When studying original languages of the Bible it makes sense to combine the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament with Ben Chayyim’s Masoretic Old Testament, so I combined the two into a single TR module for SwordSearcher 6. It’s convenient to be able to switch seamlessly between the Hebrew OT and the Greek NT.

The SwordSearcher Hebrew text includes vowel points, and the Bible search function of the program allows you to search either with or without them.  So, for example, you could do a search for יהוה (the Tetragrammaton) in the SwordSearcher TR with the Consonant search option selected and get results including יְהוִה יְהוָה יְהוִֹה יֱהוִֹה. Might be useful to someone.

The Hebrew portion of the TR module should be considered a work in progress and feedback is welcome.

For comparison, the Westminster Leningrad Codex is also available for SwordSearcher.

Been busy.

SwordSearcher Bible Software version 6 is now available. 2010 marks the 15th anniversary of SwordSearcher.

I love my job!

Lots of details here and here. Also got a video of some of the new features here.

I’ve recently created a SwordSearcher fan page on Facebook, too.

Version 5.4 of SwordSearcher Bible Software is finally released!

For years I’ve received requests for Clarence Larkin’s Dispensational Truth. I’m happy to report that it is now part of the SwordSearcher study library, including all of the charts.  This was a pretty big job.  The charts in the book were not suitable for scanning as they often spanned pages and just couldn’t be properly combined into single images.  So, I obtained large-format prints of the charts, then had them scanned with hardware designed to archive large blueprints.  The result is the best possible scans of these old illustrations.

You can see what else has been added here.

I wasn’t able to attend the conference this year.  I’m sorry I missed it.  But I’m certainly pleased to get the award again.  To whomever is voting for SwordSearcher: thank you!  (I’ve never solicited votes, so I don’t really know who you are.)

SSModules: Free Module Downloads for SwordSearcher Bible Software is currently in “beta.” It’s beta because there isn’t much listed there yet, but I’m working on it.  My goal is two-fold:

1. Index many of the modules available from third parties.
2. Upload my own “extra” modules that I have built but not added to SwordSearcher’s Deluxe study library for one reason or another.

Work will be ongoing. I don’t know how long it will be “in beta” (certainly not perpetual beta like a Google internet service), but it’s usable now, so have a visit if you’re a SwordSearcher user.  You may find something you like.

In looking over the revision history, I think this is one of the most significant updates since 5.0 — not because of new content, but just because of new code. The new user editor should really be useful for people writing their own personal notes in the software, and the new Scan Text for Verse References tool should be an all-around time saver for anyone who reads Bible study stuff on the web.

Here’s what it does:

In the above example, I copied in text from a web page using the Windows clipboard. Each reference is automatically highlighted by SwordSearcher, and I can hold the mouse pointer over a reference to read the Bible text as I read along in the article. Obviously, clicking the verse links performs actions such as moving the Bible panel to the passage or loading the references in a Verse List panel.

This even works with “old style” commentaries that use Roman numerals for chapter identifiers.

(Geek alert: the rest of this blog post is programmer stuff.)

In order to handle this automatic verse reference discovery, I built a custom parser that uses a combination of Regular Expressions and good ‘ol Delphi code. SwordSearcher can understand over 2,000 forms of Bible book names and abbreviations. Jan Goyvaerts’ program RegEx Buddy was an invaluable aid in developing the RegExes SwordSearcher uses internally — I highly recommend it if you have to build RegExes in your line of work.

Anyway, version 5.3 was a lot of fun to develop. Now I can switch gears for a little while and do some other work that’s been waiting for me…

As I mentioned before, this new version adds “words of Christ in red letters” for the KJV, and also gives the ability to restrict a Bible search to just the words of Christ. The Deluxe study library also adds the following modules:

• Morrish Bible Dictionary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Sketches of Jewish Social Life and The Temple: Its Ministry and Services

See the revision history for a complete list of new features.

Joel Anderson has used a lexicon to “translate” the Bible into Klingon and compiled a SwordSearcher “Klingon Language Version.” Tranlsate is in quotes because as Joel says on his website, “It is useful for for entertainment value, not linguistic purity.”

Here’s John 3:16 in the KJV:

John 3:16 vaD  joH’a'  vaj loved the  qo’,  vetlh  ghaH  nobta’  Daj  wa’  je  neH  puqloD,  vetlh  ‘Iv  HartaH  Daq  ghaH should  ghobe’  chIlqu’,  ‘ach  ghaj eternal yIn.

Here you can see the difficulties of using a lexicon-based translation system (heh — lots of people try to do that with a Strong’s dictionary on a routine basis!). Should and eternal don’t seem to have corresponding entries in the English-Klingon lexicon.

By no means was he perfect, of course, as no writer on Biblical topics ever is. But overall, his life was a “net benefit” to Christianity and his books are currently enjoying more circulation today and continuing to influence students of Scripture.

I’m pleased to have been able to add several of his doctrinal writings to the latest version of SwordSearcher Bible Software.