A few months ago I was invited to teach expository preaching to pastors in northern India, but there was one limitation: while most of these pastors have a good education, they only have one book—a Bible. No other study helps. And no computers. It was a good challenge to be driven back to sermon preparation with only my Bible, but it also gave me a fresh appreciation for the tools I have so readily available when I sit down to prepare. Chief among those tools is the Bible study software on my computer.

In early 2008 I wrote a Bible Software Review focusing on five popular software packages available to pastors. By mid 2009 most of that information is still valid, but there have been some changes in software, and some changes in what I realize, as well. (See the chart below for a full comparison of software features for the products reviewed.)

In the course of the year, I have tried to use all five Bible software packages on my computer. I'll reiterate what I wrote earlier: if you have good Bible software, you must invest time in learning how to use it. Some things in these packages come easily, but the best of them are not particularly intuitive. You can poke around, trying this and that, and figure some things out, but if you want your money's worth, you have to view the tutorials, practice the steps a few times, and be willing to open the Help window occasionally, till the features and routines become familiar. In some case, there are even seminars held locally to provide training.

Another thing that becomes obvious after awhile is that we pastors don't all study the same way, nor do we want the same kind of information. If you like to "work in the text"—meaning the Hebrew or Greek text—look for software that allows you to do that. BibleWorks and Logos will help you analyze a Hebrew or Greek word six ways to Sunday. If, on the other hand, you mostly read commentaries, theologies, illustration books, and the like, you'll like the bundled packages of books that several publishers offer. Then your job is to compare the libraries to choose what would suit your needs best.

But again, be forewarned. For example, WORDsearch (a program I did not thoroughly review), will sell you, for $350, their Preaching Library. According to their ad, "The extensive expository library features 22 Bibles, a Greek-English Interlinear Bible, plus 245 reference works. Over 32,000 Illustrations, Anecdotes, Quotes, and Stories. A total value of over $5,000 worth of books!" But apart from some of the Bible versions, I doubt there is a single volume on the list recommended in any classes of most evangelical seminaries today. They are not alone in this weakness. They, like most of the other companies, will sell you some of those more highly-regarded books separately, but you have to pay a premium for them.

New stuff

I contacted the five companies I reviewed last year to see if they had upgraded their software. Many are constantly adding new books to their downloadable libraries, but only two had actual upgrades in the past year.

The most extensive upgrade this year is the new BibleWorks 8. It is worth a trip to their website to check out the details, but I loved their new cross reference tools—the best I've seen. They also added more sophisticated search tools, some additional language resources, and an interesting tie-in to various free internet resources you may not know about. This is a package that does not come with lots of commentaries, theologies, and the like, but they are top-drawer in actual study of the biblical text. And their price is a bargain.

Biblesoft's PC Study Bible Version 5 did not upgrade their whole program, but they did add an interesting and valuable new module, the NA27 Greek Morphological Search. You can read the details on their website, but this is an easy-to-use tool that gives real help in New Testament study, especially if you're not quite up to the complexity provided in BibleWorks or the Logos Original Language Library. Even if you do not know Greek, this tool allows you to choose a word in English, identify the Greek word behind it and do a search on either its root form (the word that appears in a lexicon; lemma) or its particular grammatical form (the imperative verb form, for example). This particular software has grown on me this past year. It is user-friendly, has a fine library in this package, and provides most of the tools I need each week.

There is a modest newcomer to the Bible software field that caught my attention recently: ScriptureDirect, a very simple, one-dimensional program for New Testament study only. You get a basic English and Greek version of the New Testament, arranged in interlinear fashion (English below the Greek), and laid out in a kind of simple phrase-by-phrase structure on the screen. You can do basic Greek searches, including use of the Louw-Nida semantical range approach to word studies. You can also mark up the text with various color-codes of your own devising, along with notes attached to specific verses or paragraphs. That's about all it offers. But for basic study, it was fun and easy, and it is only $99. See it at ScriptureDirect.com.

What I didn't see

So far, with all these programs, the software is installed on your computer. You own it. I've heard that in the future, libraries of these sorts might be available "in the air"—available to paid subscribers via the internet. BibleWorks' new "Ermie" feature (External Resources Manager) is the closest to that possibility at this point, but it just leads you to free resources on the internet. Otherwise, I am not aware of Bible study companies marketing to this subscription model.

Of these five companies, only QuickVerse offers products for smartphones and PDAs, and what they offer is extensive. The other big player I'm aware of for this market is Laridian, which has an extensive array of Bible study tools written small enough for your phone! Take a look at Laridian.com.

None of these companies are marketing any of their resources to the users of Amazon's Kindle (the e-book reader). Kindle would only lend itself to books that one reads, since it is not built for mouse action, cut-and-paste processes, and the like, but I think this is a tool companies will need to consider.

Finally …

Studying Scripture is such a joy and privilege, and I'm thankful for all the mind-numbing work that has gone into the programming of these wonderful and sophisticated tools. I can't wait to see what comes out next year!

Lee Eclov recently retired after 40 years of local pastoral ministry and now focuses on ministry among pastors. He writes a weekly devotional for preachers on Preaching Today.