BibleWorks, Logos, Accordance: Searching in Hebrew/Greek, Scanning/Context in English

The exercises I will demonstrate here arose from a discussion on the BibleWorks forum. The question is this: How can one conduct a search in an original language (Hebrew/Greek) but scan the results and see the context more quickly in English?

I played around a bit in BibleWorks, Logos, and Accordance to see how one would respond to that question in each. What I did is conduct a search on the Hebrew word ברך (bless). I then show how those results can be displayed in each program. Then I show how I might go about scanning the results in English and viewing the context of the results.

Here is the BibleWorks video. (2'44" 5.3Mb)
Here is the Logos video. (2'52" 4.8Mb)
Here is the Accordance video. (1'13" 1.2Mb)

Summary and Conclusions:

• BibleWorks is very fast in conducting the searches, but it is rather awkward in trying to scan the results in English. It is easy to click through the results and see whatever texts one wants in horizontally-oriented parallels. The parallel windows feature--which allows for vertically-oriented viewing of parallel texts--is helpful, but it requires frequent backtracking to see the search results.
  
• Logos is the slowest of the three, but it also has the most powerful features and options. The linking of windows provides a good way to run through hit results. Starting with the Hebrew (or Greek) text, it is easy to conduct a speed search and then "Export Results to Verse List," and then set up the verse list to display "References and Text in Three Columns." My only complaint here is that I would like a four column display so that I could have BHS Hebrew, LXX Greek, and an English version displayed.
  I did not demonstrate it in the video, but there is a way of accomplishing even more than a 4 column display. 1) After exporting results to a verse list, one can leave it at "References Only." 2) Use Tools > Bible Comparison > Parallel Bible Versions to open in a new window. 3) Choose the versions you want displayed. 4) Create the text link. 5) Now when you click on one of the results in the Verse List, it will appear in this window.
  The value of the Reverse Interlinears is also demonstrated with this task. It is easy to conduct a speed search in Hebrew, Greek, or English. The results display in English--and the hits are even highlighted in the English!--but they are linked to the original language, and one can, of course, link the Reverse Interlinear window to any other text display one wants.
  
• Accordance does a very nice job of returning helpful displays of results. The texts can easily be set to display in vertically-oriented parallels. The use of the "Context" option makes it easy to see as much text around the results as one wishes.
  

Pictures are worth ... a lot: Resources for Biblical Pictures

Sometimes you really need a picture of a biblical location to tell the story. Where, for example, are you going to find a picture of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives like the one above?

There are a number of issues to consider when looking for biblical pictures. First, you want pics of suitable quality. Be sure to preview the picture in the format you plan to use it. Second, the photo should tell a story or help you to tell the biblical story more clearly. Some resources provide clear descriptions to help you in this way. Third, do you want actual photos or drawn pictures/illustrations. The list I have created is focused on photos. For drawings/illustrations, check the Bible Illustration blog. Finally, one of the main issues you need to keep in mind is whether you can obtain permission to use a picture. (I've talked a bit previously about copyright issues with regard to biblical maps.)

I have compiled a list of programs, sites, and other resources that provide access to photos of biblical sites. I have a description of about 20 such resources for now, but I suspect that there are many more. Leave a comment, and I will update the list.

In addition to the descriptions, I provide some example pics (I am particularly amazed by the examples I show of what GoogleEarth and Microsoft VirtualEarth can do of replicating real, on-the-ground pics), and a summary of recommendations. If you are in a hurry, here are my recommendations for now:

Summary

For high quality, high-resolution pictures:

• If you have Accordance, use the Bible Lands PhotoGuide.
• Buy "Pictorial Library of Bible Lands" CDs from BiblePlaces
• Use pictures from the Holy Land Photos site
• If you have money to spend, use Biblical World in Pictures

Best online sites:

• OpenBible.info - Photos of Bible Places: Great organization, but you will have to sort through mixed quality of pics.
• Holy Land Photos: Clear and generous permission policy; excellent quality
• The Virtual World Project: Great presentation and interesting pics

Ways to get pictures to use in your own presentations (i.e., clear use permissions)

• Holy Land Photos: Clear and generous permission policy; excellent quality
• Most of the packages that you buy allow for presentation use
• It will take some checking, but many pictures on Flickr have clear Creative Commons usages described

And here again is the complete LISTING of programs, sites, and other resources. Let me know if you have others I should add.

Imagining a study Bible with Livescribe...

