Getting the best out of Bible software: Logos

Logos Scholar's Library  - Guides, tips and treasures

I have a lukewarm relationship with Logos. I love the power and the resources, but I can't get used to the interface. This doesn't stop me from recommending Logos for anyone who wants to integrate secondary literature with Bible tools, because  they have the price right and the technology works, and it keeps getting easier to use. Now that it is available on the Mac as well as PC , it is available to everyone, and their SD card  option makes it easy to install on netbooks too. These notes are based on Logos 3 (aka Libronix). Logos 4 is now also available, and some people prefer it, though it costs more. It does have some cool analysis tools and some new resources. If you have thought Logos was too complex, here's a quick start. And if you can't quite work out how to get it to do what you want, I've uncovered some of the hidden tricks and treasures for you.
Topics: Choosing the package My advice Getting more (or less) than the Logos packages Installation tips (and groans) Getting Started Time-saving tips Useful features you might not know about Setting General Options (making Logos do what you want!) Change Default Bibles & Resources Quick Greek & Hebrew lookup Explore Greek word usage outside the NT Detailed work on the Greek & Hebrew texts with SESB Pretty stuff - Timelines, Maps, Genealogies Personal Conclusions

Choosing the package This is harder than you'd think, but it is due to the fantastic choice available. They have done their best to package things according to different types of user: First look at the  comparison chart  and prices for their bundled packages.

My advice If you want to dip your foot in, I suggest you get a basic package then add modules or books later: the Christian Home Library is a good deal at about $150,  if you are a Bible scholar, start with the SESB instead (see below ) If you want to buy a ready-made collection, ask yourself: "Do I like to work things out for myself?" - then get the Original Languages Library (which has all the foreign language tools but no commentaries) "Do I like to read what others have found out"  - then get the Scholar's Library (which has fewer language tools but all the commentaries). "Do I have a generous church or lots of money?" - then go for the Silver or Gold or Plantinum. The Gold Scholar's Library is expensive, but it is worth considering as a missionary gift to a pastor or school, because this puts a basic library in their hands.

Getting more (or less) than the Logos packages When you buy the Gold collection, you don't have it all. You have 700+ volumes, but there is LOTS more available for separate purchase. Search their products or look at the huge list of All Books   (be prepared to wait - they have 12000+ titles! - though it depends how you count) Logos are superb at turning printed works into searchable texts linked to other resources such as Bibles and dictionaries. Some of the books are available elsewhere on the web, for free. Nevertheless, the Logos versions are valuable because they are more searchable, and they have internal links to Bible references and language aids etc, and they are accurate even for Greek & Hebrew. Some resources which are NOT included in the Gold are surprising. The Gold collection includes about 20 English Bibles, including the main commercial versions while  BibleWorks and Accordance have far more. Missing from Logos are some Bibles of historical importance (eg Geneva and Tyndale), some from outside the Protestant world (eg Douay-Rheims and JPS) and some translations of non-Hebrew texts (eg the Septuagint and Peshitta). But Logos is ahead of its rivals with interlinear Bibles which give quick and easy access to the original languages. Most of the original language ancient versions are included, except the Samaritan Pentatuech (which is available in Accordance but not presently in BibleWorks) and the OT Peshitta (available in BibleWorks and Accordance).

Installation tips (and groans) I have installed Logos many times, and it rarely goes smoothly. The good news is that over the years things have improved, and their help department is great - they respond quickly, with detailed instructions. A few ways to avoid pitfalls: make sure your computer is connected to the internet. It makes registration easy, and solves some issues. you will need to put the Serial No in the Account Manager (on the "Tools" menu) to install your product. The first time you run this, it may ask you for your email and other details. If it still doesn't ask you for your Serial No, try running the Account Manager again. if you have multiple licences (bought at different times, with different email addresses), email Logos and ask to get everything on one licence when they ask you to 'synchronise' your serial number with their central server, let them do it. This means that you don't lose any login information. install everything - don't leave it on CDs. The space available on modern hard drives is huge. after you think you have installed everything,  put the CD back in and click on menu "Tools", "Library Management", "Location Manager". Let it list all the Unlocked resourses which aren't installed and click on "Copy Resources" if it finds some. (It's surprising how often this is necessary) Don't be afraid to register. If your computer or hard drive dies, they will let you reinstall them, and they are happy for you to install them on two computers (for example one at home and one at the church office) so long as you are the prime user of both - see their  instructions for installing on another computer .

