Last week the announcement of a new Bible Software (new version) made me quite excited. I am an avid user of Bible software. I personally use two of them, BibleWorks and Logos, I have a blog that I dedicate to both BibleWorks is here, and the Logos one here. You will notice that the Logos one is not very large and that the BibleWorks' one has plenty of space between posts. This is because I am a BibleWorks user, and this week the newest version was released, it won't be shipping until about mid-July but even so just watching the videos, you can see the improvements that have been made to small (new look for the buttons) to the large (the addition of the Manuscript Project). However, with all of this kind of material at our fingertips, the question could and should be asked about what this means for how we study and understand the text. I would say that it means our study is going to be "better," but I think this is a misnomer. I think this because, to say that implies that our study will be better than those who came before us, and I want to avoid even thinking something that can lead to this. On the other hand, won't it be "better" won't it be faster and more precise and all that. The answer is kind of a yes and no. The truth is that this software will make us faster in how we do work within the text, it will be more precise than simply depending on memory, it will be all of those things. On the other hand, we will also have less people that memorize, less people that truly study Greek and Hebrew Grammar instead simply relying on a program.
What we need here is not to get rid of the Bible Software, but instead, we need to realize what can happen if we rely on it for things we shouldn't. Bible software is great for doing exegetical work, it is great for having a library of books on your machine and doing searches on the Biblical text which in the past would have taken days and months and in some cases years. It is great for all of those things, but it is not something that takes the place of reading scripture daily, both Logos and BibleWorks comes with devotional books to emphasize the importance of this. It does not take the place of memorizing scripture so that you can take it with you anywhere, and in the realm of languages it does not take the place of learning the languages. Having and interlinear or a program rarely ever gives you the full story, it is something that you must read yourself and see it in the Bible for yourself.
