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Contents of BibleWorks 8

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I am so impressed with all the reference tools in BibleWorks 8. And not just the quantity, but the type of resources. There are Greek and Hebrew tools in BibleWorks you will not find anywhere else. Fantastic original language resources and background material.

Take, for example, the Salkinson-Ginsburg Hebrew New Testament. Yes, it is the New Testament, but in Hebrew. Many people believe that much of the original stories behind the New Testament text (and maybe parts of the text itself — such as the Gospel of Matthew) was originally in Hebrew, not Greek. So while you were hear lots of people talk about the importance of studying the Greek New Testament, there are huge advantages to studying the Hebrew New Testament as well. It was, after all, written primarily by Jews and for Jews. Studying the Salkinson-Ginsburg Hebrew New Testament was one of the things that helped me come to my conclusions on the recent paper I posted on Luke 6:1.

Anyway, I’m not aware of any other Bible Study software package that has this quantity and quality of original language resources. Below is the entire list of study resources in Bible Works 8. It is quite long, so I have included some hotlinks for you to jump to sections that interest you.

Shortcut to Sections:
Original Languages – Hebrew/Aramaic/Syriac
Original Languages – Greek
Bible Versions – English
Bible Versions – Other (they even have Swahili…)
Lexical-Grammatical Reference Works (Look at this list!…)
Other Reference Works (…this list too!)

Original Language Texts

Hebrew/Aramaic/Syriac

  • 1905 British and Foreign Bible Society Peshitto edition
  • The Aramaic New Testament (Peshitta), with the Etheridge (1849), Lewis (1896), Murdock (1851), Norton (1881), and Magiera (2005) English translations
  • Leningrad Codex Hebrew Bible, with full accenting & full vowel pointing
  • Leningrad Codex Hebrew Bible, transliterated
  • Delitzsch Hebrew NT
  • Groves-Wheeler Westminster Hebrew Old Testament Morphology database,version 4.10
  • Hebrew Accent Extensions to Groves-Wheeler Westminster Hebrew Old Testament Morphology database
  • Old Syriac Sinaiticus manuscript
  • Old Syriac Curetonian manuscript
  • Peshitta, with Syriac and Hebrew letters
  • Salkinson-Ginsburg Hebrew New Testament
  • The Targumim, parsed, lemmatized and tied to entries in the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon. Also included:
    • FragTargums with morphology, TgSheniSuppEsther with morphology, TgTosefProphets with morphology
    • Psalms Targum (English)
    • Rodkinson Babylonian Talmud and Mishnah
      (English)
    • Targum Cairo Geniza with morphology
    • Targum Jerusalem on the Pentateuch (English) (Etheridge)
    • Targum Neofiti with morphology
    • Targum NeofMarginalia with morphology
    • Targum Onkelos on the Pentateuch (English) (Etheridge)
    • Targum Pseudo Jonathan on the Pentateuch (Etheridge)
    • Targum PseudoJonathan with morphology
    • Targumim (Mostly Onkelos and Jonathan) with morphology (updated 2005)

Greek*

  • Aletti/Gieniusz/Bushell Morphologically Analyzed Greek New Testament
  • Aletti/Gieniusz/Bushell/CATSS Morphologically Analyzed Septuagint
  • Apostolic Fathers English translation
  • Apostolic Fathers (Greek with Morphological tags by Gieniusz/Bushell)
  • Apostolic Fathers Latin
  • Brenton’s Septuagint English Translation, including Deutero-canonical section
  • Complete Works of Flavius Josephus, parsed and lemmatized, with the 1828 Whiston English translation and Latin sections
  • Friberg’s 1999 Morphologically Analyzed Greek New Testament
  • Nestle-Aland 27th Edition/UBS Fourth Edition Greek New Testament
  • OT Pseudepigrapha in Greek, morphologically tagged, with English translation
  • Rahlfs’ Septuagint, with Apocrypha & variants
  • Robinson-Pierpont Greek New Testament (Byzantine Textform 2005) with Morphological Analysis
  • Scrivener’s Greek New Testament (Textus Receptus), with Morphological Analysis
  • Stephanus Greek New Testament (Textus Receptus), with Morphological Analysis
  • Tischendorf Greek New Testament, with Critical Apparatus
  • Von Soden Greek New Testament
  • Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament (proofed & corrected), with Morphological Analysis
  • Works of Philo (Greek Text & Morphology with English translation)

