Theological News On-Line

Issue 23 December 2003	'Promoting Biblical Truth by Networking Theologians'

Published by Theological Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance

Editor: David Parker dparker@pacific.net.au
email distribution: Dr.Paul C. Murdoch Murdoch@ead.de

Welcome to WEA Theological News On-Line - this is the on-line version of our printed quarterly, WEA Theological News (ISSN 0260-3705). WEA TN On-Line is issued approximately monthly. The content of the printed and on-line versions overlap but are not identical. We also publish Evangelical Review of Theology. For more information, visit our website www.worldevangelical.org/tcpubs.html#ert

We welcome news reports on theological matters for both versions - they can cover theological institutions, conferences, publications, faculty, trends and developments, etc. of interest to evangelical theologians around the world.

For more information on the work of the Theological Commission, contact the Executive Chair, Dr Rolf Hille on r.hille@bengelhaus.de

In this issue:

•  Some Christmas Gift Ideas!
  •  Bible Software - Reviews and Notices
  •  Books from the TC

Bible Software - Reviews and Notices

In this Christmas edition of TN on-line, we offer some reviews and notices of Bible Software which should be of interest and value to readers in their study and research - as well as providing an idea for a Christmas gift! We have also added some information about publications associated with our WEA Theological Commission for interest.

BibleWorks 6: Software for Biblical Exegesis and Research

(BibleWorks, Norfolk, VA.) www.bibleworks.com

BibleWorks 6 aims to be the premier software package for serious exegetical work. Its resources, power and flexibility brings it very close to achieving that goal. In contrast to some other packages, it does not set out to be an e-book library, so there are only a limited number of additional resources besides the biblical texts and lexicons. The major unlocked reference works are mostly old - Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), International Standard Bible Dictionary (1st edition, 1915), Fausett Bible Dictionary (ca 1888). Robertson's Word Pictures is also 70 years old.

This is in strong contrast to the lexicons which include recent ones such as Friberg, Louw-Nida, UBS (Barclay Newman), along with old classics like Brown Driver and Briggs, Liddell-Scott and Thayers. But the authoritative Greek and Hebrew lexicons - Bauer-Danker-Arndt-Gingrich (BDAG, 3rd ed.) and Koehler-Baumgartner-Stamm are only available in BibleWorks 6 as optional extras. This is because of heavy royalty fees imposed by the original publishers, and it pushes the standard US price of $300 up to $500 (if both are bought together)! Yet without them, the package is severely limited since it has no full modern Greek or Hebrew lexicon. This problem is further exaggerated by the lack of a theological word book for the NT, although for the OT, there is at least the 1980 edition of The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Harris, Archer, Waltke).

Other unlocked references included in Version 6 include Beginning Biblical Hebrew (Mark Futato, 2003), Burton's Syntax of Moods and Tenses of New Testament Greek (1898) Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, Matthew Henry's Commentary and the works of Josephus (completely parsed and lemmatized). With this version, BibleWorks is changing its previous policy by providing more add-on modules for the convenience of users. These now include full biblical language grammars (Futato, Wallace and Waltke) and the Qumran manuscripts, at competitive prices.

Since the package offers limited help with reference works, its practical value for the user depends on its Bible version and translations - and this is where is certainly excels. It contains more than 25 Greek (NT and LXX), Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin texts (most in morphologically tagged versions) including the standard academic and key historic editions; English translations (e.g., historic ones - Tyndale, Bishops KJV, and modern - NRSV, NIV, ESV etc, including Apocrypha) - 25 in all, and over 50 national (mostly European) versions. Despite this first-rate list of biblical texts, Tischendorf's is the only critical apparatus available.

This is an impressive collection which would be extremely useful for those who can make use of such a wealth of resources, although some users may prefer to look elsewhere for a less expensive package with fewer resources (see below for one possibility). Yet the BibleWorks databases can be accessed and searched extremely quickly and easily in a great variety of ways on both the text and morphology, with the results being displayed flexibly and available for copying readily to other applications. Only a fraction of the possibilities can be noted here, but more details are available from the web page http://www.bibleworks.com

The user interface can be accessed at three levels - beginner, standard or power, and there is also a graphical advanced search engine for complex work. The screen is divided into three basic sections - the command centre where the search parameters are entered, the results window, and the text editor (which also supports Greek and Hebrew fonts and multiple documents). There are several further sub-windows for displaying the text, morphological information, lists of verses and references and statistics; some of these windows could be labelled more fully for ease of use, especially when learning. The functions can be called (in normal Windows fashion) from the main menu, icons, the status bar, and also from powerful context menus. Results of searches, biblical text, contents of lexical and other data can be copied easily to other programs and printed, and in addition, other reports can be generated and passed on for further editing. Verse, word and references lists can also be exported and further manipulated.