Livescribe has been around a while, but it's recently been updated, and there's a neat video showing what it can do. Now just imagine a study Bible using this technology. You could add all your notes with voice annotations, translate text, etc. Pretty spendy for now, but in the not too distant future it would seem quite doable. We can also wait for Bill Gates' new TouchWall...

ESV and NKJV Bibles for OneNote2007

I've been trying to use Microsoft OneNote2007 a bit. It is a neat program, especially for organization of random notes, associating varieties of files/text/data, and for annotating data. It is not great as a bibliographic tool (compared to something like Zotero), nor is it intended to be a Bible research tool. BUT... over at TabletBible, I discovered that the ESV Bible and now also the NKJV Bible are available as FREE downloads for OneNote. If you take a look at the TabletBible page, you will see how nicely one can annotate the text on a Tablet PC. I'm using it on a desktop, but the graphic above will show you what it looks like and what is possible. (Note that I used the mouse to do highlighting and an attached graphics pad to do the handwriting.) I can imagine how great this would work on a Tablet PC where you could write directly on the screen.

Most of the big Bible software programs have ways of annotating the text or attaching notes. HERE is a recent note on annotating in Accordance. I have found it difficult to highlight text easily in BibleWorks, though it has been easy to add chapter/verse notes. Logos has a much more powerful annotation tool set, and I probably should learn to work with it more, but it still is a lot more work than tapping, typing, and drawing on the screen as in OneNote.

BTW, interested in getting OneNote... and the Microsoft Ultimate Office 2007 for cheap?
If you have an .edu email (teacher, student, or alumni: you do not have to be an active student), Microsoft's The Ultimate Steal is an incredible value. For $59.95, you can purchase Microsoft Ultimate Office 2007 which includes Access™ 2007, Accounting Express 2007, Excel® 2007, InfoPath® 2007, Groove 2007, OneNote® 2007, Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager, PowerPoint® 2007, Publisher 2007, and Word 2007. The offer has been extended to May 16, 2008. This is entirely legitimate and quite a deal.
(My wife who is finishing a DMin at Drew was able to get one. Do make sure you are a student. If they check on you, and you aren't a verified student, you will have to pay the $679 retail price. BTW, my link to the page is an affiliate link, and if you buy, I get $1! Thanks!)

Powerset: New Natural Language Query Processing Tool

Powerset was just launched today. As described by CNET, it "brings a new, rich semantic dimension via natural language query processing." For now, it is only applying this technology to Wikipedia, but its broader applications--and I am thinking in terms of application to biblical text--are intriguing. So what does Powerset do? Again quoting CNET, "Powerset's engine has read 2.5 million Wikipedia pages and extracted 'meaning' from the sentences, creating a navigation and semantic layer on top of the popular Web encyclopedia." To understand more clearly what this means, read the CNET article and this one at PCWorld (where it is called a "Google-killer"!) in addition to watching the introductory video on the Powerset web page. I have also created a 2'15" video showing how it works with "Septuagint" as a search term.

What Powerset is trying to do is get beyond simply using keywords to identify what is relevant in a text. Keywords can be effective if a real, live person goes through a text and applies the keywords. This is basically what Logos has done when it links a biblical text to "topics," and it can use something that is specifically oriented in this way like the New Nave's Topical Bible. Of course, this approach is only as good as the person who applies the keywords/topics.

Is there a way to get a machine to analyze a text? The easiest approach is to check word frequency on a passage, filter out trivial words, and highlight the most often used ones. Logos is implementing this kind of approach with its "Important Words" section in its Passage Guide. Here, for example, are the important words in Mark 6:30-44.I am not clear on the algorithms that Logos is using to generate this list (e.g., why is αρτους less important than ιχθυων even though it occurs at least as often?), but it does provide a helpful start at seeing some of the main concepts in the passage. Powerset, if I understand this correctly, is taking this approach another step further by not only analyzing frequency but also trying to understand the meaning of the sentences. I.e., it appears to be looking for subjects, predicates, and complements in the sentences in the Wikipedia article. Note how this data is presented in its Outline, Show Factz view. Some of its returns make questionable sense, but in general, this is a quick and efficient way for speed scanning a passage and getting a better sense of its content.

In any case, this is an interesting new textual analysis tool, and I will be interested to see how it might be applied to biblical texts.

