Interlinking Bibleworks & Liberonix and What to buy?

[CyberHeart]

First my apologizes if this is the wrong forum. I made my best guest.

I am making the move into Seventh Day Adventist Ministry. My interest is Biblical Studies via the original languages and pastoring. I have read that the integration between Bibleworks and Logos/Libronix is very good. I have three questions.

1 .. How well does the interlinking features each of Bibleworks and Logos/Libronix real work with each other? Otherwords, does this require a high degree of "work arrounds" to make interlinking features work?

2 .. Is there a required level of software purchase of each product platform for the interlinking to work well!?

3 .. Are the Bibleworks and Logo's Leaders Library together effectively the same as the Logos Scholar's Library Gold?

Thanks

[Ben Spackman]

How well does the interlinking features each of Bibleworks and Logos/Libronix real work with each other? Otherwords, does this require a high degree of "work arrounds" to make interlinking features work?

Generally quite well, with few workarounds but it depends what you're trying to do. Passing Hebrew lemmas has some problems, for example (see prior threads), but Greek, English, and chapter/verse references work well.

Is there a required level of software purchase of each product platform for the interlinking to work well!?

Well, there's only one level of BW. And I don't own any Logos packages, just individual books (since I'm not interested in most of the included devotional stuff thrown into Logos packages.) So I'd say, no.

Are the Bibleworks and Logo's Leaders Library together effectively the same as the Logos Scholar's Library Gold?

I don't own Scholar's Gold, so I can't say.

[richardsugg]

I have had BW since late v. 6 and will be upgrading to 8 soon. I also have Logos Scholar's Library (not gold or silver, just "Scholar's"). There is some overlap, but there are also many differences, and frankly, too many to sort in one thread -- especially since BW8 is coming out. I know that the Early Church Fathers and the Greek/Hebrew grammars are not included in the Logos packages, but are in BW8. For logos, the "Church History Collection" is about $100 -- extra. BW, on the other hand, has introduced new features in v.8 that I don't know how would be done (or done with nearly the ease) in logos.

The best thing to do is go to
http://bibleworks.com/content/full.html
and
http://www.logos.com/products/info/comparison

and figure out which pieces of the products are important to you, and then see which one justifies the price.

Of course, some advantages to BW is that it is so fast you'll have blisters on your fingers when you use it, and there is also this loving supportive community that you really can't put a price on

[spitzerpl]

I do have scholars Gold. There are a few nice things about it but I would think if your intent is original language studies and you are getting BW as well, you should be fine going a step down from Gold. I have only had BW for about a month now and find the interoperability good. Any "work-arounds" I have found to be require extra steps only once, then calling up a resource in Logos from Bibleworks is only a click away.

[MWMiles]

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[SCSaunders]

I have used Logos since it was distributed on floppy disk ...

I started using it back then too. They purchased the original package from DTS, resurrecting it from there. I used their product until two incidents.

• I called their tech support, the dude told me to read the manual. This was after at least three upgrades.
• Two weeks after I purchased a "Scholars" pack (the third upgrade), they come out with the Libronix edition. They would'nt offer me any kind of a price break. Had I known, I would have waited the short amount of time. But no dice on their end. Financially, it's "Burn me once, shame on you." There's no "burn me twice." 01/15/2009 Edit - A few folks have emailed me on this. Let me clarify, without changing my position in the least bit. When I talk "any kind of price break," I'm talking about any kind of "upgrade price." The kind you get for being a loyal customer, with an (history of several) earlier version. All upgrades prior to Libronix came with an "upgrade" price. When I called this time around, the dude on the phone said, "Nope." So, from my perspective, this was not a good business move on their part. Bridge burned. The rest of you - enjoy Logos until the day you die. God bless you one, God bless you all! For me, I'm going to have more versions of BibleWorks than Rocky and Rambo sequels combined, multiplied by an exponent of infinity.
  

... offer too much in the way of commentary - I'd rather do the sweat work and write my own commentary than rely on someone's opinion.

God bless you and your work. I wish more folks had this exact attitude. I'm personally sick of hearing commentaries preached rather than the word of God. Some people thank/quote so many others, it starts to sound like a Hollywood awards show acceptance speech. I've never heard of hollyweird's "manager" or "agent;" nor have I ever heard of spiritual-pencil-neck's "expert." Barna schmarna. Gallop schallop. Freud hemorrhoid.

Look at the Original Languages collection in your quest for a good setup. Logos has some decent add-ons like Owen's Analytical Key to the Old Testament and Bullinger's work on Figures of Speech/Idioms that make for a pretty good set of reference works.

Maybe I'll give them a second chance. (But I probably won't. Just being honest.)

Anyway Mike, you just made my day. Thanks!

[roblumba]

I can understand not wanting to hear a sermon of just commentary quotes, but it's starting to sound like you guys are falling off the horse on the other side.

Learning from commentaries has good biblical support.

It's good to have many counselors and commentaries provide counsel from men who have proven to have fruitful ministries.
"Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed." (Proverbs 15:22, ESV)

The apostles wrote letters full of theological content and encouragements. I love to read Spurgeon Sermons, and Charles Simeons Horea Homiletica. I find them very encouraging as well as good reminders of the lessons to be learned through Scripture.
"that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine." (Romans 1:12, ESV)

And I don't have the time to go through Scripture and find all the supporting verses, but I think it would not be difficult.

Also, consider some of these men, like Calvin, Luther, Spurgeon, and more recently, John McArthur, James Boice, DA Carson, etc etc. There are just so many men who have been gifted by God with gifts that if we humble ourselves and take an honest look at our own level of maturity and spiritual growth, we might realize that God has poured out gifts and blessings on these men in significant ways that has shown to be markedly different than the usual. So it would be wise to recognize the hand of God and learn from these men.

I've actually had more suspision for those people who feel they can go off in a corner of Christendom and make up their own teaching without the counsel of others. There seems to be a bit of cocky arrogance and overstimation of their gifts and maturity. And then the danger is that the fruit of those works might be heresy or confusion and division of the body of Christ instead of working towards unity.

Maybe you guys didn't intend to be so hard on commentaries, but I thought I would at least balance this discussion with some support and positive words on commentaries.

[MWMiles]

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