BibleWorks 9 Review

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BibleWorks 9 ReviewJuly 2009 update: I use BW 8.0 for sermon research and deeper bible study. I sometimes use it during small group teaching to look up references quickly as questions arise. I have looked at Logos and Gramcord in depth. Let me say that I gravitate towards BW 8.0 for a number of reasons. If you want to leverage technology to quickly analyze what is going on in a passage, and you know some Greek and/or Hebrew, then this is the program for you. Free with BW 8.0 includes all the tools you need to do extensive research on the Jewish Greek literature background to the New Testament. You also have a wide array of resources to research the LXX and Early Church Fathers in Greek/English and other languages like Latin.
Let me give you a case in point that I think is very relevant for exegetical claims made by some Reformed scholars when it comes to words in the Greek text. In Romans 8:29 a very popular teaching among many scholars claims that the Greek term Paul uses in this verse has a Hebrew flavor in meaning. This is then used to establish doctrine. The verse says: ESV Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
The claim is made that the term 'foreknew' (proegknow) really means to forelove and that it doesn't mean foreknow in the simple sense because the Jewish Greek use modifies it. They claim that Jewish Greek use imports the Hebrew term for love into the Greek compound verb...and that the Hebrew term 'to know' can mean 'to love' and so the Greek word 'to fore know' really means here to 'fore love'. Part of the complaint is that it cannot mean simply foreknow or that would lead to Arminianism or Universalism. So, passing comments occur in a number of Reformed commentaries on Romans or on the topic of Predistination by reformed scholars when dealing with this verse. How would anyone who is not very well versed in Jewish Greek literature know? It sounds likely. It must be true right?
With BW 8.0 you can just look it up and read the sources in about 30 to 60 minutes. Simply configure tabs in the search window to access all the different resources for Jewish background studies that exist in Greek literature. For example, the LXX, the Pseudepigrapha, the Apocrypha, Philo, Josephus and then the post NT Apostolic Fathers all can be searched in morphological databases (this allows you to search a dictionary entry and find any form instantly. You can configure it to display the English next to the Greek so that if you are not good at Greek, you can check the English as well. The bottom line: in this case I was studying on Romans 8:29 there was not one instance of Jewish Greek literature that contained the claim by popular scholars. In fact, after reading all the sources for myself, I concluded that there may be a failure on the part of these scholars to check their facts. This stunned me. Some of my favorite scholars were clearly wrong on this word.
It also gave me the feeling that as a pastor doing regular sermon research I now have a real tool that allows me to confirm or reject claims in scholarly commentaries and pray through the data for myself. So with BW 8.0, it has now become financially and technically feasible for a regular preacher to double check confident claims by any scholar when it comes to the background of Greek terms in the era from 300 BC through to 200 AD. The flexibility of BibleWorks 8.0 to set up custom tabs (one for each time period of Greek literature for example) gives you the power to study the Greek NT on one tab, click another tab and study the same term or a different term in the Pseudepigrapha and then another tab for the LXX or Apostolic Fathers. It's like working with tabs on a browser in Windows. Once you set it up, you can really go as deep as you like. I'm telling you it is wonderful!
Another example: While studying the term for virtue in 2 Peter 1:5 I found a reference in the Apocrypha to the story about the seven brothers who were martyred during Antiochus Epiphanes IV reign of hellenization. If you are unfamiliar with this story, it is part of the Jewish background that feeds into the concept of excellence or moral excellence that Peter is talking about in 2 Peter 1. BUT it is also probably part of the background of the story where Jesus is challenged by the question about a woman who is widowed, married to six other brothers (seven in all)...and then dies with no children. The attempt to trap Jesus was heightened by that allusion. Things like this come alive. You can find these links for yourself with BibleWorks 8.0 AND you can find other passages that refer to these links. The first use in Jewish Greek literature of the term Peter uses for moral excellence in 2 Peter 1:5 appears in the account setting up the story about the seven brothers in order to inspire them to stand true to the death when the law of Moses was challenged by the Greeks. All of this and the Jewish commentary on it all is right there for your beck and call, enriching your study of the term that Peter gives by drawing out the sense that the term may include a moral fiber that stands firm to the very death of a believer (wasn't that Peter's problem in Gethsemane?). You can do these sort of things with Logos or other programs, but to get all the tools for an exhaustive study across the 400-500 years of NT background studies in place you are going to spend a lot more money. (just Philo alone is $100 with Logos).