Getting Started The richness of Logos is a problem. There are so many ways to search, with a different types of windows to display the information, and the user can arrange the windows in any way they like. No two people use Logos in the same way, so the designers leave a great deal open to the users. This is a challenge for the new user, who can face the empty screen like an author with writer's block. Here's how to do basic tasks: Study a Passage - click on "Home", "Study Passage" and type a Bible reference. This compiles links to commentaries, and reference guides, quick version comparisons with highlighted differences, parallel passages and online sermon links. Click on "Exegetical Guide" for even more. Study a Bible Word - click on "Home", "Study Word" and type a word from the Bible. This pulls together lexicons and other resources using that word, with links to Hebrew & Greek words and a concordance organised by the original word form. Study a Topic - click on "Home", "Study Topic", or click on "Search", "Basic Search" and set it to "All Available Unlocked Resources" then type any subject word. This takes some time but produces links to any Bible passage, dictionaries or books which use that word in its various forms.  - if you have too many results, use "Topic Browser" (click on "Go"). - if you have too few results use "Search", "Fuzzy Search", but be prepared to wait a VERY long time.  Study comments on a Bible passage - click on "Go", "Reference Browser", select "All Available Unlocked", Type="Bible", and type the reference. This creates links to every resource which includes this reference. Find something found earlier  (this happens a lot, because so many new windows open) - click on "Go", "History" to get a very nice graphical image of where you have been.

Time-saving tips Save Workspace There are so many different ways to use Logos, you will want to use different layouts for different things. So when you have things set up nicely, click on "File: Save Workspace", and give it a memorable name. Simple Searching There are lots of different ways to search. Click on menu: "Search" and you'll find a bewildering list of search engines.  Here's how to cut through the confusion: To search inside the text you are reading, press Ctrl-F. This opens little search box opens in the bottom status bar of that window, like in Firefox. To search a range of texts press Ctrl-Shift-S. This opens whichever search engine is likely to be the one you want (depending on what you are reading) Aligned hits in Context. If this is offered as a display option, try it. It is particularly useful when looking for similar phrases or constructions. Keyboard shortcuts You can take control of the multitude of windows by a few keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+W = close the current highlighted window Ctrl+Tab = step through previous windows, starting from the most recently viewed  Ctrl+G = Go to the reference box to type in a new location. Ctrl+Shift+1 = bookmark a position in a window.  (1 - 9 are 9 bookmarks) Ctrl+1 = go back to that bookmarked window and position. Ctrl+PgDn = shows the same text in the next Bible (listed alphabetically). (Doesn't work well with other types of resource).

Useful features you might not know about Customise Toolbars Click on menu "Tools", "Customise" to add new toolbars. This is more than just adding icons for features which can be reached by the menu. You can add shortcuts to a webpage, to load a particular workspace, to run some script, open another program etc. etc. Unfortunately you can't have different sets of buttons for different Workspaces. Turn on Page Numbers In menu "View", "Visual Filters", click on "All Resources", highlight "Page Numbers" and click "Add". Wait a while - it has to turn this on for many resources. Now, when you look at an electronic book, you will know which page number you are citing. Star diagrams in Word Studies Click on Home, and type a word in "Study Word", then look at "Root Words". These diagrams are not just pretty - they display a lot of information. The words are different sizes according to how many times they are used, and when you click on one you get a quick English concordance search for that word (though only where it is translated by the English word you looked up). However, if you click on the Greek or Hebrew word at the top of the quick concordance list,  you get a Bible Word Study based on that Greek or Hebrew word so you can see all the ways it has been translated (but be prepared to wait!). Compare Bible versions Click on menu "Tools", "Bible Comparison", "Compare Parallel Bible Versions". The results can be confusing though this is VERY clever. Not only does it show differences between texts (which is relatively simple) it manages to show the comparison version in a different colour in the right place! (well, most of the time - it gets confused with less literal translations)

