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Thursday, June 22, 2006
Many PC users think the Mac is void of many applications that swim plenty in the sea of Windows software. As discussed here by SvenOnTech and those of you that have left comments, truth is you can usually find a Windows equivalent version for the Mac. Yes, it’s not always the case but usually those instances are of programs that are either niche applications or from a small software vendor.
One such category of software many think is barren of in the Mac world is Bible software. Walk into any computer or Christian store and you’ll find a bountiful of Windows bases applications. QuickVerse, the most popular offering for Windows, can easily be found in any of these stores yet even though FindEx has a Mac version (in Universal Binary no doubt!), you’d never know it.
QuickVerse isn’t the only Bible offering for the Mac, either. Another excellent, if not possibly the best Bible software period, offering is from OakTree Software called Accordance Bible. The founder of OakTree, Roy Brown, coded one of the first Bible programs for the Mac, ThePerfectWord, back in 1988. It was bought from Brown and then renamed MacBible but is no longer available. (In fact, Zondervan’s support site for the product suggests you visit OakTree’s web site for Bible software.) Accordance Bible is not your average Bible software as its power is unrivaled. Brown’s idea when he started work on Accordance Bible in the early 90s was to create something powerful for pastors and Bible scholars. The first time I saw it at MacWorld three years ago, the immense power of it made me blurt out, “Wow!” It is purely incredible. But with power comes cost. Dodge Vipers aren’t cheap and neither is Accordance Bible. But again, wow!
If you’re wanting to go the poor route, then there is one donate-ware alternative that seems the best. MacSword is based off the open-source sword project and allows for hundreds of free modules to work with it. While not the most powerful and easy to use Bible software for your Mac, keep thinking of how much it costs. Ya, it’s nice. Very nice.
There really hasn’t been much said on this category or even reviewed for that matter. We did find one really good review; however, it’s over three years old and includes references to programs that no longer exist. The article is a good read and is a good foundation resource if you’re looking for the right Bible software product for your Mac. SvenOnTech hopes to have a review off one of the three talked about above (or all of them) within the coming months. So stay tuned for that if you’re still looking.
UPDATE: The above link for the “really good review” as an update to this review done just last fall. So take a look at that review as well and you’ll get a much more current view of Bible software for the Mac. Thank you David for the link!
June 22nd, 2006 at 18:15
There are a number of other great Bible programs available for the Mac as well. I have been using the free Online Bible (OLB) since OS 9 days and have found the latest beta versions of the OS X version to work beautifully.
http://www.online-bible.com/macbeta.html
OLB has an enormous number of free and cheap modules available for it including:
- 34 free and cheap translation modules including NIV, NRSV, NKJV, New Living, etc
- dozens of commentaries, bible dictionaries, references, Greek and Hebrew lexicons etc.
OLB is designed for the serious Bible student but is easy enough for anyone to get great value out of. it’s fantastic to have a dozen different translations of the Bible and several commentaries on screen auto-scrolling together with the original greek or hebrew words and meanings only a double-click away.
You’ll also find dozens of other Christian Mac programs at the OLB site:
http://www.online-bible.com
I also use the Mac OS X version of Illumina Gold, an excellent multimedia Bible resource which comes with heaps of 3D animations, Virtual tours, Photos and information of heaps of Biblical locations, Reference books, encyclopedias, profiles, charts, commentaries, interactive atlas, etc etc as well as several Bible translations
http://ilumina.com
The Mac universe is quite blessed in this area.
-Mart
June 22nd, 2006 at 19:28
There is an excellent Bible program for the Mac that has been around called Online Bible by Ken Hamill. It is in the same family as the Online Bible for PC but is a separate program written especially for Mac. It is still the best program for what it does mostly which is search the Bibl, display Strongs numbers, Greek and Hebrew definitions and cross references as well as build verse lists from your research. It does not have a great interface to search and use commentary but does include commentaries which is good if you are using it like a study Bible and just want commentary on a passage. Then it works great. Currently the na am a beta tester and it will be a solid product when it is released. The program itself is free and all the public domain software is free but to get many of the more well known translations you do need to pay royalty costs. ($15-20) depending on the version. You can go to the site right now and download the old version if you still have a power pc computer to try out. Just do a search for Online Bible and it will come up. But remember there are two different programs although they have basically the same database of versions and cictionaries etc availible to use with the program. The PC version is also free but not as good in my opinion as the Mac version.
June 22nd, 2006 at 19:38
I just read my comment above and it is a terrible example of spelling and typing. I was in a hurry. Sorry! Hope those who read it won’t judge the quality of the Online Bible by my spelling and typing. Check it out for yourself.
June 30th, 2006 at 15:58
With regard to Accordance Bible Software, a major new version was just released at the end of May. I’ve been explaining how to use the new features over on the Accordance Blog for several weeks now. If you’re interested in Accordance, you should definitely check it out.