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What Bible software do pastors use most frequently?

Discussion in 'Pastoral Ministries' started by webdog, Sep 12, 2005.

  1. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    I'm looking into really studying scripture heavy and was wondering what software would you recommend. I would like something with muliple translations, commentaries, dictionaries, greek and hebrew lexicons, and biblical cross references. I'm not a computer genius, so user friendly is a must.
     
  2. NaasPreacher (C4K)

    NaasPreacher (C4K) Well-Known Member

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    E-sword is free and a fantastic tool. IMHO the best free tool out there - VERY easy to use and MANY features avaibable for free download.
     
  3. TomVols

    TomVols New Member

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    The best, bar none, is Online Bible (www.onlinebible.net) I have found it to be as powerful as the Logos high ends, yet better and easier and more powerful than E-Sword. Online Bible can be downloaded for free, but I advise getting the CDROM. I think it has more on it than the download.
     
  4. exscentric

    exscentric Well-Known Member
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    I, personally, found online bible clunky and esword very smooth and nice to use.

    For the pocket pc, esword is best because it is free, but olivetree.com is awesome as well, but is getting costly lately. I will say that esword is a large program and takes a moment or two to load on the ppc but does work nicely.
     
  5. j_barner2000

    j_barner2000 Member

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    I have been using e-sword for about 5 years and it started better than the pc study bible i had. It is much better in the current rev. than before. I reccomend downloading the base program and all of the modules you will use and burning them to a cd, then installing it. As a professional computer nerd I have seen too many folks lose too much valuable data and software by failing to make backups. BACK-UP, BACK_UP BACK_UP
     
  6. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    What are the best commentaries to download on e-sword? What are some of the good "extras" and "gotta have's" that e-sword offers keeping in mind I do not consider myself neither a calvinist nor arminian, but lean more toward free grace.
     
  7. bruren777

    bruren777 New Member

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    *bluletterbible.com
    *esword.com
    *biblegateway.com
    *backtothebible.org/challenge
    *faithcommunitynetwork.com
    *studybibleforum.com

    I hope this helps!
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] :D
     
  8. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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  9. Pastor Larry

    Pastor Larry <b>Moderator</b>
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    If you are going to do serious grammatical study, then you need BibleWorks. The diagramming, complex search features, and other features make it the best software, IMO. I thought Logos was horrible to use and expensive. The others like Online Bible and Esword are limited in capacity.
     
  10. Brother Ian

    Brother Ian Active Member

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    I love my Online Bible.
     
  11. Plain Old Bill

    Plain Old Bill New Member

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    My two favorites are e-sword.net and biblecentre.net. They are both free and have many fine resources.It is true there are many fine resources on the net but if I could only have two these are the ones I would get.
     
  12. tinytim

    tinytim <img src =/tim2.jpg>

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    There is stuff for everyone at e-sword.net. I have been using version 6, and i just installed the latest updates, and they are wonderful.
    I also use online bible, but I find myself on e-sword more. I even use e-sword to prepare my sermons in the topic section, since it is a mini-word processor
     
  13. Deacon

    Deacon Well-Known Member
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    LIBRONIX (Logos) is without a doubt the easiest, the best and has the largest amount of both old and modern computerized research material.

    It has one downside though, it's pricy.
    They do sell a stripped down version but it doesn't have the features that make the program excellent. To purchase a full program now would cost close to $600.
    It offers add on books weekly for a price; only add them if they appeal to you.

    Libronix outpaces the on-line versions in availability, speed, versitility, you name it.

    Word studies on every text, in English, Hebrew or Greek (or any other language-you pick the text) are available at a click.

    Rob
     
  14. MikeinGhana

    MikeinGhana New Member

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    Online Bible for Mac has a great function caled Comand Shift 7 which inserts the text right into any word processing document without even opening the program. If you do any amount of writing this is worth the "clunkiness" mentioned above. Without the CD the commentaries are a bit limited. I use both Mac and PC. I find Power Bible to be a very good program for the PC. I just downloaded OLB for my PC but have not really used it too much yet.
     
  15. Broadus

    Broadus Member

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    I second BibleWorks 6.0 if you do a lot of exegetical work. It is very powerful, yet fairly streamlined. It, too, is pricey, though.