What this also opens up for a pastor, is the potential of using ancient stories that most members in a congregation have never heard before to illustrate word meaning. This can be captivating and educational at the same time (nice eh?).
So if you have gone to Seminary, Graduate School or Bible College, and even know just a little Greek/Hebrew and value being able to check the background of the NT/OT as well as the early church context, then BibleWorks 8.0 may be the very best program/price combination out there. I love the product.
Previous review follows:
I use BibleWorks 7.0 professionally, pretty much on a daily basis. I would not want to operate without it. There are other great programs out there, but this is the one I find myself using over and over. The others sit on the shelf unused in my office.
Many years ago I bought BibleWorks 3.5 and a competitive Windows based program. I ran identical searches with both programs. I found they gave different answers. Then I discovered the BibleWorks competitor had a big problem running complex searches accurately. It was disclosed in their readme.txt, but even their sales people didn't know about the bug. I ended up using BibleWorks instead. That was version 3.5 or so. The difference today in improvements over my old BibleWorks program is akin to the difference between a Model T and a Cadillac. Today's Bible Works is so much better it's amazing. I have watched the BibleWorks people roll out several versions. They always add an overwhelming list of new features that make the upgrades a sweet deal for anyone.
Some of the new things in BW 7.0 (just released this year) include a newly finished diagram for every verse in the NT. All of the steps that Gordon Fee suggests in his NT Exegesis book (get it if you don't have it) are now possible in this software. I use a checklist from his book and work through it with BW 7.0 open, a word processor, and an internet browser. Everything is very intuitive. They offer training courses around the nation (see their website for dates/locations). Those courses are helpful.
If you are working on a passage, you can pull up multiple versions and paste them into a word processer for formatting and printing. This allows you to highlight either in the software or with a real highlighter on your paper. You can easily mix Greek with English...and if you have people like I do who are not really good at English, paste in the Russian, Spanish, French or whatever language they need....and you can provide printed text for them to read. This can be done in seconds.
The program is flexible, and easy to use.
The fastest way for us to print out our Sunday Worship Service text for reading is to use BibleWorks. I pull up the program, enter the version and the reference. Paste it into my Word Processor or drag it there..and click print.
One of the things that Gordon Fee (Exegesis expert) recommends is for students to diagram their text. The new diagramming canvass is great. Just insert the text. Drag and drop it into place and drag the symbols for diagramming to where they belong. That's it. For comparison, BW 7.0 now includes diagrams for every verse. If you have kids in school, they can use it for diagramming English as well-which can give them a professional look in high school papers/class assignments.
With a click of the mouse you can search the lemma (root) of a word in Greek or Hebrew from Genesis to Revelation (LXX & GNT). Or Hebrew OT only. You can do almost any kind of search.
I own the major competitors to this program. To use Gramcord you have to own a Mac or you can install a program that simulates Mac Operating system on your computer. The Mac feel to Gramcord has a very archaic feel to it and I never got used to it. I cannot tell if Logos is currently accurate in it's searches, so I don't know if you can trust that program to produce correct results.
I've found that BibleWorks is a great program for my use.
Some other things you can do: Look up all major lexicons on a word in a few seconds. Paste the results into your word processor embedded where-ever you want. Basically, you can quickly do exhaustive word studies. You can outline a passage in a word processor. Add in...Read more›BibleWorks 9 Overview

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