* Modern Greek versions in separate section below

Bible Versions

English

  • American Standard Version, 1901
  • Bible in Basic English, 1949/64
  • Bishop’s Bible, 1595
  • Brenton’s Septuagint English Translation, without Deutero-canonical section
  • Complete Jewish Bible, 1998
  • Darby Bible (1884/1890)
  • Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
  • English Revised Version, 1881/1885
  • English Standard Version, 2007 update
  • Geneva Bible, 1599
  • GOD’S WORD® Translation, 1995
  • Holman Christian Standard Bible, 2004
  • Hone English NT Apocrypha
  • Jewish Publication Society Tanakh, 1917
  • Jewish Publication Society Tanakh, 1985
  • King James Apocrypha, 1611
  • King James, 1611, with Strong’s Codes and Geneva Bible notes
  • King James, 1611/1769, with Strong’s Codes
  • MacDonald Idiomatic Translation Bible
  • NET Bible with notes and maps
  • New American Bible
  • New American Standard Bible, 1977, with Codes
  • New American Standard Bible, 1995, with Codes
  • New International Reader’s Version
  • New International Version (UK)
  • New International Version (US), 1984, with cross references and footnotes
  • New Jerusalem Bible
  • New King James Version (1982) Version, with Strong’s Codes
  • New Living Translation, 2nd edition, 2005
  • New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, 1989
  • New Testament Peshitta Translation, Etheridge, 1849
  • New Testament Peshitta Translation, James Murdock, 1851
  • New Testament Peshitta Translation, Lewis, 1896
  • New Testament Peshitta Translation, Norton, 1881
  • New Testament Peshitta Translation, Magiera, 2005
  • Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, 1952
  • Today’s NIV
  • Tyndale New Testament, 1534
  • Von Soden Greek New Testament
  • Webster Bible, 1833
  • Revised Webster Update, 1995, with Codes
  • Young’s Literal Translation, 1862/1898

Latin

  • Nova Vulgata
  • Latin Vulgate (Weber Edition)
  • Latin Vulgate (Nova Vulgata)
  • Latin Vulgate (Vulgata Clementina 1598 with Glossa Ordinaria notes)
  • Latin sections from Works of Flavius Josephus
  • Online Bible Vulgate Mapped to KJV

Afrikaans

  • Bible Afrikaans, 1953
  • Afrikaans, 1983

Albanian

  • Albanian (1994)

Arabic

  • Van Dyke Arabic Bible

Bulgarian

  • Bulgarian Protestant Version, 1940/1995/2005
  • Bulgarian Bible, 1938
  • Constantinople (Tzarigrad) Bible, 1871

Catalan

  • Catalan BCI Version

Chinese

  • Chinese Union Bible, Big5
  • Chinese Union Bible, Simplified
  • Chinese New Version, Big5
  • Chinese New Version, Simplified

Croatian

  • Croatian Bible

Cyrillic

  • Russian Synodal Text of the Bible with Codes

Czech

  • Bible, 21st Century Translation (B21), 2009 (added after initial release)
  • Bible Kralicka, 1613
  • Cesky Ekumenicky preklad, 1985
  • Preklad KMS, 1994
  • Nova Bible Kralicka, 1998
  • Slovo na cestu, 2000

Danish

  • De Hellige Skrifter, 1931
  • Wierød Danish New Testament,1997

Dutch

  • Leidse Vertaling, 1912/1994
  • Lutherse Vertaling, 1750/1933/1994
  • The Netherlands Bible Society, 1951
  • Statenvertaling, 1637, with Codes
  • Willibrordvertaling Version, 1978
  • Willibrordvertaling Version, 1995

Finnish

  • Raamattu, 1933/1938 käännös

French

  • Bible en français courant, 1997
  • Jerusalem Bible
  • Haitian Creole Bible
  • Louis Segond, 1910, with Strong’s Codes
  • Nouvelle Édition Genève, 1979, with Codes
  • Traduction Œcuménique de la Bible, 1988
  • Version Darby, 1885