Setting General Options (making Logos do what you want!) Click on menu "Tools: Options: General". There are so many options, you are tempted to ignore them, but some of them are important. General: "Restore Desktop to Last Session". There is always something you forgot to do last time. Interface: Turn off "Play Sounds". You'll use your laptop in a quiet library one day and be embarressed! Text Display: "Prefer Sans Serif". This is much easier on the eye for computer displays. Text display: "Transliterate". You can choose which languages to transliterate, from Arabic to Ugraritc. Although it doesn't work with all resources, it is extremely impressive that it works at all! You can reverse it again if you want to copy and paste the original characters. (To transliterate in reports and tip windows, use "Tools", "Options", "Bible tools", "Ancient Languages").

Change Default Bibles & Resources When you hover over something, you can make your favourite Bible show When you search, you can make your preferred versions appear. When you click on something, you make the most useful resources open. For example, when you hover over a Bible reference, you might want the original Greek or Hebrew, or a modern translation, instead of the King James Bible which you get by default. And when you click on a Bible reference, you may want to open both the original text and a literal translation, or for an OT text you may want LXX + BHS. Click on menu "Tools", "Options", "Keylink" change "Data Type" to "Bible" highlight your preferred Bible version in the big list (eg "Biblica Hebraica.." and click "Promote". This moves it to the top window. if you want more than one, promote another too (eg "Septuaginta") plug Greek NT (eg "Nestle-Aland…") put "2" in the "Number of windows to make sure Greek & Hebrew OT both open To open your vavourite lexicons when you click on a Greek word: Click on menu "Tools", "Options", "Keylink" change "Data Type" to "Greek" highlight a couple of other lexicons and "Promote" them (if you have a good internet connection, it is a good idea to include "Perseus") put "3" in the "Number of windows (or whatever number of lexicons you want each time) To show Greek & Hebrew when hovering over English: This is only possible in tagged English translations, eg NASB or KJV, so open one of these Click on menu "Tools", "Options", "Keylink" change "Data Type" to "Greek Strong's Number"and change "When mouse hovers.." to "Preview keylink..." change "Data Type" to "Hebrew Strong's Number"and change "When mouse hovers.." to "Preview keylink..." now, when you hover over a word, you see the underlying Greek or Hebrew word with a short lexical entry

Quick Greek & Hebrew lookup My first reaction to Reverse Interlinears was negative, because you lose all touch with the underlying structure of the language. But actually they are very useful, and you can do some things which a normal Greek text doesn't do. double-click on a word and your default Greek or Hebrew lexicon opens hover over the horrible morphology abbreviation and it is expanded in a hover box right-click and pick "Englishman's Concordance" and you get a list of all the translations of that Greek or Hebrew word, highlighted in context See all the translations of a Greek or Hebrew word, highlighted in context This is a very welcome artefact of having a reverse-interlinear in Logos. select a "Reverse Interlinear" version such as the ESV right-click on the word anywhere it occurs in the text on the right of the popup box, highlight "lemma" on the left, click on "Search this resource"

Explore Greek word usage outside the NT You can quickly list all occurances of a Greek word in LXX NT Intertestamental Greek literature Philo Apostolic Fathers To do this: Click on menu "Tools", "Bible Study", "Bible Word Study" copy and paste the Greek word into the top bar OR change to a Greek keyboard and type the word (I recommend the free Tyndale Unicode Kit  but you can also click on the "a" in the bottom-right taskbar and use the Logos keyboard) OR copy and paste the Greek word It also analyses the word to help identify common subjects or objects, or look for similar syntactical forms. A wider search of Greek literature would be useful. I don't know why Josephus is missing, and translations alongside would be an obvious additional help.

