Reviews
|
What our customers have said over the years... |
|
Some software programs require additional fees for adding on new Bible versions, but BibleWorks 7 includes everything one needs in its base package for a mere $349… The wide variety and quality of these resources make BibleWorks 7 a great value... The breadth and focus of its databases, the new user interface, and the value of its base package make BibleWorks 7 the new gold standard of Bible software. Seminary and Bible college students, professors, and pastors would all benefit from this powerful tool. Dr. Dennis R. Burk, Jr. Praying Over the Passage and the People Without exaggeration, I spend no more than five minutes with BibleWorks performing Bible study tasks that would take an hour with the printed page. Figuring that I save a little more than an hour a day, that is like getting an entire extra work day per week. And that precious preparation time can be better used in deeper exegetical work, sermon development, and praying over the passage and the people. Scott Lamb Phenomenal The speed with which BibleWorks 7 performs the tasks you give it is phenomenal. It is truly the “Ferrari” of bible software. Things happen almost instantaneously and seem transparent. Steve Egge, MD No Better Software Program BibleWorks has clear focus on the analysis of the biblical texts themselves and it is still my first recommendation for anyone interested in carrying out their own thorough but rapid lexical or grammatical searches/analyses of the biblical texts. .... This software package has far too many features to be adequately described in a brief review. It comes with a 30-day return guarantee, but I cannot imagine anyone wanting to return it. It is one of the first programs I start up at the beginning of my workday and one of the last ones I shut down. Professor Roy Ciampa Even Better What a phenomenal tool for Bible study and research! …. nothing comes near BW7 in completeness, speed, user-friendliness and access to research tools, especially in the area of the biblical languages. … this seventh edition is a major upgrade, making a good tool for exegesis and research even better! Pastor Gerhard J. Venter Perspective from a Professor ... I believe that BibleWorks is the finest Bible study software on the market. This software is fast, easy to use, includes lots of powerful tools and has more searching power than even a seminary professor needs. Dr. Samuel Lamerson Perspective from a Programmer ...BW can be a 'point and click' easy to learn app, but I just love that I can use BW without a mouse (almost). The shortcuts are very smart, the options are well thought out. The regular expression syntax is a breeze. I have not experienced a better help system, with the videos, very smart and well organized help content and F1 support. You folks obviously listen to your customers. The content is great. You make it real easy to learn how to type in Greek and Hebrew. That combined with the grammars and flash cards, you cannot help but learn the original languages by just using the program. I am really happy with my decision to go with BW. Stephen MacKenzie A Tool for Every Serious Exegete What an experience to work with such a powerful program! This is a tool which every serious exegete or reader of the Bible should have. It is a joy to have all this program has to offer. ... . Lay people interested in the Bible, students, Ministers and Pastors, but certainly also scholars will only benefit by getting hold of this tool. I strongly recommend it!. Dr. W. J. Wessels A Satisfied Upgrader WOW! I received my BibleWorks 7 on Thursday and eagerly installed it. I have owned every version since 3 (or maybe even 2), but never do I remember an upgrade being so satisfying in how you have revolutionized the way I can use the software. The new tabbed Analysis section is so easy to use and comprehensive. And finally the editor and notes sections are powerful enough I can stop cutting and pasting to Word! It is one thing to add resources, but to make the software so much more useful and powerful truly takes a great deal of work and listening to your clients' needs - may you be blessed for all you do for the Kingdom. Rev. Orville Erickson BibleWorks as a Mode of Transportation Conclusion... BibleWorks is a Mercedes. John Glynn Never Disappoints It is a highly refined and technologically advanced program that is a pleasure to use. Technology often creates needs people did not even realize they had. In other words, it offers "abilities" and "possibilities" that most people have not even contemplated or thought necessary. Once one is made aware of these possibilities, one is then encouraged to venture further. This drive to continue discovering new possibilities is the stamp of real technological advancement: it does not follow but leads. This is the case