Recommended Bible Software Purchases for LTSG Students – MGVHoffman 6.2006

I realize that buying Bible software is a significant cost, but as Church leaders, these are the tools of your profession. Bible software is a long-term investment, but I can assure you that you will need to use it regularly during seminary. My hope is that it will become a routine tool for you to use throughout your ministry. In order to speak the Word with integrity, you will need to be able to study that Word and engage in conversation with the grammarians, theologians, and other scholars that these resources reflect.

Having investigated everything carefully, I have decided to recommend to LTSG students products from Logos and BibleWorks, the two leading programs for Windows-based systems for work with original Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Greek, and Latin texts alongside modern English Bible versions. (Note: If you are a Mac user, both programs run under Windows emulators, and Logos has promised a native Mac version. The main Mac Bible software program is Accordance: www.accordancebible.com/ )

• If you have any familiarity with Greek at all, don’t even bother with the Christian Home Library, the Bible Study Library, or the Leader’s Library from Logos.
• If you are the sort of person who does not like reading books on a computer, if you simply want something to help you work with the Greek/Hebrew texts, or if money is tight, then purchase Logos3 Original Languages Library (=L3OL) or BibleWorks7 (=BW7). This will give you almost all the basic tools (I mention below suggested other books to supplement your purchase), and you can always add more books on later.
• If you like the idea of a digital library and if you have the money, then either buy the L3OL (and supplement it from the list I provide) or go straight to the Logos Gold Library (=L3G). (That is, it is not worth your while to bother with the Logos Scholar’s Library or the Silver Library.) In addition to the enhanced collection of original language tools, there are some fine other books in this collection that are worth the money.

Here are some things you need to keep in mind when making a decision:

• Purpose and Approach:
• BW7 is text-centric. It focuses on a verse or even word of biblical text and links outward to related resources. All the resources are directly related to the Bible in some way: biblical texts in ancient or modern languages, grammars, lexicons, text critical tools, etc.
• Logos is a library management system. It wants to organize a complete digital library which is not limited simply to biblical resources. Logos is aggressively expanding the number and kinds of books you can purchase to integrate into its library. In addition to biblically related materials, it can include textbooks, theology, history, etc. (Among your required textbooks in your seminary classes, you are quite likely to have at least a couple that are accompanied by a CD-ROM using the Logos/Libronix system.) It can look across the books of this library and look down into each book to the verse or word level.
• Interface and Performance:
• BW7 has a fairly utilitarian, 3 panel interface: search/select texts > browse texts > analyzing aspects of the text.  It is very streamlined and returns results very quickly. One’s productivity with the program is greatly enhanced by becoming familiar with numerous shortcut combinations, right click options, and command line parameters. (Yes, a command line, for those of you who remember DOS programs back in the day…)
• Logos feels much more integrated with Windows programs in general. The good part of this is that it does often seem more intuitive, but the bad part is that you often have to go through a few extra steps to get a similar result as in BW7. Logos windows are also more manipulable, and you really need to take some time to figure out how you want your workspace to look. You also should be aware that Logos, since it is working with a ‘library,’ is noticeably slower than BW7 and requires more processing power and more RAM in your computer.
• For example: to find all the times that any form of occurs in the NT, Logos takes about 20 seconds to completely return all of the 191 occurrences in their Greek context. In BW7 it even has a little response notice ‘bragging’ that it only took .09 seconds. (Yes, .09) Now if I want to scan all these hits using the NRSV instead of the Greek, it will take a couple clicks and about another 20 seconds to get them in Logos. It is less than a second in BW7. Do note, however, that there are quite a number of interesting things I can do with these results in Logos that are only a click or two away, things that are not as easily accessed in BW7.
• For example, if I wanted to find what sort of direct or indirect objects are used with the verb γράφω, it will take about two minutes, but Logos can tell me using its syntactical resources. I would not be able to do this at all in BW7 except to look through all 191 hits individually.
• Cost: (Prices reflect academic discounts through purchase programs for LTSG students only)
• BibleWorks7 - ~ $255
• Logos3 Original Languages Library - $250 (+ ~$40 for Analytical Lexicon of Greek NT and Harper’s Bible Dictionary)
• Logos3 Scholars Gold Library - $830

For those of you trying to decide between Logos and BW7, the table below lists all the books in the Gold library and indicates which ones are in LG3OL or BW7. I have also included at the end an additional list of books in BW7 that are not in Logos. Do note, however, that you cannot simply compare Logos and BW7 on the basis of contents alone. As I have already noted, they look and function quite differently and offer different capabilities.

In addition, you should not make a decision simply on quantity of books. I hope that this list of recommended books is helpful. I am somewhat reluctant to compose such a list, because of the warning of Eccl 12.12: “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” The only thing worse than the ‘making’ of many books is the ‘buying’ of many books! May I suggest that you only buy something that you will actually, definitely use within the next nine months. I have also found that the problem you will face is not finding information but being overwhelmed by too much information. This list, then, is an attempt to reduce the amount of resources to check to those that are more likely to be most helpful.