Detailed work on the Greek & Hebrew texts with SESB None of the Logos packages include the critical apparatus for Greek & Hebrew texts. For this you need the add-on package SESB - the Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible See the SESB review here , where I conclude it is BETTER than the paper versions So, if you are someone who uses BHS, UBS and/or NA27, give them away and buy this! (If you don't know what these acronymns are, you probably don't want this package) Actually, you may not need anything else, if you are wanting mainly Bible text tools. So, instead of buying SESB as an add-on, you can buy it as your starter pack. (though if you are a Mac user , you need to buy at least one of their Libraries). It includes the whole Logos search engine and tools described above. It merely lacks all the extra books, which you can add later if you wish. And if you are a fan of BibleWorks, you can use it with that - see my BibleWorks tips

Pretty stuff - Timelines, Maps, Genealogies I don't mean to put these down by calling them pretty - they manage to convey a lot of useful information in a good-looking format. Timelines - click on "Tools", "Bible Data", "Timelines" Genealogies - click on "Tools", "Bible data", "Biblical People" Maps - click on "My Library", type "Maps", "Logos Deluxe Maps", open "Content pane" (icon on top right)

Personal Conclusions There are many features I haven't mentioned - diagramming, complex gramatical searches, lectonaries, verb rivers - a beweildering array of features which a user keeps coming across. I love the way Logos turns books into searchable texts. They are superbly accurate and the texts have all the linkages built in to make them work with each other. I admire the tools Logos provides - the different powerful ways to display information and powerful comparison and linking tools - though I find them unintuitive to use. I get confused by the layers of windows which open all over the place, though this may be due to my untidy mind. After all, they only opened because I asked them to! I get frustrated by the slowness of seemingly simple searches. Of course this is often due to searching huge databases, but it is difficult to restrict searches in order to speed them up. I know that Logos are working hard to put these things right, and I hope they succeed, because Biblical Scholarship needs them. Accordance and BibleWorks are easier to use (in my opinion) but they don't have anywhere near the same number of resources. If your work revolves mainly round analysing the text or translations, I'd recommend Accordance (on Mac) and BibleWorks (on PC), but if you want to link the Bible to related sources, commentaries, journal articles, devotional books, archaology, classical theology, etc etc, you need Logos.

The Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible  The Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible is an electronic version of the most fundamental documents in Biblical Scholarship – the main texts of the Hebrew and Greek Bible with their critical apparatus. This tool demonstrates that these resources are much easier to use as an electronic publication than on paper. The Logos edition has some rough edges, partly due to the data produced by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft on which this is based, and I look forward to a future version which will be even more usable. If you've heard me on the subject of Logos before, you'll know I'm not a fan. I'm still not a fan, but I'm impressed. There is no doubt that they are providing useful and increasingly essential resources which are unavailable elsewhere. I don't like their interface – it is as ugly and awkward as a large open-plan office – but that probably betrays more about me than the program itself. I'm stating this so that you take my snide comments with a pinch of salt and understand that my congratulations are fulsome and well earned.

Which resources are included? (can be misleading) The most important resources Installing it (never as straightforward as you expect) Getting started (can be confusing) Searching (not as simple as you'd think) Overall Usefulness: much better than paper Should I buy this? (what about BibleWorks & Accordance?)

-- Which resources are included? (can be misleading)

[Update: The logos deal is now different. See here. You can still buy the original version from SESB]   There are two versions of SESB - the one supplied by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, which can be bought in a variety of places for about $325 (for USA customers and for outside USA), and a cut-down edition for about $160 (USA only). For most English-speaking scholars, the Logos cut-down version contains everything you want – it lacks only the multitude of modern Bible translations, most of which are non-English, and the Gospel of Thomas. The cut-down version is only available from Logos and only for US customers – presumably due to an agreement with Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.    The quickest way to find out what has been installed is to click on Library. The alphabetical list is much longer than expected because each book is listed in various ways (eg "Authorized Version" under A, "Bible Authorized" under B, "King James Version" under K etc), and because the list includes a large number of locked books you can purchase.