The text can be searched for word, phrase and reference with full Boolean, wildcard and proximity conditions, in simple or compound form, and can be displayed (with or without morphology as required) in browse form allowing continuous scrolling of the passage and in parallel versions (columns or rows); the morphology or other notes, and lexicon (selectable) entries are displayed when the cursor is moved over individual words, making in-depth understanding easy; this feature also includes access to the paradigms for the words selected.

Any number of versions can be displayed as well as the search version itself, and searches can helpfully be conducted across all versions of the same language. Words in Greek and Hebrew can be searched according to their particular form or by their root with a mouse click, and searches can be limited to any section of the Bible, down to a few verses. There is also a separate user-friendly morphological search engine. Searching with Strong's numbers also adds extra power. Basic statistics of every search (number of hits and verses) are displayed by default, but in addition, results can be graphically displayed in advanced forms, and printed and copied in a variety of formats allowing for easy inspection of their distribution and frequency. Multiple and additional windows can be opened to preserve results for easier comparison and reference, and fully configurable clone versions can be opened.

All required fonts are included, with automatic selection of keyboards for the language of the text being used. The keyboard layouts in the various languages can be displayed on-screen for assistance and learning. Accents and vowel points are fully supported and can be used optionally in searches. All the books can be browsed as well as searched. Bible translators will be pleased to note that they can add their own versions (using an in-built compiler) which can then be searched in the same way as the rest.

Besides the main functions there are other helpful features such as Bible outlines and Gospel synopsis (editable), a synopsis tool and user-defined notes. Of particular interest for study and teaching purposes is the facility for creating and editing graphical timelines which can be customised, printed and copied to other programmes. Just as useful are two new easy to use features for this version - sentence diagramming and vocabulary flashcards (including audio recording for pronunciation drill). Another bonus feature is the ability to highlight the selected text and search results with color, bold or other formatting for easy recognition, while colour can also be used to show differences between more than one set of parallel texts.

BibleWorks comes on one CD, and installs easily (customizable, and with network support). There is another CD for the instructional videos which are clear, practical and well-paced (although they annoyingly loop continuously). The videos can be run separately or called from the context-sensitive help screens. There is also a 400-page printed manual, which contains not only tutorials and reference material, but technical details of importance for serious users such as full copyright and publication information and morphology codes. Help and updates are available without charge to registered users online, by email and phone. The program is fully configurable and provides so many options that a 'restore default settings' option would be useful. System requirements are modest, apart from storage space for the databases.

Overall, it is highly commendable as tool for in-depth concordance type study of the biblical text and morphology, but the value of the reference works is limited.

Logos Bible Software Series X Biblical Languages Supplement

(Logos Research Systems Inc. Bellingham, WA, USA) http://www.logos.com/bls

Logos Research Systems have released a further module for their current Logos Bible Software Series X (see Evangelical Review of Theology (2003) 27:3, pp. 272-275 for a full review). The 'Biblical Languages Supplement' is aimed especially at scholarly users and includes several new features as well as a number of additional resources. It also includes an update of the main engine (to Version 2) and fixes for some of the earlier resources. The morphological search window is now easier to use.

The new resources include the Friberg Greek NT and Lexicon, the Barclay Newman lexicon (the print edition is familiar as a companion to the UBS Greek Testament) and an LXX lexicon. There are also a number of historic Greek texts (such as Scrivener's TR, Stephen's TR, Westcott and Hort and Elzivir) which will be of interest to some students. Burton's Moods and Tenses is included, as is the enhanced Brown Driver and Briggs Hebrew lexicon and Davidson's Hebrew syntax. Of more specialized interest are three volumes of Egyptian literature and two old Syrian gospels and the Peshitta along with a Syriac lexicon. A particularly useful addition is the 'parallel passages' module which includes Robertson's Harmony of the Gospels, Aland's Synopsis of the Four Gospels, the Eusebian Canons, OT quotes in the NT, some Old Testament parallels and other resources which provide synopses of various parts of the Bible.

The supplement contains some useful add-ins to improve functionality, mostly by exploiting the graphics to produce helpful visualizations of the data. One of the most interesting of these is the 'verb river' which allows the user to display a graph of the use different verb forms throughout a passage or book - e.g., the occurrence of imperatives, or the use of the first person, thereby making clear changes in the nature of the text. Differences between versions can also now be displayed by a similar 'river' and by plotting an X-Y cluster graph to show the variations. Ordinary searches can also be graphed to show the distribution of hits over the whole or portion of the Bible selected or in a large variety of other ways (such as the ratio of hits to words, verses or chapters in a book) to give statistical correlations.

