REB and ISV 2 available for e-Sword

News to me and perhaps to others:

The Revised English Bible has become available for e-Sword (presumably 9.x series) for a fee. UPDATE: Also available for 8.x series, apparently. See here at e-Sword Users.

Also, the International Standard Version 2.0 has been available for a while, in e-Sword 8.x format. It includes all the Protestant bible but the almost complete Isaiah.

NET Bible and Kindle: Now Better Together

Originally only available in noteless text form, the Kindle Net Bible is now available with notes and a working hyperlinked table of contents for books and chapters, according to Todd Lingren at bible dot org.

The direct Amazon download page for the Kindle NET Bible with Notes and working links is here.

Now I must go repent of coveting my neighbors’ Kindle.

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e-Sword 9.x modules up at e-Sword Users

The good folk at e-Sword Users dot orgapparently put in a very long and busy weekend, and have upgraded the site so that “the eSword Resources” pulldown folds out to “esword modules” that then handily splits into “esword 8.x and below” and “esword 9.x and above”. Furthermore, clicking on “eSword Resources” takes you to an index page split into 8.x and 9.x modules. You also get a large brightly colored warning under module type pages stating whether the modules on that page are for 8.x or 9.x, and even a note at the end of each module listing noting its format as an 8.x or 9.x module.

OTOH, Rick Meyers’ download page for e-Sword 9.x is still down as of this writing, presumably still waiting for the cable upgrade to handle the massive traffic the new format has created.

So now much of the pain of switching over has been relieved, thanks to the folk at e-Sword users.

5-12-09 UPDATE: Rick Meyers has reopened the e-Sword download page with e-Sword 9.02 now available

NET Bible for e-Sword 9.x

Over at e-Sword Users Todd Lingren of Bible dot org has announced the availability of NET Bible software for e-Sword 9.x. Users of the premium edition with the 60,000+ notes can get the 9.x upgrade by emailing http://store.bible.org/company.asp.  If you don’t own the NET Bible for e-Sword yet, you can purchase it in 8.x and 9.x format, or download the various free and premium versions from this page.

I personally recommend the NET Bible with notes, as it is an excellent first choice stop for any bible study questions I have during my studies. Other works may go more in-depth, but the NET notes routinely get the gist of any problems I encounter. The NET text reads quite well, too.

In other e-Sword 9.x news, Rick Meyers is regularly upgrading the 9.x module conversion utility, which you can find at the bottom of the e-Sword Extras page.

e-Sword 9.x Conversion Tools Available: Success Mixed

The good folk at eSword Users report there are now two publicly available tools for converting user created resources to eSword 9.x format. Early reports are the conversion utilities are not converting a small number of modules yet, unfortunately.

The stubborn modules include the commentary notes for the NET Bible, my primary bible and commentary, so I personally will be holding off upgrading a while longer. The folk at bible dot org will likely be updating their NET Bible software at some point.

Also at eSword Users they have created sections in their Forums for discussion of eSword 9.x and conversions. They have also posted a notice that the site will be offline next weekend (May 9-10) as they restructure eSword Users dot org to support both the 9.x and earlier eSword editions. This includes uploading 9.x conversions of as many of their 1400+ resources as they can manage.

If you aren’t a member of eSword Users, now is a great time to join.

e-Sword 9.0.1: A Bumpy Turn onto a New Road

E-sword 1.o was released almost exactly nine years ago. Since then, it has gone on to some nine million downloads and worldwide use, including an ever-increasing demand for multiple language interfaces  and support for the apocrypha/deuterocanonicals, as Christians of all nationalities and traditions have come to use the software for personal bible study.

Now at the end of April, 2009, a major change has come to e-Sword as the database engine behind the software (Access/Jet) has finally lost Microsoft support. Thus Rick Meyers, the originator of e-Sword, has changed the database underneath e-Sword with the brand-new e-Sword version 9.0.1.

What does that mean?

As the title of this post suggests, a bump while turning onto a new road. Specifically, to quote Vaughn Jacobs of the excellent e-Sword Users dot org:

“all the current modules are useless in the new version”.

Well, more accurately, all add-on modules need to be updated to the new database format. This is not a problem with “official” e-Sword modules found at e-Sword dot net and eStudy Source dot com, because Rick Meyers has already switched those over. No, the problem is with the fourteen hundred user- created modules like those collected at e-Sword Users dot org. They won’t work with e-Sword 9.0.1. And while there is work going on to convert the old format modules to the new, that’s a lot of work and very few hands.

It’s a bit of a dilemma, then. On the one hand, the new version has some excellent features, as Rick Meyers catalogues in the release notes:

“This update uses a completely different database format for all resources. Everything is faster and more reliable as a result of this change… Study Notes can be made on any verse in the Bible, now including the Orthodox Apocrypha and the Catholic Deuterocanon…You can now Export the Study Notes and Topic Notes in HTML, Word DOC and Adobe PDF file formats, in addition to the previous plain text and Rich Text formats…You can now Import both HTML and Word DOC files directly into the Study Notes and Topic Notes…Localization of the e-Sword user interface continues with the implementation of fully Unicode compliant controls.”