with version 6 of BibleWorks. This is a program that will never disappoint any user interested in analyzing the original languages of the Bible. On the contrary, the excellent features of this program, the speed and search capabilities, the quality of the database and fonts, and many other aspects not even touched on in this review make this program a joy to work with. Buy it and try it -- you will not be disappointed. Dr. Jan van der Watt A Dream Come True ...for anyone wishing to study the biblical languages in depth, this program is a dream come true. Dr. Moisés Silva A Happy Balance In my judgment BibleWorks 6 strikes the happy balance of encouraging people to build libraries of actual books while making available resources that are either extremely expensive and hard to find or generally inaccessible outside a research library (e.g., the Tischendorf critical apparatus, the Targums, Josephus in Greek). Every serious student of the Bible can be grateful for this outstanding product. James M. Hamilton Jr., Ph.D. Feedback from Italy All in all, I am very impressed with Bibleworks 6 and can wholeheartedly and unreservedly recommend it to anyone, at any level and from any point of view, interested in a better understanding of the Bible. Professor Corrado Martone A Desert Island Choice The program is fast and, in the majority of areas, easy to use. With BibleWorks, scholars can work with the biblical text in ways they could only wistfully dream of, if even imagine, in the past. It is a pleasure to use. If one had to decide what five things he or she would take along for a study leave on a desert isle (assuming one has electricity), BibleWorks should be at the top of the list. Professor Theresa L.
Reeve Like a Fine Automobile BW 6 ist wohl der Rolls Royce unter den Bibelprogrammen... Dr. Hans-Georg Wuench Invaluable for Translation I use several "big name" Bible software resources and have found BW to be the best and most accurate. It is without doubt the only software I have found to be invaluable toward translating a Bible text. May God continue to bless your efforts!" Bill Wennell From a Pastor and Professor Bibleworks has become for me a constant companion in sermon preparation. It has kept me in language helps that I would otherwise rarely access in book form. It makes my concordance searches, dictionary inquiries, and studies of parallel passages more frequent and comprehensive, because they are so convenient and instantaneous with Bibleworks. But more importantly, it has made it easier for my approach to the text of Scripture in sermon preparation to be shaped by the flow of the original languages of God's word written. Bibleworks stays open side-by-side my sermon manuscript from start to finish. In a day and age when real expositional preaching is sadly scarce, Bibleworks may prove a boon to ministers seeking to be faithful to the serious and hard work of being servants of the Word of God. J. Ligon Duncan III, PhD From an Editor, Author, and Professor Just a word of thanks for the wonderful improvements (in version 6) to what was already an astonishing program. For example, having immediate access to Tischendorf's full apparatus and to morphologically tagged texts of the Targums and Josephus is a dream come true. And it is hard to believe that when a user suggested adding a direct link to the Perseus website, you implemented that new feature within two days! Now what will I do with all my free time? Moises Silva From a Beloved Pastor and Author I love [BibleWorks'] speed; its compatibility with Word; its comprehensiveness in Greek and Hebrew; its immediate, simultaneous Greek and Hebrew dictionary feature; its inclusion of all the English versions plus many foreign language ones; its inclusion of the Westminster Standards so that word searches are possible in the Confession and the Catechism, etc., etc. It is very powerful and worth every penny. John Piper From a Software Architect Almost every time I use Bibleworks I am amazed at its speed and power. And each time Bibleworks opens the Scriptures up a little more for me, I am deeply grateful to the LORD for what is truly an amazing tool for studying the Bible. Thank you for a truly superb piece of work. Stuart Robertson From an Author [Regarding BibleWorks 6:] ...the advances made, and the price to upgrade, are simply unbelievable. There is simply no praise adequate for the outstanding enhancements and the dirt cheap price to acquire them. So I'll simply say, "Great job, and thank you very much!" Scott Jones From a Seminary Student Word around seminary (TMS) is that BibleWorks Version 6 is not far off. I just wanted you to know how exciting the thought of that possibility is and to let you know that you can add my name immediately to those of your extremely satisfied BibleWorks customers who can't wait to see what you