BibleWorks Update!

When BibleWorks announced they were closing up shop in June 2018, they noted that the program would, of course, continue to run as normal. They also indicated: "We will, Lord willing, continue to provide compatibility fixes for BibleWorks 10 well into the future."

I still use BibleWorks regularly since it has so many resources I have not purchased in either Accordance or Logos. True to their word, I still was pleasantly surprised to see that they recently released a Windows 10 Compatibility Update: 10.0.8.710.

I haven't had any issues running BibleWorks in Win10, but if you still have the program, it probably is worth it to start it and update.

Accordance adding features to attract BibleWorks users

Accordance has been aggressive in adding features to their program to attract BibleWorks users and make the transition easier. As I noted in an earlier post, they have both a basic and advanced crossover option. They also have a crossgrade policy that allows someone to obtain some resources at a discounted price if they have already purchased them in another program.

Accordance has indeed made it possible to import BibleWorks notes, and I can say that it works quite well. They have also added a "Live Click" feature that reproduces some of the natural functions of BibleWorks in displaying a verse in all versions (or a customized list of versions), displaying all entries for a word in all applicable lexicons, and generating word usage information. Check out this short video for a demonstration of how these look and work in Accordance.

UPDATE: Accordance has now provided a page dedicated to BibleWorks users HERE. They also updated the resources provided, and the basic crossover now does include NA28.

BibleWorks closing down... What should you do?

With the recent announcement that BibleWorks will cease operation on June 15, 2018, a number of my students for whom BibleWorks was our required Bible software program for many years have asked me what to do. There has also been considerable speculation on both the Accordance and Logos forums about options and transition possibilities.

I'll first say that I am counting on BibleWorks running for quite a few more years. Even with upgrades to Windows down the line, there has usually been a legacy program option. (I still can run Win95 programs on Win10!) BW had gotten to a stable release running in VM in Mac, but I'm less confident about its future in the Mac world.

If you are thinking about making a transition, both Accordance and Logos will be happy to help, and both are working on ways to import any notes you've written in BibleWorks into their own programs. What should you do?

As for Accordance, compared to BW, it’s easier to use, less hassle to install on a Mac, and cheaper (for the program/arrangement I got) compared to Logos. BW still has so many more resources in it, and it’s still my preferred way for doing many searches I typically do and conducting a number of other tasks. (For example, neither Accordance nor Logos can generate a listing of passages that I can use in exercises like this one that is just a couple clicks in BW.) 

That said, except for a few odd omissions, Logos is the more advanced program. The difference is cost. What I can get in Accordance for $200 for my students would cost closer to $600 in Logos. (If I tried to match all the resources one got in the standard library with BibleWorks, it would cost many hundreds of dollars more in either Accordance or Logos.) Logos has some really excellent features that make great use of their reverse interlinears, and they have a number of other tools and (interactive) guides that are extremely handy. I.e., you do get what you pay for with either, so it's more a matter of deciding what you really need and can afford. I've ended up going with the Accordance Greek and Hebrew Discoverer as a good entry point. It's a reasonable price for our students with a purchase agreement discount.

But what should current BibleWorks owners do? As I mentioned above, your first option is to stay with BibleWorks. As BW announced,

If you have a valid license for BibleWorks 10 you can continue to use the program as usual. We will, Lord willing, continue to provide compatibility fixes for BibleWorks 10 well into the future. This will ensure that you can continue to use the program for the long term. Compatibility updates will be provided through the normal updater mechanism within the program.

If you want to start transitioning, Accordance offers some crossover options. 

UPDATE 2022.02: I've updated prices. Also note that this offer ends 28 February 2022. I can also add that features have been added to Accordance that pick up BibleWorks features such as Live Click and Text Browser. Accordance is also able to import all your BibleWorks notes.

If you have BW versions 6-7, it's $149 to get pretty much all the same in Accordance. 

If you have BW versions 8-10, you can get the basic crossover for $199.

Then, if you can add an advanced crossover for $199 for BW 8-9 or for $249 for BW 10.

The advanced packages get you pretty much the full set of resources you had in BW. (There were more resources in BW10 which is why it is more expensive.)

