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New Bible Sites in the Tyndale Toolbar

New additions now help find more online books, articles, and Bible tools which make it easy to understand the original languages and even see the manuscripts. It also highlights a new tool which compares and collapses 30 modern translations to show their differences.

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Old Testament Studies on Computer and the Web

Computers and Hebrew now work together very well, and you no longer need to be a geek to succeed. The following resources reveal a wealth of Old Testament Studies on the Web and many useful tools to aid research.

Perseus Ancient Texts for NT Background
- free from Logos

The Perseus collection of Greek & Latin texts (most with translations) are arguably the single most important collection for studying the background of the New Testament.
These are now available for download together with superb software - all for free!

For example, the role of women and Household Codes in Timothy are easy to compare with Aristotle's writings - this review shows you how.

You don't need to know any Greek or Latin to use these tools (though they are even more useful if you do!). These texts will open a new world to help you understand the Bible in context. More...

Getting the best from BibleWorks9

NT variants are fuller and easy to investigate and NT manuscripts are fully visible - and you can even manipulate the images like a pro! More...

The new cross references produced automatically from Greek vocabulary, and the automatic display of how the same word is used elsewhere, make intertextual studies much easier. More...

The new fourth column quickly becomes essential when you get used to the new features - and it makes the Notes facility much more practicle. More...

Unlike many other programs, BibleWorks does not get slower when it upgrades. It still works fine on older computers, and zips along on new ones.

Searching Jewish Rabbinic Sources

It is now easy to look up most of the early rabbinic legal texts. The rabbinic texts were among the first to be digitised and there are some wonderful tools, but the good ones cost a lot of money and aren't very friendly. More...

I made the RabbinicTraditions.com site for myself. It is quick to use and more powerful than most, and has proved so valuable that I'm making it available to everyone. More...

Semi-Automated Indexing

Everyone has a book in them, but when you've finished it, the publisher will email you asking for an Index by yesterday. This will show you how to index semi-automatically. You can create a Subject index, a Scripture index (with everything in the right order) and any additional indexes in Word, without reading your book, and and format it just like the publisher wants. Quickly.
At first glance the instructions look daunting, but that's only because I explaining it all in careful detail.

 

Writing a book/thesis


* choosing a word processor
* setting Styles and formatting to save time at the end
* navigating round large documents
* time-saving tips for find / replace including formatting changes
* using Sections for chapter with new footnotes
* bibliographic software

 

Research that can be re-searched


* Recording with Word Outline or with a Wiki
* Zotero to store and search web and PDF documents
* Making PDFs searchable, and searching them
* Searching for anything and everything

Surviving the death of your Hard Drive


* Backup programs - the free and the best
* Cloning drives for instant replacement
* Online backup - the free and the best

Writing Greek & Hebrew with ease


* Easy installation of Unicode fonts
* Converting older fonts
* Changing keyboard layouts

Translating ancient & modern languages


* Tyndale Toolbar translations - Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish etc
* 2LetterLookup - incl. Syriac, Coptic, Aramaic, Arabic etc
* Perseus Greek lexicons & texts with translations
* Translating unseen Greek at Thesaurus Linguae Graecae
* Google Translate for modern languages + Latin
* Ma'agarim for ancient Hebrew & how to use the Hebrew interface

Finding and reading online books & periodicals


* Tyndale Toolbar bibliography tool to find articles & books
* Journal searches at Tubingen & Google Journal searches
* Google Books and how to overcome restrictions
* Amazon books - how to find titles quickly and read more
* Finding full-text journals and abstracts of journal articles
* Finding full-text books, or getting scans of unavailable work

New ways to Study the Bible

Bible software is so wonderful and plentiful, you can get lost in a toyshop full of wonders. This list is based on what I like, which is the original texts with lots of English tools & translations.   
New stuff is listed first, and then a round up of the best, listing my favorites first. 

A host of new online tools have been released recently. Here at Tyndale House we are pushing the envelope out further, developing some very cool tools, some of which aren't available even on commercial software yet. Our aim is to support the new generation of able scholars and new converts in the Majority world, who often miss out on Western riches, so we're concentrating on things which work with intermittent internet connections. Keep up with the story on Facebook

Getting the best out of Bible software: Logos

I love the power and the resources of Logos, though I can't get used to the interface. This doesn't stop me from recommending Logos for anyone who wants to integrate secondary literature with Bible tools, because  they have the price right and the technology works, and it keeps getting easier to use. Now that it is available on the Mac as well as PC , it is available to everyone, and their SD card option makes it easy to install on netbooks too.

These notes are based on Logos 3 (aka Libronix). Logos 4 is now also available, and some people prefer it, though it costs more. It does have some cool analysis tools and some new resources.

If you have thought Logos was too complex, here's a quick start. 
And if you can't quite work out how to get it to do what you want, I've uncovered some of the hidden tricks and treasures for you.

