B-GREEK SHAREWARE AND FREEWARE

From: MikeBzley (MikeBzley@aol.com)
Date: Sat Mar 28 1998 - 05:31:50 EST


Dear b-greekers,

My wife was away last weekend, which gave me the opportunity to waste hours
downloading and playing with Biblical shareware and freeware on the net.

If you haven't already investigated them, I recommend two programmes (sic; I
am English): Sword Searcher, shareware available from The Online Study Bible
(URL www.goshen.net/osl), and The Sword Project freeware (URL
www.crosswire.org).

Sword Searcher includes two Textus Receptus modules, and its structure allows
one to create notes sets - I have been able to crossload parts of the
University of Pennsylvania ccat parallel MT/LXX (the URL of which I seem to
have lost) as a note set to the OT, cross referenced to quotations in the NT -
a very useful tool. Unfortunately the only English translation available is
the KJV, and the theme of the programme seems to be the inerrancy of the
English translation rather than of the original (I am reminded of the stories
about the miraculous agreement of the LXX translators! - I'm not sure why, but
the inerrancy of the KJV seems to be very much an American idee fixe).

The Sword project, on the other hand, is freeware, and it has a number of
different English and European translations, but no facility for creating
notes sets (unless one is a software engineer). The great advantage is that
it has the NA 27/UBS 4 version of the GNT complete with breathings and
accents, as long as one has an up-to-date version of the WinGreek font
(shareware). Also, if you don't wish to spend the hours downloading zip files
that I have spent, you can order the software on CD for a small amount. I
understand that MT and LXX modules will be produced in due course, which will
make this a superb study tool. I heartily recommend it.

Happy surfing and CARIS hUMIN KAI EIRHNH APO QEOU PATROS hHMWN KAI KURIOU
IHSOU CRISTOU. (The latter was copied straight off the Sword Project text -
it transliterates itself automatically!)

Mike Beazley

Bushey, Hertfordshire, UK.

PS. The valediction some b-greekers use reminds me of the motto of the Keo
brewery in Cyprus, "XAIRE KAI PIEI EU"!



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