So what should a BibleWorks user do? I'm thinking the basic crossover will be fine for most users, especially if you don’t need Philo, Josephus, Syriac, or Targums. You may need to add whatever other English versions you want, but NRSV, NET, CEB and more are included. Hebrew texts and resources are good, and all the most-used parallels and features are included as well.

Here is what you might miss with just the basic crossover:

• LXX Rahlfs: Swete's LXX is included which is fine and actually has some benefits, but it's tagging is a bit different and Rahlf's is usually the standard for basic LXX work.
•  Greek lexicons: Louw & Nida are included as is Intermediate Liddell & Scott, but you may want to get something more like the NT Word Study Dictionary (which is not in Advanced either).
  

(BTW, if you do decide to go with Accordance, please list me--Mark Hoffman--as a referral. I get a little store credit. Thanks!)

Logos asks you to call to obtain a crossgrade or upgrade for BibleWorks. You can see what resources they offer, but the price is not posted and might vary based on their dynamic pricing policy. They have also posted a helpful video, "How to Use Logos Like a BibleWorks Pro."

I suspect that with BibleWorks closing, it provides better long-term prospects for Accordance and Logos. One always runs a risk with any digital technology, but even books can be lost, burned, or flooded. Only the Word of God endures forever!

NT Textual Criticism Resources Compared

This is Mark 1.40 in Sinaiticus accessed in BibleWorks 10's manuscript viewer.
The dot over the upsilon of ΓΟΝΥΠΕΤΩΝ is the second corrector's mark showing that the word is not in other mss.

 With the appearance of the new Tyndale House Greek New Testament, and arising from a discussion about a text critical resource in Accordance, I decided to compile a comparison of some of the standard resources for textual criticism looking at texts, apparatus, and commentaries on textual variants. Resources I have available include:

• NA28 from BibleWorks10
• UBS5 from BibleWorks10
• Centerfor NT Textual Studies (CNTTS) from BibleWorks10
• TyndaleHouse GNT from Accordance 12
• Society of Biblical Literature (SBLGNT) from Logos 7
• Comprehensive NT Notes (Clontz) from Accordance 12
• Metzger’s Textual Commentary from Logos 7
• Omanson and Metzger’s Textual Guide from Logos 7
• Comfort’s New Testament Text and Translation Commentary from Logos 7
• NET Bible notes from Accordance 12
• "A Student's Guide to New Testament Textual Variants" at http://bible.ovc.edu/tc/
• An "Online Textual Commentary on the Greek Gospels" by Wieland Willker at http://www.willker.de/wie/TCG/

I looked at two interesting variants in Mark 1.40 (did the leper kneel?) and 1.41 (was Jesus moved with compassion or anger?). You can see the document I've linked to see what each offers, but some comments first.

• I've listed the software program I've used to get my texts, and the implementations vary. The beauty of all of them, however, is the hyperlinking which provides information on the manuscript and its date and more. I'd hate to do in-depth textual criticism without these programs.
• The Nestle-Aland 28 (NA28) and United Bible Society (UBS5) are the eclectic critical texts with the NA28 trying to offer a fuller listing of variants and the UBS5 focusing only on more significant variants. Each has a slightly different approach to presenting variants.
• The CNTTS does not offer a recommended text but includes the most full catalog of variants. Any serious work really needs to consult this resource.
• The Tyndale House GNT is based on the mid-19th century text by Tregelles but with updates based on new texts and greater attention to scribal habits.
• The SBLGNT is a Greek text, but it is not intended to be a critical edition of Greek mss but rather reflects differences among other editions of the GNT. (Westcott-Hort, Tregelles, NA28, Robinson-Pierpont)
• The Comprehensive NT only provides notes indicating differences between Alexandrian and Byzantine text families and some of the English versions which reflect each.
• Metzger's Textual Commentary provided a guide to the UBS editions explaining the committee's choices. Omanson's Textual Guide is a direct descendant that provides fuller explanation and is more accessible to non-specialists. Comfort's NTT&T Commentary also is oriented to a non-specialist.
• The NET Bible's tc=text critical notes attend to the more significant text variants (though I was surprised that there was not a note to Mark 1.40) and provides a balanced and reason explanation for a preferred reading. For my seminary students, this provides just about all they need to know. When I teach textual criticism, I teach enough so that they can understand and appreciate the NET Bible notes.
• One helpful online resource is the "Student's Guide" which provides a summary of significant variants.
• Wieland Willker's "Online Textual Commentary" deserves special recognition. The "commentary discusses the 1500 most important textual variants of the Gospels,
  plus about 500 minor ones, on about 2600 pages." Note! That's just for the Gospels! On the basis of his thorough work, he also includes suggestions for improving NA28. In addition to manuscript evidence, he marshals plenty of other related evidence from parallels and the Patristic literature. Where the others have a paragraph of commentary, he provides pages.