German

  • Einheitsübersetzung-KBA, 1980
  • Elberfelder, Revised, 1993
  • Elberfelder, Unrevised, 1905 (Darby)
  • Herder Translation (Revised Version 2005)
  • Lutherbibel, 1545
  • LutherBibel, 1912, with Strong’s Codes
  • Münchener New Testament, 1998, with Codes
  • Schlachter Bible, 1951
  • Schlachter Bible, 2000
  • Zuercher Bibel, 2nd edition, 2008

Greek (modern)

  • Greek Orthodox Church NT
  • Metaglottisis Greek New Testament, 2004
  • Modern Greek Bible

Hungarian

  • Károli, 1993

Indonesian

  • Bahasa Indonesia Sehari-hari
  • Terjemahan Baru, 2nd edition, 1974/1997

Italian

  • San Paolo Edizione, 1995
  • La Nuova Diodati, 1991
  • La Sacra Biblia Nuova Riveduta, 1994

Japanese

  • Shinkaiyaku Version
  • Kogoyaku Version (added after initial release)

Korean

  • Korean Revised Version

Lithuanian

  • Lithuanian Bible

Macedonian

  • Macedonian Bible

Norwegian

  • 1930 Bokmål
  • 1938 Nynorsk
  • Norsk Bibel Konkordant, 1988
  • Norsk Bibel Nynorsk, 1994

Polish

  • Biblia Gdanska, 1632
  • Biblia Tysiaclecia. Wydanie 4., 1965/84
  • Uwspółcześniona Biblia Gdańska (NT), 2009 (added after official release)

Portuguese

  • Almeida Revista e Atualizada, 1993
  • Almeida Revista e Corrigida, 1969
  • Almeida Biblia, 1994
  • Corrigida Fiel, 1753/1995
  • Modern Language Translation, 2005

Romanian

  • Cornilescu Bible

Russia

  • Orthodox Russian Synodal Translation
  • Contemporary Russian version, New Testament

Slovak

  • Sväté Písmo, 1995

Spanish

  • Castilian La Biblia (Herder)
  • La Biblia de Las Americas, NASB, 1986
  • La Biblia de Nuestro Pueblo (added after official release)
  • La Biblia del Peregrino (added after official release)
  • Nueva Biblia de los Hispanos
  • Nueva Versión Internacional
  • Reina-Valera, 1909
  • Reina-Valera Actualizada, 1989
  • Reina-Valera Gómez
  • Reina-Valera Revised, 1960
  • Reina-Valera Update, 1995

Swahili

  • New Testament

Swedish

  • Svenska 1917
  • Svenska Folkbibeln, 1998
  • Bibel 82
  • Bibel 2000

Thai

  • Thai King James Version

Turkish

  • Turkish Bible, 2002

Ukrainian

  • Ukrainian

Vietnamese

  • Vietnamese

Lexical-Grammatical References

  • A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament: Based on the Lexical Work of Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner (Holladay)
  • Beginner’s Grammar of the Greek New Testament (Davis)
  • Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon, 1905, unabridged
  • Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English/Hebrew-French/Hebrew-Russian Lexicons (Strong’s), abridged
  • CATSS/Tov Hebrew-Greek Parallel Aligned Text
  • Friberg’s Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, Complete 2000 edition
  • Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar
  • A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew, Revised (Joüon-Muraoka) (no unlock needed)
  • Grammar of Septuagint Greek (Conybeare & Stock)
  • A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, 3rd edition (Robertson)
  • Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic paradigm charts with sounds (revised)
  • Greek Enchiridion: A Concise Handbook of Grammar and Exegesis (MacDonald)
  • Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Wallace) (no unlock needed)
  • Greek New Testament Diagrams (Leedy), complete
  • A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, Volumes 1 & 2 (Lust, Eynikel, Hauspie, Chamberlain)
  • Syntactic and Thematic Greek Transcription of the NT (MacDonald)
  • An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Waltke & O’Connor) (no unlock needed)
  • Introductory Lessons in Aramaic (Eric D. Reymond)
  • Liddell-Scott Greek Lexicon, abridged
  • Louw-Nida Greek New Testament Lexicon based on Semantic Domains, Second Edition
  • Moods and Tenses of New Testament Greek (Burton)
  • The Shorter Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, Revised Edition (Gingrich/Danker)
  • The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Harris, Archer & Waltke)
  • Thayer Greek Lexicon, abridged
  • Thayer Greek Lexicon, unabridged
  • The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament Module (J.H. Moulton and G. Milligan) (no unlock needed) (added after initial release)
  • Wigram’s Tense, Voice, Mood codes for some English, German, Dutch, French and Russian Bibles

