Mark WardI finally bought Logos when I realized how often I was about to leave my beautiful new bride at home while I finished up my dissertation at the library. I still had to spend time in the stacks and study carrels, but Logos let me spend much more time...
I spent hours looking over Logos libraries before I bought one (Gold). I did the same before I upgraded (Platinum). How can you make an informed purchasing decision? Which library do you need? The homework necessary to figure it out may be daunting...
There’s a makeover video on YouTube that is now clocking in at 25 million views. And it points, through a sad irony, to a truth recovered 500 years ago at the Reformation. The timelapse video shows Jim Wolf’s stunning transformation from unkempt...
The first of Luther’s famous 95 Theses—whose 500th anniversary we celebrate today—is a critique of an erroneously translated phrase in Jerome’s translation of Matthew 4:17. In English we know this as, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”...
I once gave a presentation at my church on “Why Bible Typography Matters.” It was announced a month or so in advance, and people started making comments to me about it. Someone said, “You’re going to talk about Bible typology—like how Joseph...
“Should we split infinitives? Can we say ‘to boldly go where no one has gone before’?” A sharp teenage girl in my church recently asked me this. Great question. How do we judge what is “correct” English, anyway? And should Bible teachers even, like...
Greek New Testament manuscripts often use paragraphs to indicate a shift in thought. But modern editors have not felt bound by these paragraph divisions: each Bible text may have its own. Paragraphing is a necessary task for translation—and a help...
On Wednesday I posted a translation of the wise and valuable—and largely forgotten—preface to the most important English Bible ever: the King James Version. Today’s Christians think of the KJV as settled, established, widely accepted, and honored...
When I first read the KJV translators’ preface, I was surprised to see that they fully expected a cold reception to their work. They could have no idea that their Bible would one day be praised even by non-Christians for its literary quality and...
I don’t just read the books in my Logos library; I use them. I use them for preaching, for writing, for study, for personal emails, for online discussions with friends. I use my digital books in Logos so often that I get frustrated when the...
My Christian tradition has heroes like every other. This is good, at least when the heroes are good; it’s biblically sound to have heroes (Heb 12:1). The Bible itself offers its (nonetheless flawed) characters in part as moral examples, as heroes...
Truly understanding someone you deeply disagree with is exhausting. It’s a labor of love. A friend with different politics recently brought up a subject about which I know “my side’s” position but not my own. I sensed he was attacking my tribe, but...
Ἀγωνίζομαι is a Greek word commonly abused by Bible interpreters; and I think it raises an interesting test case for what to do when major Bible translations differ. In this post, I want to try to discern what that word is used to mean in its...
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount amazed its original hearers; it subverted their expectations on multiple levels. It’s the meek who win the world. Believers are supposed to be happy when persecuted. And then this: Jesus, this new teacher with...
John Newton wrote a beautiful letter to a friend which is called in his collected works, “On Controversy”—because that friend was about to engage in public controversy over Christian doctrine; Newton wanted to give him some scriptural counsel. I...
The Figurative Language dataset in Logos marks the word “dine” in Luke 14:1 as a metaphor. Why? Can you figure it out? I’ll give you ten Logos Pro points if you get the right answer. One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the...
I cringe almost every time I hear a preacher criticize a particular phrase from an English Bible translation in preaching—even and especially those times when I caught myself doing it before I could stop myself. We preachers and Bible teachers would...
Why should Bible teachers go through the pain of learning and then using the original languages of Scripture? I gave you five reasons last week, but persuasion doesn’t occur solely because of reasons. Sometimes personal testimony is most effective...
Should pastors and other Bible teachers bother to learn Greek and Hebrew? You can use Greek and Hebrew without having to memorize a single paradigm, let alone 3,000 vocab words, so why torture yourself? I’ll give you ten reasons studying the...
Do you ever need to perform searches that connect English with Greek? For example, do you ever need to find out how a specific translation treats a given grammatical construction? This is nearly impossible to do without the specialized tagging in...
If you want to start a fight, meddle with people’s religion and their grammar at the same time. Here goes. I think it’s time to no longer capitalize deity pronouns in Christian writing and in (most) Bible translations. Shall we take this out back? I...
Everyone knows the King James Version of the Bible was translated in 1611, but almost no one has read a 1611 KJV. Not only do the great majority of KJV editions actually come from a 1769 revision (one of a series of revisions), but even the “1611”...
The American evangelical church likes to ride pendulum swings. I’m not talking about the revolving door of theologically vapid church marketing gimmicks. I mean things that you and I do. You know, us: the kind of people who read Bible software...
The evangelical tradition that gives me the most courage to be Protestant in this 500th anniversary of the Reformation is our emphasis on personal Bible study. But how do you create a church culture that truly loves Bible study? Logos has just...
Even professors who teach biblical languages typically teach just one of those languages. They must put forth some effort to maintain their skills in the language they don’t teach. Pastors, too, must take practical steps to retain their knowledge of...
Most of the time you look up a Hebrew word you probably don’t want the extreme depth and complication afforded by the top lexicons. Neither do you want to wade through a tight paragraph of tiny print full of abbreviations you don’t use often enough...
It’s the question that can derail the Sunday School class, make the pastor look poorly educated (i.e., “dumb”), and possibly even damage someone’s faith: Pastor, how come this footnote says that some manuscripts do not include the story of the woman...
You’re reading along in Philippians and your eyes traverse Paul’s famous phrase, “our citizenship is in heaven.” Your job, Bible student or teacher, is to understand this metaphor well enough to explain it to others. But at first, it may not feel...
Have you ever been listening to a preacher who is using a Bible translation different from the one in your lap? Generally, the wording is similar enough to avoid confusion; in fact those differences often provide little insights. But occasionally...
Your brain has already learned one of the most basic Bible study skills: finding connections. When you’re reading an ending to one of Paul’ letters, maybe you hear a faint echo. You think, “Didn’t Paul say something like this at the end of...