Bible Study Software

Johannes Gutenberg's invention of movable type around 1440 revolutionized the arts of printing and bookmaking. In a similar manner, the invention of the personal computer around 1980 revolutionized the art of Bible study. Whole libraries of Bible study books are available on pocket-size CD–ROMs for a fraction of their printed cost.

Bible software allows you to locate information instantly and helps you to study the Bible more accurately, more thoroughly, and faster than in any other manner. Good Bible software integrates the library by making its books interact with one another.

Anybody can put the Bible on disk, but three things set good Bible software apart:
1. The “search engine”—how easy, flexible, and powerful are the program's searching capabilities?
2. The core library—does the program include the books you really want?
3. Interactivity—can you easily display related topics and passages in many books at once?

 How to Choose

Check the platform and system requirements to make sure you get software that your computer can use.

“Test drive” the various programs that are available, or ask for a demo disk.

The faster your chip, the faster the program will run. A program that requires at least a Pentium® 186 processor may run on a 186, but probably not very fast. Be sure to have a fast enough processor to run the program you are purchasing.

Some Bible software is designed for both entertainment and Bible study. Be careful when selecting interactive software as many have bells and whistles but minimal study value.

Check the reference works that are included. Are they things you'll use, or data that will simply take up disk space? Are they old works or relatively new? (There should be copyright notices either in the manual or in the program itself.) In many cases the reference works included in computer software are relatively old books that are no longer under copyright and can thus be used free of charge by the publisher. The scholarship in these works could be outdated and of relatively little value to your study.

Be sure to buy a core library of books you know are helpful, trustworthy, up-to-date and that you will use. Many Bible software libraries include a lot of old books as padding to make you think you are getting more for your money. A great entry level software package that contains all the core library books is Zondervan Study Bible Library: Family Edition.

For more advanced NIV Bible study software, we recommend the Leader's Edition, Professional Edition, or the Scholar's Edition. 

For Macintosh users, The NIV Study Bible: Basic Library for Macintosh is the only software designed expressly for use with the NIV and is the only software that presents fully up-to-date relationships between a modern translation and the Greek text.

Even if you have Bible software, it's a good idea to keep some books handy for quick reference—at least a study Bible (LINK: http://www.zondervan.com/reference/study.htm) and a core library. (LINK: http://www.zondervan.com/reference/core.htm)  Booting up your computer to find just one verse in the concordance is not exactly efficient.

 Ask Yourself 

Will this software work on my computer? Is it for Macintosh or PC (IBM-compatible)? If Windows, what version? How much disk space do I need? What's the minimum processor (Pentium, etc.)? Is it on CD–ROM or floppy disks?

How easy is it to use? How fast is it?

How do I want to use the software?

Are the reference works of value included?

Is the Bible translation I use the most included in the software?

Are the reference works included helpful, trustworthy, up-to-date, and will I use them?

Do the reference works included compliment one another by focusing on a common translation?   Replace with the Expositor’s Bible Software image below and the Study Library 5.0 image     [These images go to the left of “Using Bible Software”]

 Using Bible Software

With a good computer Bible study program, you can search for information in a fraction of the time that it takes using books.

You can turn to a specific Bible verse almost as fast as you can type in the reference, but software can do a lot of tasks at the same time.

Software dramatically speeds up a concordance search. Rather than showing you only a sentence fragment, it'll take you to the actual location in the Bible so you can read as much of the context (the verses before and after) as you desire.

Using software, you can look for word combinations and phrases; for example, you can do a search for all the places where the words “Spirit” and “power” occur within three verses of each other.

You can quickly find specific places in the commentaries and other reference tools that may be included in your software package.

Bible reference tools on disk or CD–ROM are generally far less expensive than the same tools in book form.

You can copy Bible text and sections from the other reference tools directly into word-processing documents and files.

Clicking on a verse reference in a Bible dictionary should display that verse in your favorite translation in another window.

Selecting a word in any book, for example, “covenant,” should list all the books that have a topical entry for that word and allow you to display that topic in any of them.

Linking windows together that display translations, notes, or a commentary should allow you to go to a new location in one, for example, John 3:16, and have the others display the same new location automatically.

Good Bible software allows you to study the Bible more efficiently and in ways not possible with printed books. You should be able to concord any combinations of words or phrases instantaneously. For example, “Abra* AND Sar*” would search for all variations of “Abra” (Abraham, Abraham's, Abram, Abram's) and “Sar” (Sarah, Sarah's Sarai) that occur together in any combination.

You should be able to perform original-language searches and word studies, without having to know the original language, simply by clicking on a word in an English translation.

Some software is now STEP-compatible. STEP stands for Standard Template for Electronic Publishing. It was designed specifically for Bible reference books. Any book in any language can be produced in the STEP format. The power of STEP is that it makes it possible for you to build portable libraries of your favorite reference books. As your needs change, you can add new reference books from any publisher that is STEP compatible. You don't have to depend on any one software company to provide the reference books you need for your studies.

Some software is on floppy disks (either 5-1/4" or 3-1/2") while other software is on CD–ROM. Make sure when you purchase software that you have the appropriate drive on your system to use the program you are purchasing. The benefit to having software on CD–ROM is that you can decide how you want to use it with your computer.

You may load all the software directly onto your hard drive. If you choose to do this, you won't need to use the CD again. However, if you prefer not to use up as much space on your hard drive, you may load only a portion of the information from the CD onto your hard drive. After that installation, every time you want to use the program you'll need to put the CD–ROM into the CD drive of your computer. The Zondervan Study Bible Library: Family Edition, as well as the Leader's Edition, Professional Edition, and Scholar's Edition, and The NIV Study Bible: Basic Library for Macintosh are more flexible than some others because they're on CD–ROM.

A Word of Caution

An essential part of Bible study is reflection and meditation—which are time-consuming. Using a computer shortens the time needed for research, theoretically leaving more time for reflection. But because Bible study on a computer is easy and fun, we may end up spending more time on research and less time on reflection and meditation.

Computers allow you to do things at high speed—including making mistakes. The answers you get are only as legitimate as the questions you ask the computer. Be sure you have a good method for studying the Bible.