Reference Works

  • 1689 London Baptist Confession (added after initial release)
  • Belgic Confession (added after initial release)
  • Biographical Bible (distinguishes Bible people with same names)
  • Canons of Dort (added after initial release)
  • Charles, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha English translation
  • Early Church Fathers
  • Easton’s Bible Dictionary
  • Fausset Bible Dictionary
  • Greek NT Vocabulary Sound Files (Schwandt)
  • Hebrew Vocabulary Sound Files (Verbruggen)
  • Heidelberg Catechism (added after initial release)
  • International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)
  • James, New Testament Apocrypha English translation
  • Matthew Henry’s Commentary
  • Metzger’s Bible Outline
  • Nave’s Topical Index
  • New Chain Reference Bible (1934) topics (Thompson)
  • New Topical Text Book (Torrey)
  • Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament (Archer & Chirichigno)
  • Synopsis of the Gospels
  • Timelines: Biblical, Church, and Secular History
  • TEXTKRITIK des Neuen Testaments (Gregory)
  • Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge
  • Westminster Confessional Standards (CHM version) (added after initial release)
FTC Disclaimer: I was asked to review BibleWorks 8 in exchange for a review copy.

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Hug a Leper

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When I was in India several years ago, many lepers walked the streets and begged. Some were missing ears and legs. Some missed fingers and toes. Unlike what we read in the Gospels, however, they did not stand off at a distance, crying out “Unclean! Unclean!” No, they came right up and touched us. And they kept touching until we either shooed them away or gave them some money.

At first, remembering what the Bible says about leprosy, we were scared to be touched by the lepers, but our trip leader told us not to worry about it. First of all, 95% of the world’s population is naturally immune to leprosy. And most of the 5% who can get it live in tropical, overpopulated, underdeveloped areas like Brazil, China, and India. Aside from this, even if you are susceptible to leprosy, nobody really knows how it is spread, but one common factor is prolonged close contact with someone who has it. You most likely won’t get it if you hug a leper or share a meal with one. But even if by some chance you do contract leprosy, we now have medical treatments available in developed countries like America that can pretty much cure it.

Yet even though we knew we could not get leprosy, it was one of the saddest things I have ever seen. One old lady with leprosy attended a church service I spoke at, and came up to me afterward. With the aid of a translator, she asked me to pray for her — not that she would be healed, but that she would die. That’s not a prayer request you get every day.

But that is how horrible leprosy is. And because it is so horrible, and so little is known about it, lepers are often cast out from society. They are rejected. They are treated like refuse. They are feared. They are despised. They are neglected and scorned.

It is true now, and was especially true in the time of Jesus because of the Jewish purity laws and lack of medicine to do anything about it. And yet, in Luke 5:12-16, we read that Jesus went up to a leper and touched him. This was more than a touch, but was close to a full-body embrace. Such an action showed the leper that he was no longer an outcast. He was accepted. He was loved. Can you imagine the shock that the disciples felt when Jesus did this? Can you imagine the amazement and awe that the leper felt?

Who is like this around you? Who is rejected? Who is despised? Who is overlooked?

What can you do to show them love and acceptance?

This post is based on the Grace Commentary for Luke 5:12-16.

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Agnostic Bible Study

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I met again yesterday with a few friends to read and discuss Matthew. This time we were in chapter 3.

And once again, I was amazed how easy it is for people to read and discuss Scripture, even when they may not know anything about it, or even believe it’s true. It’s not a magical book that requires arcane knowledge to decipher and understand. Just give people a decent translation (I recommend NKJV), and have them read and discuss it like any other book.

Matthew 3 talks about things like “repentance” and “baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire” and some other ideas that throw the Christian world into heated debates. I tried to stay out of the discussion as much as possible to see what they thought about such things.