Resources unlocked in the full collection are:  Dictionaries:  Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament – a basic OT lookup dictionary with German & English definitions  Lust's Lexicon of the Septuagint (LUH) – a brief lexicon with links to OT refs  Newman's Dictionary of NT Greek – a basic NT lookup dictionary in English  Kassühlke's Dictionary of NT Greek – a basic NT lookup dictionary in German

New Search methods:   SESB Lemma search  Morphological Search Bible Translations:  AV, NIV, NRSV,  Several Bibles in Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, modern Greek

Ancient Texts & Editions:   Vulgate,  Greek NT – Nestle-Aland 27th ed. & UBS 4th rev. ed with both Apparatuses  Greek OT – Rahlfs  Hebrew OT – BHS & the 1st 2 vols of Quinta, both with Apparatuses Metzger's Commentary on the Greek NT Gospel of Thomas in Coptic, Greek & English

-- The most important resources People who buy this package mainly want the original-language texts.

BHS –  Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia:  The text is tagged but only with simple morphology and lexical roots, so this is the only information which appears when you hover over words. Surprisingly this does not include simple English meanings, though double-clicking on the word takes you to the correct position in the simple OT English dictionary. The contents of the Apparatus appears when you hover over a textual marker, but unlike the NT you can't click on it to fix it. Instead the whole apparatus opens in a separate window at the correct place. In this Apparatus you can hover over all the inscrutable abbreviations and get a full explanation. For example, hover over "C" and you find it refers to "fragmentum codicis Hebraici in geniza Cairensi repertum" whereas "c" refers to "cum". This is both wonderful and frustrating – why are they still in Latin? Their reverence for the printed text has stopped them from being creative in the programming. Dictionaries:  Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament – a basic OT lookup dictionary with German & English definitions  Lust's Lexicon of the Septuagint (LUH) – a brief lexicon with links to OT refs  Newman's Dictionary of NT Greek – a basic NT lookup dictionary in English  Kassühlke's Dictionary of NT Greek – a basic NT lookup dictionary in German

LXX – Rahlf's text:  The text is tagged so that hovering over a word displays the Gramcord morphological information. Surprisingly the lexical root is not shown, nor any English meaning, though double-clicking on a word takes you to the entry in Lust's dictionary. The Apparatus of Rahlfs is not present. Why not? It isn't the best apparatus (by choice, one would use the Göttingen edition where available and the Cambridge edition where it isn't) but nevertheless, if there is nothing else available, Rahlf's apparatus is still useful.

BHQ – Biblia Hebraica Quinta:  The text is not tagged, so hovering over words or double clicking on them does nothing. Why wasn't the tagging of the BHS applied to this? – the texts are essentially identical because they are both transcriptions of the Leningrad codex. The Apparatus abbreviations are explained when you hover over them, as with the other Apparatuses. In addition, the superb Quinta commentary is revealed when you hover over the large "+" signs. This commentary is what makes the new Quinta so much more useful than the BHS, and it is wonderful to see it integrated in such a useful way.

NA27 – Nestle Aland Greek NT, 27th edition:  The text is tagged with Gramcord morphology, though no lexical roots are displayed in the hover-over. Double-clicking on a word opens the basic NT dictionary. The Apparatus can be seen if you hover over an abbreviation in the text. When you click on it, the Apparatus opens in a separate window. Hovering over an abbreviation in that window reveals the full information about each manuscript. For example, hovering over "D" tells you that it is "ms. nr. *D 05 saec. V bibliotheca Cambridge, Univ. Libr., Nn. 2. 41 cont. ea (vac. Mt 1,1-20; 6,20-9,2; ….." (extending to a list of all the passages covered). The explanation is lifted straight out of the printed edition, but a fuller version without abbreviations might have been better for the electronic edition.

UBS4 – United Bible Society Greek NT, 4th revised ed. :  The text is not tagged so hovering over a word tells you nothing, though double-clicking on a word takes you to the Perseus  internet site which gives a morphological analysis and links to Liddell & Scott (you need a live internet connection for this). Hovering over a verse number shows the cross references. It is difficult to see why the NA morphology couldn't have been used for the UBS text, given that the text is virtually identical to the NA27 text (except for a little punctuation, some capitalisation and perhaps a couple of spellings).  The Apparatus is viewed by hovering over the abbreviations in the text, and if you click, the hover-over becomes fixed so that you can hover over abbreviations in the note. For example, hover over "D" and you find it is "Uncial Manuscript: D 05, Contents: Gospels & Acts, Location: Cambridge: Bezae Cantabrigiensis, Date: V" (compare the rather more inscrutable version in NA above).

