[B-Greek] Strong's "numerology"
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Jan 31 13:53:19 EST 2008
On Jan 31, 2008, at 10:29 AM, Nathan Smith wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 31, 2008 at 07:55:13AM -0500, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>> Hall Harris' "Net Bible Revolution" blog has a discussion this
>> morning
>> of why Greek and Hebrew language materials from Strong's Exhaustive
>> Concordance continue to be widely available, promulgated, and
>> utilized
>> by many students of the Bible, despite the fact that Biblical
>> language
>> scholars certainly do not recommend them. The answer is pretty much
>> what you'd expect: they are (for good reasons) long since out of
>> copyright and therefore free for use to any comer, while the better
>> recommended lexicographical works in Greek and Hebrew are copyrighted
>> and by no means inexpensive. What Harris explains in this blog entry
>> is why the NeXtBible site, certainly one of the more useful Bible
>> study sites on the internet, makes Strong's stuff available to all
>> comers freely, despite the fact that the site's scholarly stewards do
>> not recommend it.
>>
>
> As a language studen I have long lamented the agressively enforced
> copyrights of language tools, particularly with regard to computer
> software. I would like to see an exploration of the idea of raising
> funds to commission works which would then be released under a
> permissive license for the benefit of all.
I really wonder whether this is feasible. The idea may be naive. I
note that the so-called "OpenText" project described as a "web-based
initiative to develop annotated Greek texts and tools for their
analysis" produced several materials openly available to the public
(see http://opentext.org/about/overview.html or http://tinyurl.com/35bmq8)
acquired financing through Logos software and is now a proprietary
commercial item licensed for sale to Logos users.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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