have in store for us in any future upgrade. God bless all of you for such an excellent software program and for your uncompromising dedication to customer service. Your product made it possible for me to begin working with the original languages from my very first day of seminary two years ago and it continues to be my trusted companion up to today. In fact, if your program had been a book, I would have had to have already purchased several replacement copies just to keep a working copy available for use. In closing I just want you to know that your program is par excellence. There simply is no better biblical language software program on the market. I feel qualified to say so because I also use your top competitors programs as well. They all have excellent qualities as language programs and as library research tools, but none of them come close to you for overall excellence and applicability in the field of biblical language software. Again, God bless you and keep up your excellent work in your service to our wonderful Lord and savior, Christ Jesus. We who have been called to preach His Word are forever indebted to you for your steadfast support of us in that effort. Dennis Davies From an Elder and Teacher I cannot tell you enough how impressed I am with the range of functionality built into BibleWorks. Thanks for all your hard work, all of you. BibleWorks is totally awesome. You all have added so many features which allow a dedicated user who puts a minimal amount of time into learning how to use the program to study so much more effectively, attempting and accomplishing feats of comparison and research that no one would have attempted before such a wonderful tool was developed. Most of what BibleWorks does virtually instantly on even an ordinary computer would have taken an accomplished scholar many years to do only a few years ago. It allows dedicated Bible students an affordable way to use their study time much more profitably. Tom Cabeen From a Seminary Student I love BibleWorks! It continues to support me very well in my studies and my sermon preparation. The best thing about it is that every time I grow and need to go deeper into the bible, Bible Works has the capability and I can use it intuitively. Gregory Davidson From an Author and Translator As your records will show, I've been using BibleWorks for years now (3.5 up to the current, 5). Every single day, I work on my translation of the New Testament (having first taken an online course on New Testament Greek from Luther Seminary in St.Paul, Minnesota). I'm writing to you this late-afternoon because I am so darn pleased with BibleWorks. While it, of course, helps with many other tasks, it has been essential to my translating. I've now completed all but the Gospels, and am within the latter half of each of them... Anyway, thanks for offering BibleWorks to everyone!! John Snydal From a Pastor I want to let you know that this program is just super!! I can't say enough about it. Thanks for all you do! Bob Moffitt From a Former Bible Software Programmer I received BW5 this Christmas and am enjoying getting to know the program. I have used several other Bible search programs in the past but nothing as powerful and as geared toward original languages as this one. It is certain to become my main Bible study tool on the computer. Greg Van Court From an Editor and Pastor If there was a "Golden Mouse Award" for elegant and cost-effective software, I'd nominate BibleWorks 5 for the prize... Dr. Tony Cartledge From a Seminary Student "...Bible Works has cut the time I spend on my exegesis homework in half, (mostly because I don't have to look in five different books at the same time) and I am very happy with the way it is performing overall." S.F. From a Professor "I want to thank you for making available your excellent program, BibleWorks 4. I also want you to know that I have been both using it myself with great delight and have been recommending it to my students with unqualified enthusiasm. "I completed two books on New Testament themes this summer and Fall, and your program has rendered the writing of them both effective and deeply satisfying. I tell my students I love nothing better than sitting in my office for hours on end doing Bible research with the capabilities your program offers. I have never known anything that makes such work highly efficient and productive." Peter Jones From a Professor Bibleworks 5.0 is simply the best Bible software available, anywhere. I have been using ... BibleWorks software since somewhere back on the "Version 2" days, and each new release has brought new and useful tools to the program. This is the program that runs 24/7 on my office computer, and it is the one that is running on my laptop when I engage in debates. I use it when traveling to do my research. It is invaluable to anyone doing