All of these features should help in gaining a better picture of the text and a clearer and faster understanding of the data if they are used with discernment. Similarly useful is the morphological filter which enables words matching a given morphology (say, all the optative verbs, or all the prepositions) to be color highlighted for easy recognition. Of far less value is the 'summarizing filter' (now part the new 'Visual Filters') which simply highlights a given percentage of a text, but the results do not appear to be very reliable. Other bonuses are the module which allows the user to draw sentence diagrams to display grammatical structures, and a graphical query editor to use instead of the normal Windows interface.

The extra resources now available and the additional features in this module when coupled with the Scholar's Library, and the vast (and rapidly expanding) array of e-books available by extra purchase, make a powerful package which should be attractive to academics and students. Most of the graphical features should be particularly useful in class room situations. Users will need to weigh up the cost benefit of the additional (special) price of US$159 of this module. More details: www.logos.com/bls

The Gramcord Institute

For those interested in a more basic, less expensive, package focusing on the Hebrew and Greek grammatical features, check out The Gramcord Institute (TGI) website, which offers several different bundles for Windows, Macintosh and handheld, geared especially for the student and academic. BibleWorks and Logos (see above) use the Gramcord system for their grammatical work. TGI, a consortium of seminary professors and publishing Biblical scholars, is a nonprofit organization and offers several other tools for language learning and analysis as well as its core products.

TC CD-ROM Theological Resource Library and ERT set

Don't forget our Theological Commission set - see below for details.

WEA TC Journals

Evangelical Review of Theology: Our quarterly theological journal - the January 2004 issue features articles on the theme, Mission and Mind, a Bible study on 'work, marriage and freedom' by Dr Paul Scotchmer, and includes the first two of a series by leaders of the WEA Theological Commission commemorating 30 years of activity of the TC. For subscriptions, contact Paternoster Periodicals - jmudditt@aol.com

WEA Theological News

See details below

Books from the TC

•  An Evangelical Response to Confessing the One Faith
•  The Unique Christ
•  Evangelical Christianity and the Environment
•  Sharing the Good News with the Poor
•  Toward a Theology of Theological Education
•  The Biblical Doctrine of Regeneration
•  Evangelical and Social Ethics
•  Theology and Third World

These titles from our 'Outreach and Identity' series are available at the cost of $2 posted (less for quantity)

WEA TC Study Unit Textbook on Eschatology: Hope Does Not Disappoint (ISBN 3-932829-31-X) edited by Dr Jochen Eber - covers not only the biblical and theological teaching on the topic, but also sets eschatology in relation to mission interests, various cultural, intellectual and geographical contexts around the world, especially the major world faiths and traditional religions. Published in Germany by Verlag fuer Kultur und Wissenschaft in the series, Mission reports vol. 9. 

For further information contact:

Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher
Friedrichstr. 38
D-53111 Bonn, Germany
Phone 0228/965038
http://www.bucer.de/ 

or 

Dr Eber
123.45@gmx.de 

or 

Theological Book Trust
PO Box 9529
Bangalore, 560 095
India
tbtindia@blr.vsnl.net.in

Church and Faith Study Unit series - all edited by Donald A. Carson.

•  Biblical Interpretation and The Church, 1984
•  Church In The Bible and The World, 1987
•  Teach Us To Pray, 1990
•  Right With God, 1992
•  Worship: Adoration And Action, 1993

This popular series, previous out of print, is now available again through Wipf and Stock Publishers, 150 West Broadway Eugene OR 97401 USA (541) 344-1528 Fax (541) 344-1506 WSPub@academicbooks.com

WEA Theological News On-line

This is an electronic edition of WEA Theological News (ISSN 0260-3705) published by World Evangelical Fellowship Theological Commission; Chair: Dr Rolf Hille http://www.worldevangelical.org/theology.html

To receive your electronic copy free of charge, send an empty email to listmgr@ead.de with the following character string in the "Subject" line of the email header: subscribe wef-tc-tn

WEA Theological News

The printed version of WEA TN is published quarterly. To subscribe send your name and address to the editor,

Editor, WEA TN
17 Disraeli St
Indooroopilly Qld, Australia, 4068 

Enquiries dparker@pacific.net.au Fax (+61 7) 3878 3108. For private subscribers, a voluntary donation equivalent to approx US$10 for 2 years is invited to assist with production costs. Donations can be sent to the editor in US $$, Euros, Sterling or Australian $$ (payable to Theological Commission) Institutions using a subscription service - details on application.

WEA Theological Commission On-Line Forum

This is an opportunity for theologians around the world to discuss matters of common interest electronically. The WEA TC On-line Forum is now open for your contributions and views. We want you to share matters of concern and interest - either respond to on-going conversations or initiate topics from your own perspective.

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