Metzger's Commentary on the variants in the Greek NT is, in some ways, a supplement to the UBS text. It would have been nice to have direct links to it from the Greek text. You can imitate this by opening both resources and clicking on the "Links" symbol (looks like a chain link) and selecting "Set A" in both. They will now scroll together. Unlike the NA27, Quinta or BHS you cannot open the Apparatus as a separate document, so it is difficult to search (though see Searching below for a solution).

-- Installing it (never as straightforward as you expect) The CD (or CDs) come with a helpful manual. You also get a "Supplement CD" which isn't mentioned in the manual. You aren't told, though it is fairly clear, that you should install using the "SESB v.2" CD. If you don't already use Logos front end called "Libronix", this will be installed along with the SESB resources. Registration is compulsory and is easiest over the internet. You also need an internet connection for some upgrades and even for some program features (see UBS below). When you have installed, and registered, you are prompted to load files into your hard drive - a very good idea unless you have restricted space. At “List Resources” select “All on removable media”. When you are asked "Do you have any more discs?" reply Yes, and insert the Supplement CD - it is mainly for installing the user's language. They treat the user language very seriously; they supply several European languages as well as different English versions for users in the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand! If everything goes OK, all this will all take about 10-20 minutes, though it took me about 2 hours (don't ask). A hint: if there is no Home button at the top left, the installation has probably gone wrong (as it did for me). In that case, click on Tools: Account Management. If this doesn’t bring up a request for the serial number, try restarting your computer. To use the SESB searches, you will need Unicode Greek & Hebrew keyboards installed. Rather than use the default ones in Windows (which are unrelated to English keyboards) or the Logos ones (which, in my opinion, are not very intuitive), I recommend installing the free Tyndale Unicode Kit (www.TyndaleHouse.com/Fonts.htm). These keyboards map the alphabets to match English letters as far as possible (ie beth and beta on B, gimmel and gamma on G etc) and gives easy access to Hebrew pointing & punctuation, Greek accents & breathing and transliteration accents. While installing it, the kit gives detailed instructions on how to initialise the Greek & Hebrew keyboards.

-- Getting started (can be confusing) If you are new to Libronix, the opening window is disconcerting empty, but the SESB has a useful welcome screen which acts as a quick introduction. It is always available when you click on the Home button. This Home screen helpfully invites you to set your default Bible (which m otherwise set to Luther's German Bible). There is no option to pick separate selections for NT & OT (eg you might want NA27 & BHS respectively), so they appear to assume you will want to choose a translation rather than an original-language text. Other quick links there also take you to some useful searches.

For a quick tour, do the following:  Click on “Search in a Bible” – enter a word or phrase. Try “John the Baptist” with “All available unlocked Bibles”. The search is a little slow, but the results are helpfully grouped by text, columns marking which versions contain the words. with

Click on  Home again, and then on “Search Linguistic Database of BHS” – in the Find box type “bdd” (ie beth dalet dalet) and Enter. This is the Quest search tool with which you can create some very complex searches. For now simply click on “Add all” to find all the forms listed, then click on "Search". -          - You can select three ways to display the results – the most useful Current View is probably “Hits in context”. -          Click on a line and the Hebrew BHS text is opened at that location. -          Hover over a Hebrew word to see the root and morphology. Right-click then on "Execute Keylink" to find it in a simple lexicon.