serious exegesis of the text. If your pastor doesn't have BibleWorks, buy it for him. Make sure all your elders have it. Anyone teaching who has a computer will benefit from it. This is #1, everything else is just a substitute! James R. White From a Professor ...it has all the texts the Old and New Testament scholar/user needs, plus the essential tools for penetrating those texts. This is a superb product at a reasonable price with prospects for continued expansion. That all translates to a bargain! Every church budget ought to include $299.95 for this powerful tool. Their pastors will rise up and call them "blessed"! James T. Dennison, Jr. From a Professor I'm going to add my voice to the chorus of "HURRAHS!!" simply because I'm so excited I can't keep quiet. These additions make the best Bible program anywhere all the more excellent. I love seeing the delight in the eyes of my students and colleagues as they see what's now available and how easy it makes Bible research using original languages and multiple translations. Way to go, guys! Gerry Breshears From a Professor I have thoroughly enjoyed the BibleWorks 5 program for my teaching purposes. I continue to use it extensively for class preparation as well as in the classroom to demonstrate to students this powerful and effective tool for biblical studies. I also continue to use an introductory video to help my students become oriented to BibleWorks and have geared it specifically to Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. My students learn how to let BibleWorks assist them in the translation and exegesis of biblical passages and how to use the powerful search engine as a concordance for word (or phrase) studies. For those students who are entering pastoral ministry (which is the majority of our students) and thus with limited time, BibleWorks is the best resource for teaching and preaching when consulting with the biblical languages. Professor Michael D. Matlock From a Scholar I use Bible Works as my primary Bible research program, and I am very pleased with it. Bible Works is amazingly fast, thorough, and easy to use, and is capable of a wide variety of simple or complex Bible searches. Whether preparing overhead projector transparencies for classroom teaching, preparing lectures for a popular audience, or writing academic articles, I find that I can instantly import English, Greek, and Hebrew text perfectly into my word processing program, which is a huge time-saver. BibleWorks was also the single program in constant use, day after day, by several members of our Translation Oversight Committee when we produced the English Standard Version of the Bible. I highly recommend it. Wayne Grudem, Ph.D. From a Satisfied Customer I just installed the upgrade to version 5 - WOW! Thanks to all the laborers for another fantastic upgrade! May the Lord bless your efforts abundantly, and bless those who use this awesome tool to know Him better. Douglas
Peloquin From a Satisfied Bus Driver ...BibleWorks has come up with the best program for PC I've ever owned, let every one at BW know. I am SO grateful!!! Thank You!! Ove
Martin Nodland From a Preaching Minister ...you have developed, in my humble opinion, the most useful resource tool for ministers that the world has ever seen! Thanks just doesn't cut it---you're product has truly revolutionized my ministry and I am deeply grateful to you. (By the way, I've been a customer since 3.0). ...Thanks again for a great product. It is, without question, the best! Bob Odle From Preaching.com I have never seen a more powerful Bible study tool than BibleWorks 5. If your desire is to dig deep, then this program will give you the tools necessary to surface exegetical gems. Jonathan Kever From a Professor Six years ago I wrote a brief review of an earlier version of BibleWorks. Among other things, I wrote, "BibleWorks is by far the best computer Bible program I have ever used - and I have used around a dozen and beta-tested three. Furthermore, for the serious student, it is simply the Bible program of choice. It is not only a 'time-saver'; it opens up new possibilities of word, phrase and syntactical research that many students would simply never attempt without it." Now, with the appearance of BibleWorks 5, I affirm again all that I wrote and now declare that my enthusiasm for the program has reached a zenith. With the addition of new translations, encyclopedias, graphical morphological search capabilities, scholarly lexicons, Hebrew accents, and special versions like the Hebrew New Testament, it stands head and shoulders above anything on the market. It is rapidly becoming a "must buy" among my second and third year Greek students. Professors who have viewed programs like BibleWorks as "crutches" need to wake up to the reality that "parsing" is just a small part of the language