    Gramcord is good, but I'm not sure where it's headed in its development. Not a whole lot appears to have happened over the past few years, unless I've missed something.

    E-Sword is certainly good, and the price cannot be beat. Great add-ons. I used both BW and e-Sword.

    Bill
     
  16. Trotter

    Trotter <img src =/6412.jpg>

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    I pull up e-Sword for most things.

    As for commentaries and the like, I use:
    Barnes
    Clarke
    Gill
    Jameson, Faussett, Brown
    Scofield
    Robinson Word Pictures
    Vincent's Word Studies
    Geneva notes
    Wesley
    Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge
    Brown-Driver-Briggs
    Faussett's dictionary
    International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
    Thayer's Greek
    Treasury of David

    and 11 translations.

    In Christ,
    Trotter
     
  17. TomVols

    TomVols New Member

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    E-Sword is clunky and not very smooth. Online Bible beats it by a mile. I'd love to have Gramcord and Bibleworks. heck, I'd love to be able to AFFORD those [​IMG]
     
  18. Pastor Keith

    Pastor Keith New Member

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    I , too, have tried a number of freeware Bible Study programs, and I like e-Sword the best. I use it constantly in conjunction with BibleWorks 6.0.

    I also refer frequently to the NET Bible translation and notes. It is also available for free download.
     
  19. Soulman

    Soulman New Member

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    I have been using Power Bible. They own e-sword. You can purchase it online at http://www.powerbible.com/ You can buy 1 cd for $10.00. This is the best program I have ever used.

    Here is what you get: Power BibleCD 4.3 CD-ROM contents

    English Bible texts:

    King James Version with Greek and Hebrew Interlinear Text
    Modern King James
    New King James Version
    American Standard Version
    Bible in Basic English
    Darby's Translation
    Montgomery's New Testament
    Twentieth Century New Testament
    Revised Standard Version
    Weymouth's New Testament
    Young's Literal Translation
    World English Bible
    English Bible texts requiring unlock fees to publishers:

    New International Version. ($16.00)
    New American Standard Bible and New American Standard 1995 Update ($16.00)
    New Revised Standard Version. ($5.00)
    Non-English Bible Texts:

    1912 Luther Bible (German)
    1910 Louis Segond Version (French)
    Reina-Valera (Spanish) 1909
    Reina-Valera (Spanish) 1865
    Reina-Valera Actualizda (Spanish)
    Greek Textus Receptus
    Commentaries:

    Spurgeon's commentary on Matthew
    Spurgeon's Devotional Bible commentary
    Adam Clarke's Commentary
    Albert Barnes NT Commentary
    Family Bible Notes
    1599 Geneva Bible Notes
    John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible
    Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
    Matthew Henry's Exhaustive Commentary
    People's New Testament Commentary
    A.T. Robertson's NT Word Pictures
    Fourfold Gospel
    C.H. Spurgeon's Treasury of David (Psalms)
    Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
    William Burkitt's NT Notes
    JFB Commentary
    Teacher's commentary
    Matthew Poole's commentary
    British Family Bible commentary. Matthew through Revelation complete.
    Dictionaries:

    Easton's Bible Dictionary
    Smith's Bible Dictionary
    American Tract Society Dictionary of the Holy Bible
    Strong's Greek and Hebrew Lexicons
    Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
    International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
    Topical References:

    Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotional
    Bagster Daily Light
    Thompson Chain Topics
    Every Day Life Reference
    Nave's Topical Bible
    2770 Sermon Topics
    Torrey's Topical Textbook
     
  20. exscentric

    exscentric Well-Known Member
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    "They own e-sword."

    Can you tell us how you know this, e-sword has been independent for quite some time and run as a ministry last I knew. Would be very interested in knowing details if this is something new.

    from e-sword: "I am happy to provide a blessing to others in the form of free Bible study software!" "If this ministry blesses you, are you willing to join me in it?"

    I noticed Olivetree is going commercial with cdrom offerings, and have moved from Oregon to other digs elsewhere :-( hate to see them go both from Oregon, as well as from the free side of things.
     
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