Bible Study Tool: The NeXt Bible
One key question for computer savvy, or at least computer-involved Bible students is the type of Bible study software to purchase. Many can get along well with e-Sword, which I’ve reviewed before. (Be sure to read into the comments for some corrections.)
Now there’s a new, free resource from Bible.org, the producers of the NET Bible. One of the key features of the NET Bible is the extensive and generally excellent notes provided for the translation. You will rarely be left unaware of major translation issues if you carefully read the notes. Much of what can normally only be accomplished by reading a passage in numerous versions is handled by the NET Bible notes.
But now there’s more–we have the NeXt Bible. This is not as complete as e-Sword, but some of the resources that do exist are even better. What attracts me to it is that it’s available anywhere that I have an internet connection. For example, this morning I’m working at someone else’s office for a couple of hours, and none of these computers have any Bible study software on them. I can’t do as much as I could with my Logos software, but I can get a substantial amount of information, and it’s readily available.
If you can use a browser, you’ll be able to use this tool. The basic text display uses fairly standard lookup by book, chapter and verse (what else could they do?) but also includes a search facility. The display is tabbed, with the NET Bible, KJV, Greek or Hebrew text (GRK-HEB), Cross References (XRef), Names, Titles, Articles, and a draft interlinear. Greek and Hebrew text is coded with Strong’s numbers and there is a study dictionary available to look up the words involved. This is not merely the Strong’s definition, but instead includes translations in the KJV (AV) and the NET Bible along with some statistics and definitions. It won’t replace BDAG for students who know the Biblical languages, but it is more user-friendly than the Strong’s entries and less likely to lead the reader astray.
The cross-reference section contains an extensive list of references. As with all cross-references, remember that even the relationship between texts involves interpretation so different interpreters can disagree on what should be connect where. Nonetheless, these lists are an excellent starting point, and each reference is linked so that you can click on it to look up the referenced text.
The Names tab will be particularly useful to many students. It includes a brief summary of who each person is along with a list of references to that name.
The Articles tab references the extensive library of articles on Bible.org. From my point of view these are generally a bit more conservative than my own taste, but they are precisely the type of conservative articles I like to read, complete with serious discussion of the reasons the author chooses the particular view.
The Titles tab provides titles for each pericope. In testing this software out, I set it to Hebrews 7, a source of many questions. The Titles section highlights the titles for two pericopes (passages) in chapter 7, the Names tab gives me information and references on Aaron, Abraham, Judah, Levi, Levitical, Melchizedek, Moses, and Salem.
Tips for using the software are displayed in the column to the left of the text, though if you do a little bit of clicking on links and looking around will show you most of the information you need.
What’s best here is that all of this is free, and as internet access becomes more universal, it’s easily accessible from anywhere, even when you’re borrowing someone else’s computer. Those of us who have favored Bible software installed aren’t going to be uninstalling it, but those who either have no Bible software, or who find themselves using someone else’s computer frequently will find this resource extremely helpful.
The folks at Bible.org have helped personal Bible study take a big step forward. I recommend this resource without reservations.