capabilities that are opened up to the student by this new version of the program. I remember when similar but much inferior programs first appeared ten years ago, and their cost was significantly higher than the cost of BibleWorks. Get it! You will be behind the times if you don't. Furthermore, your students and parishioners will be the ones who will lose the most. Dr. William Varner From a Satisfied Customer ...I find it hard to express how very delighted I am with the BW4 program. Thank you for all the enormous amount of hard work and clear appreciation of how to help others get the very best out of researching the Bible. All the tools and resources are most valuable and so easy to use. John Dunn From a Student I just wanted to tell you (and all the staff at Bibleworks) I am so impressed with your product and with your customer service. I find myself frequently praising Bibleworks to other students and the faculty at General Seminary, in NYC. It is helpful to both the novice and the experienced biblical language scholar. Thanks again... Adrien Dawson From an Excited Customer "If BibleWorks were a woman, I'd marry her!!!" Unnamed BibleWorks User From a Pastor-Expositor If I had only one software program to use in my sermon preparation and study, BibleWorks would be the one, hands down. Pastor David
Montoya From a Pastor-Expositor Wow! I would have given my eye teeth for this program both in College and Seminary. Pastor Billy
Strayhorn From a Bible College Professor Thanks for your dedication to the kingdom in producing such a high quality program - my own studies, and the subjects I lecture, would be greatly limited without BWW. BWW is a major tool in my Ph.D research, as well as in lecture and sermon preparation... Ps. Ashley Crane From a Pastor-Expositor Hi, ...I am sixty years old and in my experience very few products exceed one's expectations. In fact, many fall far short. THIS ONE DEFINITELY EXCEEDS ALL EXPECTATIONS!!!!! The service is remarkable. Again, with many products, they don't seem to care too much about the consumer after they have his money. NOT SO HERE!!!! You guys are definitely remarkable. When do you sleep???? ...It must be a labor of love since people aren't usually this diligent merely for money. Pastor Tom Balding From a Pastor-Expositor ...I am so impressed with Bibleworks as a company...I almost feel guilty for the small amount I pay for such a great product and service. Pastor Mark QL
Louderback From a Seminary Professor March 1999: ...I started using computers in textual studies in grad school. Getting Greek and Hebrew on a computer screen was a real challenge. My first effort was a TRS-80 with a graphics subsystem operating off the Parallel port based on a TI graphics chip (used in the old Atari games) and a TV set. Moved up quickly to an IBM AT with Hercules card so we could design our own fonts. I remember sharing hand coded printer fonts for Epson dot matrix printers. We were working with the Psalms of Solomon, using a machine readable text from Bob Kraft at UofP. We were collating variants from microfilm and working towards producing a critical Greek text. (My adviser Bob Wright has finally brought it to publication - coming out this year) We wrote our own routines in Turbo Pascal to get things done. We were excited when Dr. Packard marketed the Ibycus, it was a Motorola based computer optimized to do Greek textual searches. Talk about an arcane interface, but it was fast. I experimented with every piece of Bible software I could lay my hands on. I never invested my limited financial resources until I found Bibleworks 3.2. I am very impressed with the programming of the Bibleworks software, 3.5 has become indispensable to me. I can't wait for my copy of 4.0 to arrive. Even more impressive though is the spirit of the company. Their commitment to providing a sound textual tool is laudable. I am so grateful for this product. I will continue to recommend it to everyone as the best all round program available. I am planning a course for pastors to reacquire their skills in the original languages that will require Bibleworks. I believe it can accelerate that process. Because the Greek and Hebrew are so accessible it provides positive reinforcement keeping motivation high. October 2001: ...Moving through version 4 to version 5 has only made me feel more strongly about BibleWorks... Rollin J. Blackburn From a Software Consultant ...I am a software consultant (I have been doing this since 1969) with experience doing Windows MFC and just want to congratulate whoever put this product together. By far this is the best Windows app I have ever used! It is consistent, bug free, user friendly, intuitive, quick, robust, comprehensive and besides all that presents the data I am looking for the way I want it! Great job guys! John Paul Fibranz From a Pastor-Expositor