Bonus items for research and note-taking

In the previous post I listed a couple tools for conducting research and note-taking. The person in the BibleWorks forum who had provided the impetus for this discussion noted that he sometimes made voice annotations. It was a quick way to take notes, but he was trying to figure out how to organize them or to convert them into text. One solution: simply use Zotero with the Vertov plugin (see that previous post) and simply work with the audio files.

Jott is another option that you may not know, but it is one I find myself using more and more. First, it is a FREE service and uses a toll-free phone number, but you must be a USA or Canadian resident, and, depending on how you use Jott and your phone service contract, you may incur some phone charges. (With two teenage daughters, we have unlimited text messaging, so I'm good to go...)
You can use Jott in all sorts of ways, but the main wonder of it is that you talk into your phone, it converts your speech into text (though it also saves the audio), and then posts it to a wide variety of places you can choose. E.g., I hate to try to type out those text messages on my phone, but with Jott, I simply call, tell it to send a message to my daughter, and then (clearly) speak my message. She gets the text message about 5 minutes later. (Officer, I wasn't texting while driving. I was Jotting. ;-) ) You can also speak a message and have it post on your blog. Or Jott to yourself to set up a reminder or create to-do lists. You can also use Jott on your computer and have it send a text message reminder to your phone at a designated time. Okay, so what does this have to do with biblical research? There are at least two ways I am using Jott.

• Let's say you are driving walking, and you get some great idea, and you have no paper. Simply Jott yourself a message and pick it up in your email later on.
• You are in the library or a bookstore, and you come across some book you want to reference again later. You call Jott (quietly when in the library), and use its built-in connection to Amazon. Say (or spell) the author and the book title. When you check your email later, it will have the link to the Amazon page, and from there you can Zotero it in to your bibliography.

It really is a cool technology. It's in beta, but I have had no problems, and they are assuring users that it will always be free.

Super bonus extra: If you don't know about GOOG-411, you can thank me now. It's from Google, it works great, and it is FREE. (I like FREE.) You simply dial 1-800-GOOG-411 from any phone (USA or Canada only), indicate location (city/state), and state the business type or the name of a specific business. It will start returning best possible results to you, and when you get the one you want, it will automatically dial the number for you. (Note that this is all voice-activated interaction.) Okay, I'm not sure how you will use this for biblical research (though I did just check and called the seminary where I teach), but it sure is handy.

Research and Note-taking Tools

A person on the BibleWorks forum asked what others were doing to take and organize notes as they did research. The person was hoping to do so within the BW7 editor. This would certainly work, but, as the person noted, it would take some forethought about directory structure in order to organize the notes efficiently. There is an effective "Find" feature in BW7 that would allow for later searching. One can also set up notes within Logos, of course, and you can work with those notes more easily by grabbing the free DomiNotez "note enhancer for Libronix."

It is great to have all your Bible-related notes in a single place, but neither of the note taking editors in BW7 or Logos (or any other Bible software program) are well suited for collecting research notes on books or articles. So what else is available? I have previously blogged about bibliographic tools (here and here), but we are interested more here in research and note-taking tools.

My two favorite tools are 1) the combination of Orbis (a free-form text-retrieval system) and Ibidem (the bibliographic database) with NotaBene and 2) Zotero.

Orbis is outstanding and is well structured in connecting notes to their origins and also quite versatile in composing free-standing notes. It basically is creating a textual database with sophisticated search functions. The drawbacks: it will cost you somewhere around $200-400, and it will take a commitment (but potentially a very worthwhile one)to learn how to use NotaBene.

Zotero continues to expand its capabilities, and it is free. Using the Vertov plugin, Zotero can even be used to annotate a wide range of media. I have also noted how to keep Zotero synced across any number of computers using FolderShare. Zotero works great for inserting end/footnotes and for generating bibliographies in MSWord and OpenOffice, and you can even download an addin that formats everything according to the SBL stylesheet. (Read about it here and my observation that it was having trouble adding page numbers. If you install the Zotero Development XPI, it works just fine. This is a one-click installation, so it is easy to do, but note that there are some language restrictions.) The drawbacks: you need to be using Firefox, and there is a little extra work to keep it synced across multiple computers.

So, Zotero is great as a bibliographic tool, but what about its use as a research and note taking tool? Take a look at the graphic below. (Click to expand.)