SUMMARY: Take a look at the linked document to see how each of these resources I've listed compares. The NA28 remains as something of a standard, but it is more than most people need. As noted, I recommend the NET Bible's notes for my students as the most accessible to identify significant variants and get a quick commentary about what's going on. For something a bit more thorough and exhaustive, I like Omanson's Textual Guide, especially since he remains in dialog with Metzger. If you're looking at a Gospel text and really want to do more study, be sure to consult Willker's work.
HERE is the PDF you can view.

Finding Hebrew words translated by a Greek word in the LXX: Accordance, BibleWorks, Logos

A question arose on the Accordance forum about finding the underlying Hebrew word/s which were rendered with a given Greek word. It got me to thinking about how I would accomplish this task in the major Bible software programs: Accordance, BibleWorks, and Logos. For this exercise, I am just going to see what Hebrew words are being rendered with a form of the verb ἱλάσκομαι in the LXX. It's a word that has a range of meaning including "be merciful, propitiate, expiate, make atonement." Cognate forms are important in the NT, since they are used to describe Jesus. (E.g., ἱλαστήριον in Rom 3.25 and ἱλασμός in 1 John 2.2.) In most cases, the software is making use of some edition of Emmanuel Tov's (and Frank Polack's) Parallel Aligned Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Texts of Jewish Scripture. (The only exception might be Logos' Lexham Greek-English Interlinear Septuagint.)

ACCORDANCE

I'm still learning Accordance, so others may correct me or suggest a better way, but this is what I think you need to do. 1) Open the LXX; 2) Search for ἱλάσκομαι; 3) Open a new tab with the MT-LXX Parallel; 4) Use the MERGE command to link this tab with the LXX tab. As the graphic above shows, the Greek word is highlighted, but a person would need to go through all the hits and pick out the Hebrew. 
UPDATE: I had initially lamented there was no way to see the Hebrew roots in Accordacnce. Thanks to Joel Brown from Accordance, I need to update this entry, because there is an easy way to see the Hebrew roots underlying the Greek.

The trick is to use the Analysis Pie Chart and choose MTLXX Lex or to use the standard Analysis and customize the display by dragging in the MTLXX Lex category. The results are visible above. Since Accordance can also do Greek root searches, you can get a broader picture of usage quickly. It's also quite easy to copy/paste the results (here displaying part of the root search results):

ἱλάσκομαι (ἵλεως) to be merciful, pardon, be propitious = 12

            אתה סלח = 1

            כפר = 3

            לְ סלח = 1

            נחם = 1

            סלח = 4

            (No direct translation) = 2

ἱλασμός (ἵλεως) propitiation, means of forgiveness = 6

            כִּפֻּרִים = 2

            סְלִיחָה = 1

            (No direct translation) = 3

ἱλαστήριον (ἵλεως) propitiation, place of forgiveness = 28

            הַ כַּפֹּרֶת = 2

            כַּפֹּרֶת = 17

            כַּפְתּוֹר־1 = 1

            עֲזָרָה = 5

            (No direct translation) = 3

This is the ideal way for getting the results desired in the initiating question.
(As an aside, both Accordance and BibleWorks found ἐξιλάσκομαι in Deut 21.8 as a hit for ἱλάσκομαι. That appears to be an incorrect morph tagging that Logos corrects.)
Accordance can perform some other nifty tricks by combining MERGEs in order to see where a specific Hebrew word is translated by a specific Greek word. Cf. David Lang's guide HERE.

