As a seminarian and a devoted user of Bible software, I am often asked what I might recommend for Bible software. While other programs (BibleWorks, Accordance) do have their advantages, I am quite happy with Logos. Years ago, their emphasis on library building meant an emphasis on (in my humble opinion) cheesy and unhelpful biblical tools. As I understand the narrative of Bible software history, when Logos was compared to BibleWorks in those days, Logos seemed an almost embarrassing choice for serious scholars of the biblical text. More recently, however, Logos has been capitalizing on their effective method of library building in a more scholarly way. One can now find incredible resources in whole sets of commentaries (such as Hermeneia and the NIGTC) or various collections of scholarly monographs (one example of many is the Library of NT Studies: JSNTS on the Gospels and Acts).
But as one who is preparing for doctoral study, the benefit of Logos for which I’m thankful at the moment is their possibilities for in-depth language study. Today in the mail, I received my order of Logos’ two versions of the Dead Sea Scrolls. I now have not only BHS, but the Targums of the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project and the DSS. Not to mention the fact that I have BDB, HALOT, Gesenius, Jouon-Muraoka, Waltke-O’Connor, and plenty of other Hebrew and Aramaic resources at my finger tips. That means that I can do powerful language searches, run automatic word studies, and a bunch of other stuff I don’t even know about yet.
The same goes for Greek, but even more so. There are simply more possibilities for a range of Greek literature. So, in addition to having precious grammars (Robertson, BDF, Wallace, etc.) and lexica (BDAG, LSJ, M-M, Louw-Nida, TDNT, etc.) to call upon, as well as the LXX and various versions of the Greek NT (including many of the earliest papyri manuscripts – which is linked with the apparatuses Logos offers), I have options for exploring other primary sources. Logos currently offers or is developing: the Pseudepigrapha, the works of Philo, a critical edition of Josephus’ works, the Apostolic Fathers, and now Homer’s Illiad (see Rick Brannon’s post about this on the Logos blog). All of these are morphologically tagged, so a reader can decide whether and when they’d like to use “crutches.” But it is nice to be able to double-click on a word and have it pop up in BDAG or LSJ.
Another thing that I’m itching to acquire, but is too much of a wallet buster at the moment is the SESB 2.0 collection. This includes the critical apparatuses for both the Greek NT (NA27 and UBS4) and BHS. It even includes part of the new BHQ, the Gospel of Thomas (in four languages), and many modern language (other than English) Bibles.
Logos is also working on developing Coptic resources (see Crum, for example) and a few things on Ugaritic. Also exciting is the Oxford Latin Dictionary, which will be a huge resource for scholars who work with Latin. My guess is that once they have this massive Latin dictionary available, Logos will start adding Latin texts of the early church and Greco-Roman world. They obviously already have the Vulgate.
Logos has even begun to create an electronic version of the unabridged Collins English Dictionary. A while back, I recommended they develop the OED (they have a suggestion email address), but that is naturally a huge undertaking. I think that it is important for those who work with language have tools regarding their own language as well as others.
In the future, I think I’d like to see Logos develop more German resources. Perhaps since they now have a relationship with Collins, they can look into producing the Collins German Dictionary. Or the Oxford-Duden, which is the print dictionary that I have and I think is the most helpful. I know a lot of students in theology and biblical studies who could use German tools. Maybe things like Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage by Durrell and/or German Quickly by April Wilson. One text that may be especially useful would be Ziefle’s Modern Theological German: A Reader and Dictionary. I can see these resources branching out into the works of many of the great German theologians and biblical scholars. That’s long term, I suppose.
But that last point is exactly the reason I love Logos. I can think of the build up of their resources over time. They are constantly adding helpful tools for language study and the possibilities for research keep expanding. With all of this said, one can really see how Logos has taken their stereotyped “cheesy Christian library” role from the past and not only blown it out of the water, but turned their “weakness” into a formidable strength for scholarly work. [I know some Logos folks might disagree with my depiction of their past image, but I'm just commenting on how I perceive things . . . I'm willing to be wrong. I was one of their customers back in my fundamentalist highschooler days 10 years ago, so I have some personal experience with the history as well as what I've heard from some biblical scholars.]
. . . Ooh, one more thing. I think it’d be cool to get some of those books from the 501 Verb series that Barron’s does, especially the ones for Latin and German, on Logos. I have found those very helpful.
