again in five years time to see if he's changed by then.


Actually, I'll give him credit, he's certainly more mature and humble now ... and if someone came up and reminded me of some of the things I said at Bible College I'd actually have a reason to feel shame!

Great to see you keep a close eye on your Mike's internet discussions!