Click on Home again, and then on Search in the linguistic database of NTG (or … of LXX). These both open the Morphological Bible Search, which is rather easier to use than the Quest search tool. It can search any of the three main Bibles (BHS, NA & LXX) using the morphology (ie grammatical analysis) pertaining to any of their three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic & Greek). For example:

-  Change your keyboard to Greek by clicking on the "EN" in the Status Bar (bottom right of the screen) and changing it to "EL" (for 'Elenika or Greek), or by pressing Alt-Shift. Or, if you have not installed Unicode Greek & Hebrew, use the Logos Keyboard by clicking on the "a" in the Status Bar. -          Type a couple of letters at "Lemma" and wait for the Word List to populate

Turn on the Information Window (menu "View", "Information Window"). This shows the information you'd expect to find when you hover over words – ie root, morphology and basic meaning (which you can adjust at menu "Tools", "Options", "Bible Tools"). Now that you have done that, you may as well turn off the relatively useless SESB hover information (click on menu "Tools", "Options", "Keylink", then select "Hebrew Morphology SEBS" and "Do not display tip window", and do the same for other SESB texts).

-- Searching (not as simple as you'd think) There is a bewildering number of searches available. Click on Search and you can choose:

Basic search:  Search for a word or phrase in one or all installed books

Bible search: Search in one or all Bibles, which can be constrained to a range of Bible books

Bible Speed Search:  A Basic search, but only for Bibles (not including the Apparatuses)

Morphological Bible Search:  Includes ptions for Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic. This is a very powerful tool by which you can look for every occurrence of a lemma (which you can pick from a drop down after typing a couple of letters) or you can constrain it by a particular grammatical form (which you can pick by ticking boxes). You need to type in Unicode Greek or Hebrew. You can add together different words and grammatical forms and easily create a highly defined complex search. But this ONLY searches BHS, NA and LXX which come with SESB.

SEBS BHS Search:  A powerful tool for making complex searches as in the Morphological Search but by different tools. It has a couple of extra features (you can save searches and define the maximum word gap between different search elements) but is less helpful (no dropdown lists for the lemmas) and only searches BHS.

SESB Lemma Search:  Has as dropdown list of lemmas, so you only have to type the first two letters. It automatically types Greek or Hebrew when appropriate. It can only search the text of BHS, LXX & NA27 – ie it can't search texts added in version 2 (UBS & Quinta) or any of the Apparatuses.

Fuzzy Search:  Adds some variation to save you searching for several permutations. For example, searching for "Baptist" finds passages including the words "baptism" and French "Baptise" though not "baptise", etc.

Advanced Search:  Adds the ability to construct complex searches graphically and carry them out on whole books or ranges. In my installation of SESB this caused an error, probably because a Libronix component is missing which comes with the standard Libronix installation, but I expect they'll have a fix soon.

Right-click & Word Study:  Right-clicking on a word gives a quick route to many of these searches. In tagged Greek & Hebrew resources this will also give you the option of searching for the lemma or its basic meaning in English. The "Word Study" feature is particularly powerful, pulling together relevant information from all your resources and organising them in a semi-intelligent display, though it can be slow to complete. I don't think there is anything this useful in competing products.

Field Searching is a somewhat hidden though powerful feature:   All resources are tagged with different fields, each of which can be searched. You might, for example, want to find all the variant readings citing evidence from a particular Church Father in the UBS apparatus. To do this: 1) Open the UBS NT by clicking on "Library" and finding "The Greek New Testament, Fourth Revised Edition (with apparatus)" 2) Click on menu "Help", "About This Resource" 3) Under "Search Capabilities" the "Fields" are listed which you can search – an impressive list, including "Church Fathers" 4) Click on the menu "Search", "Basic Search", click on "In" and select the UBS text 5) In "Search" type the search field followed by ":", eg "ChurchFathers:"  (note – remove any spaces) 6) Add the item you are searching for, eg "ChurchFathers: Origen" and click on "Search" This example illustrates both the hidden power and the complexity of Libronix.

-- Overall Usefulness: much better than paper

Using these resources in electronic form makes me wonder if I will ever want to use the paper versions again. First the obvious – it is easier to zoom in on tiny details like pointing; information like morphology,  roots or meaning appear by hovering or clicking; and the text can be searched in a variety of ways. All this is wonderful, though none of this is new, and sometimes it is done better by other programs, many of which are free. (see www.Tyndale.cam.ac.uk/BibleSoftware)

What is new in SESB is the ability to search the Apparatus. You can, for example, find all the Tiqqune sopherim by searching for "Tiq soph" in the footnotes of BHS. These are the emendations that the rabbis recorded as having been made to the original text for the sake of preserving God's honour. For example the original Hebrew of Gen.18.22 read that the Lord stood before Abraham, but this might be misinterpreted as the stance of a servant so the text was changed. The BHS apparatus refers to such changes in 14 instances.

