OakTree Software has just released the Accordance Biblioteca Hispana CD-ROM, comprising the following texts:

Reina-Valera 1960 with Strong’s numbers
Greek Keys
Hebrew Keys
Reina-Valera 1995 – Edición de Estudio
Reina-Valera 1909
Dios Habla Hoy – Edición de Estudio
Traducción en Lenguaje Actual with notes
Parallel passages (Epistles, Gospels, Harmony, Old Testament, OT in NT, Synoptics)
Descubre la Biblia (2nd revised and enlarged edition in 3 volumes)

Unlockable resources: La Biblia de las Américas, Biblia Navarra with notes and Nueva Versión Internacional.

This CD-ROM includes the localized version of Accordance 8 in Spanish.

Introductory special price is $79 (until Dec. 31). Regular price for the standard package is just $89. Previous Compubiblia para Mac users can upgrade for $20 (requires version 8).

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Oaktree Software acaba de lanzar la Biblioteca Hispana de Accordance en CD-ROM, que contiene los siguientes textos:

Reina-Valera de 1960 con números de Strong
Greek Keys
Hebrew Keys
Reina-Valera de 1995 – Edición de Estudio
Reina-Valera de 1909
Dios Habla Hoy – Edición de Estudio
Traducción en Lenguaje Actual con notas
6 módulos de pasajes paralelos (Epístolas, Evangelios, Concordia, Antiguo Testamento, AT en NT, Sinópticos)
Descubre la Biblia (segunda edición completamente revisada en 3 volúmenes)

Biblias modernas que se pueden desbloquear: La Biblia de las Américas, Biblia Navarra con notas y Nueva Versión Internacional.

Este CD-ROM incluye la versión 8 de Accordance en español.

El precio especial de lanzamiento es de $79 (hasta el 31 de diciembre). El precio habitual del paquete estándar es de sólo $89, mientras que los usuarios de Compubiblia para Mac puede actualizarse a esta nueva versión por sólo $20 (requiere versión 8 de Accordance).

It seems to me that Karyn Traphagen has opened a can of worms, and I mean that in a positive sense. Her question is, Should Schools or Students Choose Bible Software?

In my view, every school and every student should be free to choose, provided the software package in question is suitable for academic purposes. Schools should teach students how to use the tools of the trade, not tell them what tool to use (when there are comparable tools available, that is). Yes, this means more work for instructors –who would necessarily have to be acquainted with more than one program–, but it would also mean that students can learn the big picture about computer-assisted study and enrich one another when actually trying to apply those general rules to their particular brand of advanced Bible software.

And in case you worry about the additional burden of requiring computer skills from your students, instead of focusing on more biblical and theological matters, keep in mind that in many European institutions you need to learn a second modern language to get a degree, and it is taken for granted that you will know that language (and pass the exam!) by the time you graduate, without actually taking any classes at that particular seminary or university. Similarly, computer skills should probably be taken for granted, at least in Western countries. Let  professors worry about their own computer skills and command of different Bible software packages. Students will do just fine.

I personally like having different choices, and therefore, in my view, the decision should be yours and only yours. But whatever decision you make, make sure it is an informed decision and don’t let others do the thinking for you!

Comment

What Olive Tree is doing with their BibleReader 4 on the iPhone/iTouch is quite a feat. Holding one of these beautiful mobile devices and searching the original languages must be very impressive. I would love to have my own iTouch. For now, though, I have to be content with watching Olive Tree’s excellent videos (nice revamped site, by the way) and read reviews like that of Kevin Purcell.

After the successful SBL Bible Software Shootout session, there seems to be a renewed interest in demoing Bible software and comparing how different packages face real-life, daily study and research challenges. This is most welcome, and I have already tried to address a very practical test case earlier this week.

Mark L. Ward posted a pop quiz he set for users of BibleWorks. Nothing terribly difficult, just the kinds of searches many people have to use while studying the Bible. There is a little bit for everyone: English searches, Greek searches (both GNT and LXX), Strong’s searches, Lexicon lookups, graphical analysis of search results… Well, you get the idea.

Sean Boisen has taken up the challenge and showed how to answer the quiz with Logos 4. He actually works for Logos, but makes it very clear that he’s “not trying to start (or fuel) any “my software can beat your software”-type competitions, or take pot shots at other products.” There is nothing of that sort in his post, just step-by-step instructions on how he did the test and the results he got (make sure you read the comments too!).

I took a few minutes (very few, actually) to read Mark’s original quiz, fired up Accordance (since I was on my iMac) and completed the quiz in no time. I then read Sean’s explanations and compared his results with mine (not quite the same as his in some cases). All in all it was an interesting exercise, and it would be great to see how other people go about it performing these tasks with their Bible software. I did not have the opportunity to check the results with BibleWorks, but it would be good if Mark or somebody else would give us their results. I may do it myself, but not today.

Browsing BibleWorks User Forums I found this thread where Mark Vitalis was talking about creating a custom search range with all Q-texts (those pericopes in Matthew and Luke that are not found in Mark’s gospel). The task was not an easy one, due to the large number of references from Matthew and Luke, so I decided to do a screencast showing how that might be accomplished in BibleWorks and Accordance. I had to split the video in two parts to make it more manageable. I think it makes more sense to watch the one on BW first, but since they both deal with the same issue, you may prefer to go straight to the program you are most familiar with.

BibleWorks

Accordance

Both applications get the job done, but they do so in widely different ways. Thus, BW uses a text-driven, verse list approach (with references only), and requires a graphical search engine in order to reuse the list of verses, whereas Accordance’s approach is more visual, more Mac-like, displaying references and content, and can run the searches straight from the main search window (although graphical construct windows can be easily used too). Both programs can map the verses to a different Bible version and save them to a file for later use. Finally, only Accordance can use highlighting to both identify biblical passages and include the highlighting style as part of the search argument.

The full list of Q texts has been derived from Robert J. Miller’s edition of The Complete Gospels.

Please notice that these are the first screencasts made available here on BSR, and that they are far from perfect. Hopefully, though, they will be of use to some of you. Comments and feedback are particularly welcome, since I hope to be making many more of these. Thanks!

Update (December 1): Less than 24 hours after I posted my screencast, BibleWorks has already increased the size of custom search limit ranges so that it is now possible to paste the whole list of references into the Range text box and set a search range for all of Q. Is this great customer service or what?!

Note to self: I should do screencasts more often and take the opportunity to hint at some areas for improvement. This seems to encourage developers to actually implement nice enhancements…