How did I make these determinations? If you look at the listing of books below you will see that I have ‘graded’ them according to my opinion of their value or usefulness. “My opinion” reflects a Lutheran, somewhat liberal Protestant perspective. I have, therefore, avoided most books that are self-described in some way as “conservative classics.” (This usually means old and in the public domain and may reflect information that has been superseded by more recent discoveries. Some of the “classics” are indeed “classic,” however, so use your discernment.). I have also avoided most of those from Victor Books or Moody Press or by scholars from Dallas Theological Seminary, not only because they tend to reflect a “conservative” theology, but also because they identify themselves as pre-tribulation, premillennial, Dispensationalists. (The theology behind the Left Behind stuff. Few Lutherans would hold such a view. See the Doctrinal Statement which all Dallas Theological Seminary faculty must affirm at: www.dts.edu/about/doctrinalstatement/ ) These scholars do pay close attention to the Greek and Hebrew, however, so they can still have reliable information and insights.

For a summary of the backgrounds of the various multivolume commentaries, see: www.logos.com/commentaries/multivolume. You can also guess something about a book or commentary by noting upon which English translation it is based and when it was published.

Do also note that I have focused on books useful for biblical research. I just don’t know how much value there is for Lutherans with the books in the Theology and Apologetics collections. I have also not made any recommendations on the Leadership, Ministry, and Small Group books included in the Gold collection. If someone works through that stuff and wants to share their assessment with me, I would appreciate it.

Understanding my recommendations

I use the following color coding system:

RED = Very useful books you will probably use regularly or want to have available when needed

• books marked with ** are ones you should definitely considering getting if you get the Original Language (= OL) library
• in addition to those books, ones marked with * should be among the first resources you consult

GREEN = Perhaps useful or use with discernment

BLACK = not really useful or ones I do not know about or have found occasion to use

Also be sure to look at additional books I recommend following this listing

Note that the GOLD Library includes every book listed in this table!

OL = Original Languages Library

BW = Books that are included in BibleWorks7 [ (X) = available for extra cost ] – Note: This is not  a complete listing of works in BW7 but only shows overlap with Logos (cf. www.bibleworks.com/content/full.html for complete list and see very end of this file for some notable resources included in BW7 that are not in Logos)