What makes SESB so useable is the ability to understand the apparatus without needing to memorise all the arcane abbreviations. Remembering that codex B is 4th C Vaticanus and D is 5th C Bezae is easy compared to trying to remember that "28" refers to an 11th C Minuscule or that Hilary is a mid 4th C Father, or that "Diatessaronarm" refers to the Armenian translation within Ephraem's commentary for passages where it differs from the Syriac original. The linking between them and the text is also very useful, because there is no need to constantly take one's eye off the text to try and identify the relevant note. At last, the Apparatus is usable. .

The BHS Apparatus has also become more usable, but I wish they had taken the opportunity to translate the Latin abbreviations into English and German. Latin was chosen as a language which all scholars in all countries knew, but sadly that isn't true any more. Hover over a gothic "S" and you are informed that this refers to "versio Syriaca consensu testium SA et SW constituta" and "cf" is explained as "confer(endum) etc". This software provides menus in several different languages including separate varieties for Australian English and New Zealand English. If only they could extend a tiny amount of this care to the texts themselves.

Copy and paste works straight into Word or any other application which recognizes Unicode. The fonts are a mixture – BibliaLS for UBS, Gentium for LXX and NA, SBL Hebrew for BHS and Quinta (though you can change this in Tools: Options: Bible Tools).  But it doesn't matter which fonts are used, because Unicode fonts are interchangeable. You can convert it to any other freely distributed Unicode font which contains academic Greek & Hebrew, such as Cardo. You can also use the Verse Copy tool in the Status Bar which has an option to produce the Greek or Hebrew in transliterated form. They also helpfully provide a tool to convert Word documents using Graeca and Hebraica to Unicode.

-- Should I buy this? (what about BibleWorks & Accordance?)

Accordance sells the "Mac Studienbibel CD-ROM, Stuttgart Original Language Collection" which is the rough equivalent of a cut-down SESB v.1 – ie they have untagged BHS and NA27 with their Apparatus, and Rahlf's LXX, but they do not have any Quinta or UBS. Perhaps they will add Quinta, but they will probably not add UBS because they already sell a more detailed apparatus which is based on the UBS4 apparatus (CNTTS – the Center for New Testament Studies NT Critical Apparatus). Therefore, what makes the Logos version different from all other Bible software is the presence of UBS & Quinta, and the two extra search methods.  Will there be a free upgrade when other volumes of Quinta come out? If so, this is a wonderful bargain. My guess is we'll have to pay for them. Of the two  search methods, the Morphological Search is easier to use and covers all the texts, and it is very easy to use considering how fantastically powerful it is. It is as good as, and perhaps a little easier to learn, than the Accordance and BibleWorks morphological searches. If you are a Mac user running Accordance you will probably want to buy their similarly priced package which has the most important of these texts. You could, of course, buy the PC emulator Parallels and a copy of Windows and run Logos on an Intel Mac (I've seen it done, and it works well). But anyone who has got used to Mac and Accordance is likely to find the transition to Windows and Logos filled with frustration and disappointment. (I'm a PC fan personally, but I recognise that Mac & Accordance users smile more often than I do). Logos is working hard at making a comparable product for the Mac. The amount of time this is taking shows how serious they are, and how complex the task is.

At present BibleWorks does not have their own version of SESB. It includes tagged texts of BHS, NA27 and LXX and some tools for variants, but they do not have the Apparatus of NA27 or BHS. BibleWorks integrates itself well with Libronix and with internet resources via the built-in Link Manager, so you can open SESB via BibleWorks. If you are a PC user, this decision is a no-brainer. Sell your paper BHS, NA27 & UBS4, and buy this package. You don't need to stop using BibleWorks and you will soon want to have both open. Even by itself, this package gives you a fully working Logos Libronix workface, and soon you will want to dip your toe in for other resources.