These guys, consisting of atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, and Rastafarians, read the text, looked at the surrounding paragraphs to see what John was talking about, and came up with what (in my opinion) is a correct understanding of the passage. They didn’t really know what “repentance” meant, but they looked at the context and decided it was related to confession and meant turning away from sin. When they read about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, they didn’t think about speaking in tongues or getting slain the Spirit. They didn’t think “fire” referred to hell.

All on their own, they realized that John was talking about people’s lives being renewed as they turned away from their old way of life and turned toward a new way of life following the Spirit of God. The “fire,” they thought, was a picture of this purification process.

I tell you, sometimes I wonder why I spent all that time and money going to Bible college and Seminary. If agnostics and atheists can know and understand the Bible and what it says better than many Christians I know, and even better than myself at times, who are the true “agnostics” and “atheists”? Who is it really that “doesn’t know”?

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Music and Mission

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I listen to all kinds of music, from country to rap. I find that music reveals the soul of culture. And when it comes to music revealing the inner emotions and feelings of people, “secular” music does a better job than a lot of “Christian” music. It seems that the vast majority of Christian music is about being “happy, happy, happy all the time.”

Secular music understands that people have a whole range of emotions and feelings, and secular artists are not afraid to give voice to these feelings. So as I seek to understand culture, and interact with people around me, it helps to listen to he music they listen to and hear the pain, longing, and desires that drive them.

And while music runs the gamut of emotions, I hear two primary themes over and over again: People feel insecure and alone. Our world is awash in people who do not know what their future holds, and who have thousands of friends but feel alone most of the time. Of course, this message is not only found in music, but in art and movies as well.

Just as an example, I heard the following song on the radio last week. It is “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia. The song is about her longing for love, and the fact that since she doesn’t think she’ll ever find it, she lives with perpetual insecurity. She doesn’t have faith any more that her relationships will last. Watch in the video that as she loses faith in love, her world is slowly torn down.

Do you know of any other songs that reveal these twin longings for security and relationships?

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Christmas Carol Confusion

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Away in a MangerI love Christmas carols. I really do. I have many fond memories of singing carols in church while I was growing up, and listening to them in the house during the Christmas season.

But recently, as I have sung Christmas carols with my wife and three daughters as part of our family Advent tradition, I have noticed some alarming trends in most Christmas carols: Most Christmas carols present Jesus as not really human.

Church leaders and pastors sometimes wonder why people have trouble identifying with Jesus, and maybe part of it is the fact that we have the idea that even from the day He was born, though He looked like us, He never really was one of us.

Take two Christmas carols we sung in our family the other day: Away in a Manger and Silent Night.

Away in a Manger

Away in a Manger contains these words:

The cattle are lowing
the poor baby wakes.
But little Lord Jesus,
No crying He makes.

After we sang this song, I asked the girls, “Did Jesus cry when he was a baby?” They weren’t quite sure how to answer. Obviously, Jesus did cry, but they didn’t know what to say because we had just sung a song which said He didn’t cry.

So I said, “Ok, how about a different question? Did Jesus poop?”

They all laughed and giggled and said, “No, Daddy! Jesus didn’t poop!” We had a good family lesson right there about the humanity of Jesus. If you’re looking for an insightful topic to preach at the Christmas Eve service, you can use that one. I’m sure your elders will love it.

But the point is, we downplay the humanity of Jesus so much that sometimes, we make Him out to be less than human, or not even human.

Silent Night

Silent Night Radiant BeamsSilent Night is another good example of a Christmas carol that present Jesus poorly. In talking about Jesus, it contains the words, “…radiant beams from thy holy face…”

Again, I asked my girls, “Did beams of light shine out from the face of baby Jesus?” We had another good discussion about how Jesus was just like us, except without sin.

I’m not suggesting you refrain from singing Christmas carols. Sing away, I say!

Just remember as you sing them that some of the Christmas carols may contain ideas that do not come from Scripture or proper thinking about Jesus and His Kingdom.

There’s a line in Joy to the World I’m not too fond of either, but I’ll let you figure that one out for yourself.

Are there any Christmas carols you want to criticize? Weigh in below!

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