Thursday, November 05, 2009

Logos 4 Bible study software released, but a bit pricey

Logos 4 Bible study software has been released. See Dan Phillips' post and Adrian Warnock's post on this.

Now, while this may be an amazing piece of software, here in South Africa it is a ridiculously over-priced piece of software. Of course, I wouldn't mind a sponsor or two for the Logos 4 Gold software package, although, the Platinum edition would be much better! Oh, well! A man can dream! Some men dream of cars. This is what I dream about.

However, for the average salaried South African, and even the above average paid South African, Logos is terribly over-priced. Whether I decide to buy Logos locally or online internationally, it can cost me half or more of my salary for the month. Looking at South Africa, taking a rough guess, probably 98% of people in South Africa cannot afford the Logos software.

It is for this reason that I would recommend a much better priced Bible software package. How about a FREE Bible software package? I thought I'd get your attention!

e-Sword is a free Bible software package for Windows, and has a whole range of translations that can be installed with it for free.

# of free English translation modules 24 (i.e. ESV, ASV, KJV, RV, Geneva, etc)
# of Greek NT modules 6 + a Hebrew NT
# of Hebrew OT modules 2 + Greek OT Septuagint

Latin Vulgate
# of other languages translation modules 47 (i.e. Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese, German, Italian, etc)
# of Commentary modules 16 (i.e. Matthew Henry, John Gill, Adam Clarke, etc)
# of Bible dictionary modules 14 (i.e. Brown-Driver-Briggs, Easton's, ISBE, Nave's, Strong's, Thayer's, etc)
# of graphics modules 9 (i.e. American Bible Society Maps, NASA, CIA World Factbook, etc
# of devotion modules 5 (i.e. Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, Day-By-Day By Grace, etc)
# of extra modules 16 (i.e. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Works of Josephus, Calvin's Institutes, History of The Christian Church, etc)

As you can see, this is a lot to get for free. This is also what I use. Although it is not completely sufficient when doing original language work (for this I use the original way of books), it really is a good package to use.

So, without throwing your budget out of whack, download e-Sword and you have a lot to work with.

UPDATE
6 Nov 2009 - Mark Penrith has written a short review on e-Sword.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi William,

You and I are on the same wave length regarding e-Sword. I wrote a review last week regarding it (http://markpenrith.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/e-sword-chapel-training-and-equipping/). It’s really a great alternative to Logos for an African audience. I would however suggest one small upgrade. Buy the translation of your choice to augment the standard downloadable texts available. Although the KJV, ESV and ASV are great starters the NASB or NKJV are far easier on the tongue.

In Christ,

Mark

William Dicks said...

Thanks for the comments Mark!

Actually, the ESV is my translation of choice. However, I also have the NASB with Strong's, NIV and NKJV.

I wanted people to see that there is a clear, viable alternative to these other over-priced Christian software applications.

BTW, I checked out your post on e-Sword, and its a nice review of the software.

Anonymous said...

Hey William,

I forgot to ask, what is the shelf price of Logos in ZA Rands?

William Dicks said...

The Logos website for SA still only shows Logos 3. The normal price for that is over R11,000. They currently have a special on and the price is almost R10,000. This is for Logos 3 Gold. If this is the Logos 3 price, I can only imagine what Logos 4 is going to be.

To bring Logos 4 into the country will cost about R10,400.

Unknown said...

William,I am very impressed with your blog and how much time you have put into making it speak God’s Word. I just released my blog http://awalkoffaith.wordpress.com and am excited about how God will use it to transform the hearts of men and women who are hungry for the Word and are ready to walk with Him. It would mean the world to me if you could check out my blog and share it with those around you.


God bless and thank you for taking the time to look at my blog.
Michelle Jensen

P. S.
Do you have any prayer requests for your blog?

Survey Software said...

There are certainly a lot of details like that to take into consideration. That’s a great point to bring up. Survey Software

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