	Comments	OL	BW
English Bibles
New International Version			X
New Living Translation			X
New American Standard Bible - 1995 Update		X	X
English Standard Version		X	X
The NET Bible **	A hardcopy text also required at LTSG	X	X
Holman Christian Standard Bible			X
The Message*	useful for translation comparison, available online
American Standard Version			X
New Revised Standard Version **		X	X
Revised Standard Version		X	X
Darby Bible 1890			X
New Century Version
International Standard Version - New Testament		X
New King James Version			X
King James Version		X	X
King James Version Apocrypha		X	X
King James Version: Cambridge Paragraph Bible		X
Word Study Bible: KJV (Zodhiates)
Young's Literal Translation			X
Good News Bible	useful for translation comparison, available online
Wuest's Expanded NT
Interlinear Bibles
The Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition w/ McReynolds English Interlinear & Logos Morphology		X
Nestle-Aland 27th Edition Greek NT w/ McReynolds English Interlinear & Logos Morphology	if you like interlinear, these are helpful	X
Lexham Hebrew-English Interlinear Bible		X
Interlinear Literal Translation of the Greek New Testament (Newberry)		X
ESV English-Greek Reverse Interlinear of the NT		X
ESV English-Hebrew Reverse Interlinear of the OT		X
NRSV English-Greek Reverse Interlinear of the NT		X
Greek Texts & Morphologies
The Lexham Syntactic Greek New Testament *		X
OpenText.org Syntactically Analyzed Greek New Testament *		X
Byzantine/Majority Textform w/ Robinson Morphology		X	X
Elzevir Textus Receptus (1624) w/ Robinson Morphology		X
Scrivener's Textus Receptus (1894) w/ Robinson Morphology		X	X
Stephen’s Textus Receptus (1550) w/ Robinson Morphology		X	X
Westcott-Hort Greek NT (1881) w/ Robinson Morphology		X	X
Tischendorf's Greek New Testament		X	X
Septuagint (Rahlfs) w/CCAT Morphological Tagging **		X	X
Nestle-Aland 27th Edition Greek NT w/ GRAMCORD™ Greek New Testament Alpha Morphological Database **	my first choice, but any of the next three entries are acceptable options		X
Nestle-Aland 27th Edition Greek NT w/ Logos Morphology
The Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition w/ Logos Morphology		X
The Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition w/ Swanson Morphology		X
The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts	use w/ Metzger Textual Commentary	X	(X)
Analytical Greek New Testament w/ Friberg Morphology			X
The Works of Philo: Greek Text with Morphology	very helpful if you want to do anything w/ Philo		X
Hebrew Texts & Morphologies
The Andersen-Forbes Analyzed Text of the Hebrew Bible		X
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia w/ WIVU Hebrew Morphology		X
The Parallel Aligned Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Texts of Jewish Scripture (Tov)		X	X
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia w/ Westminster 4.2 Morphology **		X	X
Aramaic Text & Morphology
The Targums from the files of the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project		X	X
Syriac Texts & Morphologies
Syriac Peshitta NT w/ Morphology		X	X
Old Syrian Gospels : Codex Curetonianus		X
Old Syrian Gospels : Codex Sinaiticus		X
Latin Texts
Clementine Vulgate		X	X
Ancient Texts in Translation
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OT in English (Charles)	useful, but look for the forthcoming Greek Pseudepigrapha by Charlesworth	X
The Nag Hammadi Library in English: Fourth Revised Edition		X
The Context of Scripture (3 Volumes)	very nice background texts for OT study	X
Amarna Letters		X
Complete Works of Josephus		X	X
Works of Philo			X
Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume 1		X
Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume 2		X
Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume 3		X
Greek Lexicons
Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament		X	X
Dictionary of Biblical Languages (Greek NT)	not great, but an acceptable entry level  lexicon	X
Enhanced Strong's Lexicon
Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (Liddell & Scott)*	links to full L&S online	X	X
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged ("Little Kittel")
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (10 Volumes) *	important resource but use w/ discernment	X
A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Lust) *		X	X
Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (3 Volumes) *	=EDNT: excellent resource; if not BDAG (described at end), then use this
Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains (Louw-Nida)**		X	X
Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament **			X
NAS Greek Dictionary		X
Hebrew & Aramaic Lexicons
NAS Hebrew Dictionary		X
A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament	=Holladay	X	X
Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon of the OT *	=BDB – The best Hebrew lexicon is HALOT (described at end), but this or Holladay is next best	X	X
Dictionary of Biblical Languages (Aramaic OT)		X
Dictionary of Biblical Languages (Hebrew OT)		X
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament			X
Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the OT Scriptures (Gesenius)		X
Syriac Lexicon
Analytical Lexicon of the Syriac NT
Latin Lexicon
Dictionary of the Vulgate New Testament		X
Original Language Grammars
Elements of NT Greek (Nunn)		X
Key to the Elements of NT Greek (Nunn)		X
Syntax of NT Greek (Nunn)		X
Syntax of the Moods and Tenses in NT Greek		X	X
Greek New Testament Insert (Chapman-Shogren)		X
An Introduction to Aramaic		X
Beginning Biblical Hebrew (Futato)		X	(X)
Hebrew Bible Insert		X
Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar		X
Hebrew Grammar (Gesenius)		X	X
Hebrew Syntax, 3rd Edition (Davidson)		X
Latin Grammar
An Introduction to Ecclesiastical Latin		X
Original Language Tools
Tense Voice Mood
Glossary of Morpho-Syntactic Database Terminology		X
Lexham Clausal Outlines of the Greek New Testament (Deppe)		X
Diagrammatical Analysis		X
The Andersen-Forbes Analyzed Text of the Hebrew Bible: A Systematic Glossary		X
The Andersen-Forbes Phrase Marker Analysis of the Hebrew Bible		X
The Lexham Syntactic Greek New Testament Glossary		X
The Lexham Syntactic Greek New Testament: Sentence Analysis		X
The OpenText.org Syntactically Analyzed Greek New Testament Glossary		X
The OpenText.org Syntactically Analyzed Greek New Testament: Clause Analysis		X
NT Genre Coding		X
OT Genre Coding		X
Building Your Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary		X
Building Your New Testament Greek Vocabulary		X
Novum Testamentum Graece Apparatum Criticum (Tischendorf)		X	X
Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Metzger)**	your best resource for comments on text critical issues in addition to the NET Bible notes	X	X
Bible Commentaries
Teacher's Commentary
New Bible Commentary
Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the OT (10 Volumes)
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Bible
Life of Christ (3 Volumes)
St. Paul the Traveller and Roman Citizen
Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (Lightfoot)
St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (Lightfoot)
St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (Lightfoot)
Bible Exposition Commentary (23 Volumes)
Be Available (Judges)
Be Comforted (Isaiah)
Be Committed (Ruth & Esther)
Be Decisive (Jeremiah)
Be Determined (Nehemiah)
Be Holy (Leviticus)
Be Obedient (Abraham)
Be Patient (Job)
Be Satisfied (Ecclesiastes)
Be Skillful (Proverbs)
Be Strong (Joshua)