For my purposes as a pastor-expositor, this is absolutely a phenomenal program! It is so well thought out and so "bug free," that my [another program] is on the endangered species list.... Man, I like this program! Pastor John Cornette, D. Min., From a Scholar-Editor-Publisher BibleWorks for Windows 3.5 is an outstanding tool for analyzing the biblical text in the original languages and in English, as well as in several other modern languages....I have been using BibleWorks daily for several years and have been impressed with its functionality and ease of use. Every upgrade has incorporated valuable new features and texts--and has worked as expected. John R. Kohlenberger III BibleWorks Better Than Books ...Got the CD. What a Blessing!! I hope you know what it means to me. This product is the most valuable tool in my library. When I wished to study a text in the Greek I used 9 books. Sometimes I would have 4-6 books opened at one time. I do not know if you do any study from the Greek and then try to teach it. It is a very time consuming quest. I spend at least one quarter of the time preparing study materials and sermons. Chaplain Charles Bolin, Nevada BibleWorks Priceless, Profitable, Practical, Personal and Productive ...a program that is priceless for approaching the Scriptures, built with intelligence to serve different needs...actively determined by the user, who can unite, in a profitable synthesis, his needs with the stimuli he receives from BibleWorks. A towering accomplishment, due to the great amount of tools...[yet] it is easy to configure the program to your personal needs.... Luca de Santis, Italy, in "Revista Angelicum" (European Biblical Journal) From a Pastor-Teacher-Doctor I’m one of those peculiar folks who believe that the original Biblical languages are critical to the work of Christian ministry... BibleWorks [is] head and shoulders above all others. Bar none... Save your pennies. Don’t settle for a cheap imitation. This is the program to beat. There is nothing even close to BibleWorks’ speed, flexibility, and simplicity of use. With this program, the dividing wall of hostility between you and the original language of scripture has been broken down, whether you went to seminary or not. What’s amazing is that this program is just as easy and useful for the student of scripture who wants to work only with the English [or German or French or Spanish or etc] as it is for the student who prefers the Hebrew text...Greek...Latin. Most Bible study software is chocked full of [items] that actually take you *away* from the text itself. When pressed, most Bible study software is limited in its ability with the biblical text. Not so with BibleWorks. The designers have kept the biblical text as this software’s priority.... BibleWorks has been engineered chiefly to empower your close reading (exegesis) of the text. Rev. Richard I. Deibert, Pastor, M.D. From a Professor of Biblical Studies Since receiving your product, I have [tested and reviewed many other Bible software products] as well.....I must continue to say that I am still able to make BibleWorks the top recommendation for Bible software to all my students. Prof. Mark H. Soto Student Finds BibleWorks the Best in Europe ...I'm a glad user of BibleWorks 3.5!! It totally fulfilled all my expectations and much more. I'm quite overwhelmed..... BibleWorks is the best program not only in the USA but also in whole Europe. I really spent much time, looking for a good Bibel-programm and I must say, your programm is absolutely the best!!! Last week, my first exegetical study with help of BibleWorks has gone out and our teacher already spoke out his respect about the work... Johannes Schwab From a Pastor-Teacher It is beyond my wildest dreams in content and accessibility! It blows away my ‘teachers edition’ of QuickVerse. Pastor Ron Ross, Wisconsin BibleWorks Generates Joy in Studying the Word of God I like very much working with BibleWorks. It is fun, one understands the Original Texts easier and faster, and it generates new and different joy in studying the Word of God. Benjamin Spring From a Pastor-Preacher-Teacher I want to thank you, first of all, for this marvelous product you have provided! ...I am THOROUGHLY impressed... The truth is that I was reluctant to invest this kind of money in such a computer program. After all, I thought, haven't preachers and teachers and pastors managed to do their jobs for centuries without this kind of technology? And didn't I already have on my shelves most of the books which roughly duplicated what I would find on this CD? But, no. What you have put together is like nothing I have on my shelves. And while I suppose I could do my job without this technology, it would be a relatively poor stewardship of time, given the advantages of this terrific program. Thank you!! Pastor David Kalas |