Books can easily be added through a site like Amazon with all their bibliographic information included. Web articles or pages are easy to add, and one can also add standalone notes. Once the items have been added to your library, you then have multiple ways of organizing and annotating them. You can create Collections to organize the items, and items can be dragged/dropped into multiple collections or subcollections. You can add a note to it or attach any other resource, either online or one located on your computer. You can also add tags which will prove to be useful later in searching. You can also link the item to related items in your library. When it comes to finding / retrieving the info you want, note that you can click on one of your collections and see just those items. You can search using the tags you have applied. You can also use the search box to search your items. Note that this search also includes the full text on the web pages you have in your library! If that isn't enough, there is also an advanced search that uses Boolean operators and searches on any field you choose. It is a pretty amazing tool...

Bottom line: If you are using NotaBene, Orbis and Ibidem are the way to go. Everyone else should really look at Zotero.

I have a couple of bonus options for you in my next post!

Pope goes digital!

Pope Goes Digital to Better Connect with Youth

The Pope will text daily messages of inspiration and hope during the six-day Sydney event while digital prayer walls will be erected at event sites and the church will set up a Catholic social networking Web site akin to a Catholic Facebook.

The future of biblical studies and technological tools

After the church in which she'd grown up closed for lack of money and pastors, Paula switched to one of the nondenominational congregations that Wal-Mart had added to many of its retail/social complexes.

Have your attention? That is a quote from a fascinating article in last Sunday's Washington Post Magazine. (Free registration may be needed to read the whole article) The article posed two possible scenarios for what the Washington D.C. might be like in the year 2025. The quote is but a very minor part of a picture in which energy costs, terrorism concerns, and market influences have conspired to make outfits like Wal-Mart and Google (how will you survive without Google LifeServices in 2025?) pervasive influences in a very changed society.

In addition to the implications for the Church and for community as suggested above, one of the other things that made an impression on me in the article was the repeated references to responses to cyber-terrorism and cyber-spamming/manipulation. I.e., we should probably expect a lot more attacks via the Internet. Some will be intended to disrupt economies and social institutions (cyber-terrorism). Some will simply be intended to manipulate your opinion or your pocketbook. If you think spam is bad now, imagine a time when it will be very difficult to verify what really is true information. Everything on the network will be suspect.

I recommend that you read the article for yourself, but it also got me to thinking about the implications for what I tend to be doing a lot of, namely, using technology to enable and enhance biblical studies. What might we expect in 2025?

1. I suspect that we will gladly be paying for more secure Internet-type services. I.e., I am not sure what exactly the Internet will look like, but wide-open Internet access will no longer be viable. Perhaps there will be all sorts of VPNs (virtual private networks) providing security and filtering, and it will be via such VPNs that we might connect in to the larger network. I suppose this is simply an extension of what we have now, but I think the change of perception will be significant.
2. For example, will anyone still be bothering with blogging? Will the cacophony of voices be so overwhelming that it becomes impossible to manage? Will it be so difficult to determine what is true and reliable from what is intentionally manipulative or deceptive that our circles of reference will actually contract rather than enlarge? I have managed to keep a reasonably small list of biblical studies related blogs in my RSS feed, but I can see a time when it will be too much work for bloggers to keep up and too much uncertainty to make it worthwhile for readers.
3. I am also wondering, then, if we might actually become more dependent on private resources/devices rather than network resources. I.e., it will be lots easier to secure a personal device not connected to any network, and I will be more confident in working with guaranteed secure resources not based on the network. This does mean that I believe that someone will still be developing and providing technological resources for biblical studies, but I also suspect that the choices will be greatly reduced. We are already seeing the convergence of best features of the various Bible programs, and as this trend continues, the only differentiating factor will be cost. I just hope we aren't all buying Wal-Mart or Google Bible software after they buy up every other current company in this field...

I am pretty sure I am way underestimating what is going to be possible in 2025. The Washington Post article did reflect on the future needs for community and interpersonal connections, and I too believe that there will still be a need for the kind of community we experience in Church or synagogue and in the company of other biblical scholarly sorts. Maybe all these online services (Google Docs, blogs, wikis, WindowsLive, etc.) will be able to keep ahead of all the security issues, and network resources will still be viable. Maybe we will be doing virtually everything in what is now being called the 'cloud' of online reality. Maybe we will all have embedded devices that virtually embed us in the network. Would you be willing to have a chip embedded in you that made the whole Bible--with real transparency to the original language texts and full search and supporting secondary resources--available to you simply by thinking it? It would be an interesting way for Jeremiah 31:33-34 to become a reality!

Bible Mapper wiki update - More videos!

