Hall Harris's blog

Deciding which Bible software program is right for you can be a daunting task. The previous post was mostly a history lesson, intended to show how we got to the present situation. Now, assuming you're new to the world of Bible software, the question is, "How to get started, and which path should I choose?" I will start with the situation of a complete beginner with no previous Bible software experience, and make some suggestions for this case.

In an earlier post I said that I would cover Bible software in future post(s). I realize it is going to take more than one to do this topic any justice at all. For several years now I have been teaching two courses on the use of software and Internet tools for New Testament exegesis (master's level elective) and for biblical exegesis (D.Min. level). Every year the list of available programs and resources gets longer. It's best to start with some basics.

On one of my earlier posts about using commentaries in Bible study, I was asked a question about what commentaries to use and how to pick them. It occurred to me that this is a topic I cover in my Introduction to Exegesis class and it would probably be of benefit to comment on it here. What I'm talking about is not which commentary to use on a particular Bible passage or book, but the more general notion of how do I choose commentaries for my personal library. Related themes are (1) How many commentaries do I need?

A recent comment on my post "Using lexical tools in Bible study" asked a question about the lexical tools keyed to the Strong's numbers in the NeXtBible Learning Environment.

Beyond the use of commentaries, another important area in personal Bible study is the use of lexical tools (dictionaries and word study helps). In many cases these reference works are somewhat more objective than commentaries in dealing with the meanings of words and phrases because they are not always directly tied to the meaning of specific passages, but are attempting to cover the range of meaning across numerous passages.

In a previous post we talked about different kinds of commentaries and how they can help the Bible student understand a particular passage more effectively. This time I would like to give some specific tips on using whatever commentaries you have available, regardless of whether they are fairly technical or more popular.

Occasionally I'm asked by both seminary students and people at church about the use of commentaries in one's personal study of the Bible. First, let's define what a commentary is: Commentaries are books that contain comments (observations) on the biblical text. Usually the comments are arranged in verse order, that is, in the same order as the text of the Bible.

In an important development for those of you interested in the original languages of the Bible, it is now possible to use original language texts of BHS (Hebrew Bible), NA27 (Greek NT), Rahlfs LXX (the OT in Greek), and the Vulgate (the Latin Bible) online free from the German Bibel Society’s new website, http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/online-bibeln/

Today the vast distance between the cultural context of the 21st century and that of first century Judea got emphasized all over again as Time Magazine reported yesterday that the controversy from last spring over the "Lost Tomb of Jesus" has been reopened again as Prof. James Charlesworth of Princeton Theological Seminary convened the "Third Princeton Symnposium on Judaism and Christian Origins: Jewish Views of the After Life and Burial Practices in Second Temple Judaism: Evaluating the Talpiot Tomb in Context" which met in Jerusalem earlier

Today I taught my first class of the spring semester, a class in Introduction to New Testament Exegesis (interpretation). I realized this was the 30th year I have taught this course at Dallas Seminary, so counting fall semester sections and summer school, I have probably taught this same course around 60 times.