On the other hand, the thing that so many e-Sword users loved was the availability of so many resources under one roof, so to speak, and most of them free. The user of e-Sword 9.0.1 is going to miss many of these resources, most only temporarily.

The obvious answer to the dilemma is to wait until many resources are converted to the new format to switch over. This is not a problem for old time e-Sword users. It does affect new users interested in the wide selection of user-created modules, however, and I personally can’t give new users the obvious answer. My glitchy Internet Explorer locks up at every site where I tried downloading the setup file for the last old format e-Sword version, 8.0.6.  Maybe that’s my IE, maybe it’s the unreliability of those sites. You’ll have to discover that on your own, e-Sword users. Be careful what and where you download.

Speaking from the sidelines, as I have no special channel to Rick Meyers or the folk at e-Sword users dot org, my take on the format change is that it is partly necessitated by the sheer age of the program, and partly a solution to the long-standing issue of easy copyright infringement with user-created modules. There has always been talk of many resources that might become available for e-Sword, except that publishers take understandable exception to some e-Sword users creating and distributing modules of copyrighted works without any remuneration to the copyright holders.  I suspect the new version will curtail that capability, which will then encourage publishers to make in copyright works available for a modest price.

There is also talk of many out- of- copyright works that are all but ready for release for e-Sword, which may now see the light of day as version 9+ modules. That’s something to look forward to.

So, what is my conclusion about the big change? See the title, again. I hope that better and brighter things are ahead for e-Sword, after we break in the new “engine”, so to speak. It’s an excellent program I use almost daily, and I am only encouraged by its expansion into the non-Protestant traditions and its new multiple language interface support. These changes only make it a program for all Christians around the world, which I believe was Rick Meyers’ intention when he created the program nine years.

NRSV comes to E-sword (UPDATED for v. 8.04, 11-10-08)

In case you haven’t checked the E-sword or Estudy Source pages lately, there is a new translation in town: the New Revised Standard Version has come to e-Sword.

That’s good news, as it is (for me at least) the last major translation I was eager to have for e-Sword. E-Sword NRSV can be purchased in two flavors:

NRSV with Apocrypha, with all the apocryphal/deutero-canonical books used by Catholics and the Orthodox, or NRSV Catholic, which includes the standard apocryphal/deutero-canonical books used by Roman Catholics. With the recent upgrade to the complete Catholic and Orthodox apocrypha, I don’t really see the need but for the one edition, actually, but there you are.

In order to use the newest NRSV e-Sword module, you will need Esword version 8.04 or higher, which can be accomplished simply by using the automated installation files on the Esword download page, for either a new installation or an update. This is a good upgrade, as it also improves several other features like the bible browser, and the sharpness of the fonts. The upgrades main claim to greatness is its support for true foreign language versions of Esword.

I know there are people who will always want a few more books in any bible (Enoch, Jubilees, Gospel of Thomas, Ignatius, etc.), but the NRSV is about as “complete” a bible as one can get, and has beeen since its original publication as close to a universal translation as one can get in these days of ever- multiplying English Bible translations. It is commonly used in many mainline Christian denominations, and has been for years a standard for quoting in biblical scholarship. NRSV’s New Testament has been especially well-received, not the least due to it’s senior editior being the late Bruce Metzger, author of both A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament and Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek, among other works. The Old Testament of the NRSV has always been a bit more controversial, as many feel it too dependent on the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, rather than the standard Hebrew Masoretic Text.

If you want some further opinion and info on the NRSV, you can look at this tag page on Rick Mansfield’s This Lamp site.

A number of other translations receiving attention in the biblioblogosphere recently are available for purchase at eStudy Source: TNIV as part of an NIV package; NLTse; and HCSB. Check them out.

Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha: E-sword Topic Files

R.H. Charles’s massive two volumes on Old Testament writings: e-books (This is the R.H. Charles index page, because a number of his books are classics you might want to read)

Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, Sibylline Oracles: all for e-sword: here. (Lots more stuff to intrigue and confuse you here.)

A Miscellaneous Collection of Old and New Testament related writings in one big e-sword file: here

You can find Targummim, Apostolic Fathers, and some Nag Hammadi writings, in original languages and translation at this excellent webpage: E-sword Original Languages Library (Under Resources: E-sword Modules on the left sidebar)

A great many of these texts were collated from the Internet, particularly the Internet Sacred Text Archive

Best E-Sword Modules of Late

Come from the Catholic side of the aisle: Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea and the 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia, both of which can be found at Michael Jacques’ esnips page along with other Catholic resources.

The Catena Aurea represents Thomas Aquinas’ creation of a running commentary on the Gospels by citing various Church Fathers, as translated by the renowned John Henry Newman. The Catholic Encyclopedia represents a large compendium of Catholic scholarship on subjects of Catholic interest from the early twentieth century.

Both are large works, and their creation as e-sword modules doubtless required much time and labor. Thank you, module makers! 

These two modules will go together for many users, since the Church Fathers are either unknown or barely more than names for many Christians of all stripes. Using them both in combination, e-sword users can get a better glimpse into the vast literature on the New Testament penned by their predecessors in the faith.

Now if only there was something of the sort on Acts and Samuel….