Want to learn how to make the fine map pictured below that depicts Paul's travels as described in Acts 16.11-12? I made it using the free Bible Mapper program. Over on the Bible Mapper wiki, I have posted a series of short videos showing all the necessary steps. Look for them on the Tutorials page. Okay, I have other things to do, so that will be the last of my work on Bible Mapper for a while. Join the wiki, and share your work!
And BTW... did you note the new RefTagger from Logos? Hover over this Acts 16.11-12 reference for a moment.

Bible, Hymns, and Movies

Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) just announced:

For the past several months here at the CCEL, we've been working on a new database of hymns and worship music. Do you want to search for a hymn text or tune? Find a hymnal that has it? Perhaps you are a worship leader and you would like to find a hymn on a certain Bible text or a setting of a tune in a different key.

These are some of the kinds of uses we support in the Hymnary. Jointly sponsored by the CCEL and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, the Hymnary currently has 14,225 hymns indexed, of which 2,986 have the full text of the hymn, and 4,977 media files including MIDIs, mp3s, notation files, and sheet music.

Click on the Bible text link, and you will see how nicely it works. I regard hymns to be a form of biblical interpretation, so they are often worth checking.

Similarly, it won’t include every movie you’ve liked, but WingClips is a great way to find video clips related to particular themes. According to the site:

You can view inspirational movie clips from many of your favorite films. These WingClips™ can also be downloaded to use in your church, school or other non-profit organization for FREE.

New Mac Unicode Polytonic Greek Keyboard

In light of some comments generated by a previous post, Rodney Decker has just updated his Unicode Polytonic Greek keyboard for the Mac. Check it out here. For much more on Unicode in general for use in biblical studies (both Mac and PC), also check out his Unicode Resource Page.

Bible Mapper wiki update

With some help from the creator of Bible Mapper, David Barrett, and from Tim Bulkeley, the Bible Mapper wiki has been updated. I have added two short videos in the Tutorials section that should get you going on how to use the program.

Chicago Assyrian Dictionary Online

The Scribal Practices blog brought to my attention that the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago now offers almost all the volumes of the Assyrian Dictionary for free as PDF files. I don't know anything about Assyrian, but for the thousands of readers of this blog who do, now you know. ;-)

13 Bible Software Programs Reviewed

Jerry Foster has posted an extremely comprehensive review of 13 Bible software programs. That link will bring you to the summary table, but clicking on each of the programs he reviews will lead to thorough reviews of each.
Programs he reviewed in order starting with his highest recommended:

• WORDsearch 8
• The Word 3
• SwordSearcher 5
• Bible Explorer 4
• Logos 3
• e-Sword
• QuickVerse 2008
• Pradis 6
• Theophilos 3
• The SWORD Project
• Bible Pro 12
• Online Bible
• Lightning Study Bible

Note that he indicates that this is his personal evaluation based on his personal needs, namely, "a lay person who is interested in Bible software for personal study and teaching, yet does not have extra time or money." As he observes, therefore, he did not work with Greek or Hebrew tools and did not include BibleWorks7 among the programs tested. If people are interested in commenting on his review, he encourages comments on his blog.

This comprehensive review is quite a significant amount of work! I appreciate his criticisms, and I especially value his comments on interfaces and what he calls "extensibility" (i.e., personalizing the program, adding notes, etc.). The Bible software publishers will do well to review his evaluations. I tend to focus more on software to work with Greek and Hebrew, but this is a great resource for discovering and learning about a number of programs.

More on Unicode Greek/Hebrew and Keyman

In the previous post, I listed some frustrations with Unicode Greek/Hebrew entry in Word2007.

In the responses, Rick Brannan provided a link to his own web page to convert Greek beta code to normalized Unicode. It works similarly to the Unicode Inputter I recommended.

Rod Decker, whose resources on Unicode I have used before, suggested using the old, free version of Tavultesoft Keyman 6.2. I checked with Tavultesoft, and they "no longer support or recommend Keyman 6.2." (You can follow the links on Rod's page to acquire it.) I have now downloaded the 30 day trial of Keyman 7.0 and can report that it works well, but here are a few other items to note:

• Keyman 6.2 was only free for personal, home use. All other uses require a license to be purchased.
  
• I can confirm that I tried out my old Keyman 6.2, and it works just fine in Word2007, but note that I am using WinXP. If you have Vista, you will need to use/buy 7.0.
• If you get the Keyman Lite package, you only get 2 keyboards. If you want Greek, Hebrew, and (Syriac/Coptic...), you will have to bump up to the $59 Pro version.
• It's a bit tricky setting up Hebrew as compared to Greek in Keyman 7.0.243 in order to get right-to-left working properly. This is supposed to be fixed in 7.0.245.
  
