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.

Christian book store sales people selling what they don't know

I dropped into a local Christian book store today just to browse around.

As I came to the Bibles section I overheard one of the store's sales people, a young guy, trying to tell a boy of about 16 and his mother about the different Bible translations.

I stood there for a few minutes listening in on his advice as to why they should buy one translation over another. For a moment or two I was quite stunned at what I heard.

The young boy asked the salesman about the ESV, just to be told that in the ESV and other more modern translations some words have been left out. At this point I jumped into the discussion just to help this poor boy and his mother out of the big hole they have been dumped into by this salesman.

I firmly believe that the salesman had no clue what he was talking about, read a couple of internet sites that claimed that modern translations leave words out and believed it! He referred to the KJV and the NKJV as the better translations based on his internet research.

The problem with the Bibles section in any Christian bookstore is that you cannot have a salesman like this with just a little bit of knowledge. He knows just enough to cause serious damage.

Each Christian bookstore should have a resident, trained person who understands the different translations, and not just the translations, but should have a strong understanding of the theory of Bible translation and of manuscript transmission.

If you do not know the product you are selling, you end up causing more problems than solving any. The same goes for the Bibles section in a Christian bookstore.

A couple of books I can recommend are:

The King James Only Contoversy, James R. White – Purchase: Amazon, Kalahari.
The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (4th Edition), Bruce M. Metzger – Purchase: Amazon, Kalahari.
The Word of God in English, Leland Ryken – Purchase: Amazon, Kalahari.
How to Choose a Bible Version (Revised), Robert L. Thomas – Purchase: Amazon, Kalahari.

Zondervan author disses ESV

Whether it is so or not, I wouldn't know, but it seems that Zondervan, via Mark Strauss (PhD), an author of Zondervan, dissed the ESV translation.

Is this sour grapes from the NIV crowd at the amazing growth of the ESV? Perhaps I am seeing it all wrong.

However, I am with the ESV crowd!

BTW, I have been waiting for the ESVSB (ESV Study Bible) to arrive in South Africa, and now that it has, I realise that I can't afford it. When I buy a Bible, I buy the bonded leather edition, because the leather edition is beyond my budget. I don't buy the hardcover, since I have found that hardcover editions fall apart after a while.

Anyhow, prices of the bonded leather edition range from around R900 ($87) to about R1099 ($108). This is just too pricey for me. So, for now, I will have to sit out on the ESVSB.

Of course, if there is anyone out there that would be willing to bless me with the ESVSB, it will be greatly appreciated.

Illegitimate Totality Transfer

At Theological Word of the Day, they have a phrase called Illegitimate Totality Transfer.

The meaning is given as:

"In biblical interpretation, this refers to the illegitimate transfer of a word’s total possible meaning, with all its variations and nuances, and forcing them all into a particular context. For example, if one were to do a word study on the Greek word phile, one would find that it could mean “affection, friendship, love, or kiss.” The context must decide. The illegitimate totality transfer occurs when one forces all of these meanings into one passage, without consideration of which nuance best fits the context. This is a common interpretive fallacy."

This even appears in Bible translations. A specific translation comes to mind... the Amplified Bible. I have another name for it... the Multiple Choice Bible.