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If you don't use Bible software to study, then you can't imagine what you're missing. Even if you are using software that is five years old, the ease of use, sophisticated procedures, and vast array of additional resources put today's generation of software in a different league. This article focuses on the most recent versions of these five popular software programs:

PC Study Bible Version 5: Professional Reference Library; $899.95 (on sale for $674.95). Biblesoft.com.

BibleWorks 7; $349. BibleWorks.com.

Logos Bible Software 3: Scholar's Library: Gold; $1,379.95. Logos.com.

QuickVerse 2008: Platinum Edition; $799.95 (discounted to $599.95). QuickVerse.com.

The Teacher's and Pastor's Library 6.0 for Windows (Pradis-based); $149.99. zondervan.com.

Each program provides biblical text in many different translations and paraphrases. BibleWorks also has the Bible in dozens of other modern languages. All the packages tend to puff up their list of Bible translations with a few versions you probably wouldn't bother having on your shelf. Surprisingly, QuickVerse does not provide the New International Version in its Platinum edition, though it's happy to sell you an add-on of the NIV, Today's New International Version, and New International Reader's Version for $40.

Various Greek, Hebrew, and English versions can be displayed in parallel fashion—as many or as few as you want to see. It is easy to cut text and paste it into other programs. PC Study Bible and Logos provide especially quick and ingenious tools for pasting biblical text into other documents.

BibleWorks and Logos can search for a particular kind of grammatical construction, regardless of the word. In Logos, for example, you could look for every verse where the Holy Spirit communicates in any way—speaking, announcing, or calling. BibleWorks has been a favorite for the scholars at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, though Logos's recent improvements have won accolades from professors and students of biblical languages.

Zondervan's Pradis can search for either the root form of a word (such as all the uses of agape as either a noun or agapao as a verb) or its particular morphological form (a certain tense or voice, for example). PC Study Bible and QuickVerse allow searches, but they are more difficult and are pegged to the old, but still serviceable, Strong's numbering system.

Each program parses Greek words and provides basic lexicon definitions. Only BibleWorks, Logos, and The Teacher's and Pastor's Library offer help with Hebrew, including Hebrew text and word morphology. BibleWorks and Logos, once again, are extraordinary. In BibleWorks, for example, as you draw the mouse over the English text of an Old Testament passage, a small window appears with each word showing the Hebrew word and its meaning. Meanwhile, in the adjoining column, a much more complete analysis of each word appears, with even more links to word-study books and grammar tools.

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