• A nice thing about Keyman is the ability to have onscreen keyboard display. This is really handy to help find all those vowel points and such, ... but it only works if the keyboard installed provides the onscreen display.
• Rod recommended Manuel Lopez' keyboard layout based on beta code which is the one I used to use and really like, but it does not have the onscreen display.
• Another keyboard option for Greek and Hebrew is the one provided by Galaxie Software. (Look on this page.) Galaxie now provides this for free, and they do include onscreen displays for both Greek and Hebrew.
  
• I can't find it on their website, but Tavultesoft's email response to me said that they offer a discounted price of $15 to students.
  

Bottom line:

• To type quickly in Greek or Hebrew in Word2003, I would stick with the Logos keyboards that can be integrated within Windows.
• If you are using Word2007, then Keyman 7.0 with the Galaxie keyboards looks like the best option.
• If you want something easy to install and is free but has somewhat awkward Greek entry, you can use the Tyndale setup/keyboards.
  

(If you have experience with Greek/Hebrew Unicode entry in OpenOffice or on a Mac, please share your recommendations!)

Unicode Greek, Office2007 Update, Logos Shibboleth

(See previous entries on Unicode.)
I have been continuing to try out Microsoft Office 2007, Word2007 in particular, and how one goes about typing in polytonic Greek. Vincent Setterholm of Logos has confirmed to me that there are a number of bugs in Word2007 that make the entry of characters with multiple diacritics difficult. What one really wants is to have such characters correctly rendered using the precomposed forms. E.g., using Unicode, an omega with a circumflex and a iota sub can be rendered with combining diacritics (i.e., three separate elements) or as a precomposed character (namely, the glyph 1FF7 which has all three elements properly displayed). When I use the Logos Greek keyboard which I think is the most intuitive way to enter Greek text, one gets unpredictable results. Logos' free Shibboleth program for entering Greek and quite a few other ancient languages has been updated, but it still stumbles on some of these problems.

Some observations:

• Pasting text from Logos or BibleWorks works fine. Characters w/ multiple diacritics are properly rendered with the correct precomposed character.
• I can type in Greek using the Logos keyboard in WordPad, and it looks fine. Pasting the text into Word2007, however, results in the messed up text.
• The Unicode Greek Inputter does work fine for copy/paste into Word2007.
• The Tyndale keyboard does work fine. It is, in my opinion, an awkward keyboard, however (diacritics must be entered before typing a vowel) that I dislike using it.

So what to do in the meantime before things get fixed? One can learn and use the Tyndale keyboard or use the Greek Inputter. (I think that Tavultesoft Keyman also works, but it costs USD $19.) I'll probably stay with the Logos keyboard and use the Greek Inputter when needed.

Biblical Mapping Resources et al

David Instone-Brewer has done another fine job of organizing a collection of resources, this time on Maps and Geography in Biblical Studies. Use his listing to supplement the observations I have made on this blog. I will also be using his list to update the catalogue of biblical mapping resources I have compiled here.

Jim Davila on PaleoJudaica brought my attention to a "City of David" website. It is a very well-done website with some fine models, virtualizations, pictures, and timelines. (Note that you need to use IE7, not FireFox, for it to work properly.) I cannot unreservedly recommend the site, because it reflects an exclusively Israeli perspective that is broadly critical of "Arab agitators." I pray for a peace in Jerusalem that is able to include Jews and non-Jews alike.

Another Bible Visualization

Over on the OpenBible.info blog, a Bible Sentence Paths visualization has been added to their collection. It is a bit more difficult to make sense of this one, but if you follow the link in the Notes to the Stefanie Posavec visualizations, you can see how the visualization does actually communicate some information about an author's style. The metadata embedded with the visualization (e.g., the red in the visualization are words of God/Jesus) does also give some sense of the focus of a particular book.

Bible Mapper wiki

I have recommended and discussed the Bible Mapper program in the past. It is a fine mapping program, and it is free to use. What's more, it can be used to create copyright free maps. The program is provided without support, however. For this reason, I have created a Bible Mapper wiki for users to provide mutual support and advice. Perhaps of even greater help, it can serve as a repository for sharing maps and templates users have created. Check it out and download maps of "The Seven Churches of Revelation" that I have created and see how you can also participate on the wiki.