BIBLEWORKS

BibleWorks has a Parallel Hebrew and LXX module that makes good use of the Tov alignment. After opening the module (using the icon in the button bar or Resources > Parallel Hebrew and LXX), a window opens and one can the select Search > Search for Hebrew-LXX Equivalents (or click on the א=α binocular icon). This opens the smaller window shown in the graphic above, and one can type in either a Hebrew lemma and find all the ways it's translated into Greek or a Greek lemma and find all the Hebrew words it's translating. The results need a bit of checking due to the way Tov had to correlate the Hebrew and Greek. (Mainly it's separating out Hebrew prefixes like ל or ו.) By clicking on any given result, you can see that it calls up the verses where it occurs. I can see the actual Hebrew and Greek texts on top, and I can view lexical information at the bottom. If I want to see an English translation of a result verse, double-clicking will open it up in BW's Browse Window. From my results window, I also have the option of selecting and copying the results, so that I can generate this:

1   ~xn     ilaskomai

4 rpk    ilaskomai

6 xls    ilaskomai

One drawback of BW is that it cannot do Greek root searches, so if I wanted to look at cognate forms of the Greek word, I would need to search each one separately.

LOGOS

Logos offers the powerful options for getting the results I want, and I can get at it in a couple ways. I can start with a simple lemma search of the LXX, and when the results are returned, I can choose the Verses view to compare any number of translations. As shown above, I have my LXX hits highlighted, I've added the Hebrew, and I've also the NRSV which has the sympathetic highlighting. (UPDATE: In the comments, Mark Barnes noted that by choosing the Lexham Hebrew Bible to display, you can also see the Hebrew highlighted.) In that results window, I can also choose the analysis view, and then I get this (and this is only a partial view):

I have chosen to organize the analyis by the Hebrew lemma, and I'm provided with a clear view Greek and Hebrew lemmas and a full analysis of each. That is extremely helpful, but... I cannot find an easy way to copy/paste out the information. Logos does allow root searches, so I could also generate results like this for all cognates.
But there is another way to answer my original question. I can do a lemma search for ilaskomai, right click on one of the results, select the lemma, and then select Bible Word Study. This generates a lot of information, but what I want to see is this:

Here is a clear illustration of the Hebrew words underlying the Greek, and clicking on any one of the segments will display all the places where it occurs. Again, extremely helpful, and I can right-click to copy the graphic, but I dont see any way to generate a simple listing. 
UPDATE: Mark Barnes in the comments noted workarounds for getting the results exported using Excel or using the Bible Word Study. (Read his explanation HERE.) He also noted an even easier way to get the results most quickly. Use the Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Septugint. It's a simple matter of looking up the word which displays results like this:

There you have it. A few things to note. 

• When it says the סלה is the word 4x, it actually is referring to the number of verses, not the number of times. (The word occurs twice in 4Kgs (2Kings) 5.18, so it's actually 5x.) 
• The English Gloss is there because those are instances where the LXX differs from the MT, so there is no underlying Hebrew. 
• Fine print! If you've been counting, the results displayed miss 2Chron 6.30 which showed up in my other searches. Why? It's a text critical issue. In that verse, Rahlf's edition of the LXX has the word ἱλάσῃ from ἱλάσκομαι. In Swete's edition of the LXX, however, the word is ἰάσῃ, apparently from ἰάομαι. I checked a print copy of Swete, and that's indeed what he has. Is it a typographical error in the print edition? I think the sense is: "You will hear from heaven... and you will heal (instead of expiate) and give to a man according to his ways." I.e, the Lexham Analytical Lexicon apparently is using Swete rather than Rahlf's. Oddly, the Lexham English Septuagint tries to render ἰάσῃ as a name, Jahaziel.

SUMMARY (UPDATED)

Accordance probably does the best job of addressing the task of finding all the underlying Hebrew words translated by a specific Greek word in the LXX. It also the advantage of being able to do a Greek root search for a broader scope. Logos is a very capable program, and using the Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Septuagint is the easiest way of all. It also offers the most presentation and hyperlinked options. BibleWorks does accomplish the task in its own way and can generate the list of Hebrew words simply. I certainly don't think a person is going to buy one of these programs simply based on this exercise, but I hope it gives an idea of what each is capable.

To see another example of how to use the MT-LXX parallel to conduct other tasks, you'll want to read this earlier post where I walk through some examples. 

If I've missed some better or easier way to address the originating question, please let me know in the comments.