I recently discovered
that, by combining good free and open Bible software with excellent
Internet Bible search tools it's possible to get all the functionality
of an expensive Bible program without having to break the bank or
resort to pirated copies!
It's always bothered me that Bible
software is so expensive that
most people have to use pirated copies. I'm not saying it's wrong for
Bible software companies to charge for their work; it's just difficult
to justify shelling out half a K to get good software on a student's or
minister's budget: now you don't have to!
E-Sword:
(www.e-sword.net/index.html) - very good free Bible software--has lots
of translations, multiple languages, commentaries, dictionaries,
add-ons, etc. Allows Strong's Numbers searches (a method of doing
original-language searches--see explanation bellow).
The Sword Project:
(www.crosswire.org/index.jsp) - similar to the above (I think I like
e-Sword's "look" a bit more) but open-source. (Works on Linux or
Windows - not sure about Mac.)
Crosswalk:
(bible.crosswalk.com) - allows searches of multiple versions at once.
Great when you can only remember a snippet of the verse you need and
can't remember what version you're remembering it from!
Olive Tree:
(olivetree.com/bible) - good English translation search site.
Blue Letter Bible:
(blueletterbible.org) - allows Strong's Numbers searches (a way of
getting at an original language search: use the online JKV translation
to find out the Strong's Number for a specific word [didasko^--"I am
teaching"--is 1321], then see everywhere that specific Strong's Number
occurs in Scripture [1321 occurs 99 times]).
The Online Greek Bible:
(www.greekbible.com) - allows stream searches - any time a particular
stream of letters occurs it shows up in the results (downside: "dida"
offers more than a hundred results; didasko^ [in any form] only occurs
between 97-99 times in the NT).
The Unbound Bible:
(unbound.biola.edu/) - good English translation search site: offers
passage-specific access to Matt. Henry's Commentaries and
passage-specific (not search) access to GNT with Strong's Numbers.
Greek
New Testament: (www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~fisher/gnt/) - allows
Greek searches from
Latin transliterations: didasko^ (how their Greek-Latin alphabet chart
said to render it) produced 97 results.