Getting the best out of Bible Software: BibleWorks 8

If you don't know BibleWorks, this will show you what you're missing. If you're already a fan, here are some tips and treasures you may have missed. Version 8 has many new features, and these guides often depend on them. 
The new features are here , and the list of what is included ishere . Although BibleWorks tries to include everything for a cheap all-in prince ( $350 or £225 ), there's an increasing number of add-on modules plus free extras . 
The things which excited me the most were: 
  • * new tools for finding allusions
  • * tools for linking Greek & Hebrew meanings
  • * making links with external sources and websites

The Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible

This is an electronic version of the most fundamental documents in Biblical Scholarship – the main texts of the Hebrew and Greek Bible with their critical apparatus. This tool demonstrates that these resources are much easier to use as an electronic publication than on paper. The Logos edition has some rough edges, partly due to the data produced by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft on which this is based, and I look forward to a future version which will be even more usable. 
If you've heard me on the subject of Logos before, you'll know I'm not a fan. I'm still not a fan, but I'm impressed. There is no doubt that they are providing useful and increasingly essential resources which are unavailable elsewhere. I don't like their interface – it is as ugly and awkward as a large open-plan office – but that probably betrays more about me than the program itself. I'm stating this so that you take my snide comments with a pinch of salt and understand that my congratulations are fulsome and well earned.

Getting the most out of Accordance

Accordance is native to the Mac, though it is arguably the best Bible software for Biblical Studies on any platform. Logos packs in more books and BibleWorks gives you more for less money, but Accordance is easy to use and it has more scholarly Biblical texts than any other package - and it is beautiful.
Mac can be used on the PC through emulation sofware (I use it regularly) - though it isn't so pretty and lacks some features. However, it is worth it because it has texts unavailable elsewhere - especially in the areas of Targums, Samaritan, Dead Sea Scrolls and NT Greek manuscripts. They also have more tagged texts than others - ie, click on a word and you get its grammar & meaning.

Forget nothing and work anywhere

This posting will show you how, at zero cost, you can: 
  • have an electronic photographic memory which is searchable
  • have automatic backups, ready for the day your computer dies
  • access your work and software from any web-connected computer
  • and you do NOT have to be continuously online.
* Dropbox: Access your files on any computer - even with a poor connection
* DjVu: Search everything you've read - with intact Greek & Hebrew
* Zotero 2: Your automated librarian and bibliography/footnote creator
* LogMeIn: View and control your computer from any other computer
* GoogleDesktop: Index your whole life and find it again on any computer

The Future of the Book

The inventor of the book was probably a Christian because all the
earliest codexes contain Christian writings. Too poor to buy large pieces of papyrus or leather scrolls, they joined together lots of small scraps of papyrus to create a 'codex’ and wrote on both sides to maximise space.

Will our generation see the demise of the book? This has been predicted as often as the ‘paperless office’. It may happen soon – but not yet.

Maps & Geography in Biblical Studies

Satellites surround the earth, and Google Earth can zoom in to individual houses.
Bible maps have now been adapted to take advantage of this amazing facility,
especially the Bible Geocoding project which links 800 places and 10,000 photos.

Traditional maps are still very important, especially for explaining specific events.
And photographs bring the places alive, especially when linked to a map.
You can even download the BibleMapper and create your own, though to make
professional looking maps, I recommend the Accordance Bible Atlas.

There is now no excuse to teach or preach without pictures and maps.

Tyndale Toolbar for Bibles, languages, bibliography & news

Time is too short to keep opening programs or hunting for web pages for simple things
like looking up a Bible text or finding bibliography.

So I wrote the Tyndale Toolbar to save time. It works on PC (Firefox & IE) and Mac (Firefox & Safari).
It isn't the prettiest toolbar on the planet, but for Biblical scholars it is the most useful.

Searching Ancient Greek Literature

The bread and butter of New Testament studies is finding out how a word is used elsewhere. Usually this means looking it up in a good lexicon, but a real scholar does a word search. This has recently got a whole lot easier. TLG and Perseus are still the best sources, but now there are new ways to use them, including instant lexical help which isn't restricted to the speed of the web. Whether you want to do word searches throughout all Greek literature, or you just want to quickly look up a Greek word now and then, read on.

1) TLG - 'All' of Greek literature, in Greek
2) Perseus - the earliest Greek literature, with English
3) Electronic lexicons for Greek - quicker and better than paper
4) Diogenese - the key to reading untranslated Greek
5) Fonts - the easiest Unicode for Mac & PC
6) Finding translations on the web

Qur'an, Arabic and Islamic theology

At Tyndale House we regularly have Christian scholars who are researching Islam,
and occasionally Islamic scholars who are studying the Bible.

A few years ago we welcomed a delegation from the Cairo's Al-Azhar University.
The Qur'anic commentary on the Gospels we presented to them is now online.
Most Muslims have a great reverence for the Bible and this was a treasured gift.

The following links aim for mutual understanding without weakness or compromise
from either side. They represent a robust attempt to study the Bible and Islam
whilst seeking to spread enlightenment rather than offence.

Transporting theology from Academia to the Pew

The web has now made publicity and publishing truly democratic,
so here is a guide to how I used the internet and what I would recommend now.

1) Publish on the internet while you are writing.
2) Get people interested
3) Publish an academic book on paper
4) Collaborate on a 'popular' version
5) Publicize the popular version
6) Communicate with pictures

Lexicons for Biblical Studies

Lexicons are at the heart of Biblical Studies, but usually we neglect them because
they're cumbersome to use, and anyway our Bible software tells us what the word means.
But without a real lexicon we miss so much - the nuance, context, and possible meanings.
So I decided to make real lexicons easier to use. I've put them at http://www.2letterlookup.com/
These lexicons require no typing - just click on two letters and pick the word from a short list.

1) Lexicons at TyndaleArchive.com - quicker than paper books
2) 2LetterLookup - lexicons for Biblical languages
3) Other useful lexicons & dictionaries on the web

 

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