Leadership Journal

When I first loaded BibleWorks 9, I challenged myself to jump right in without using any instructions or videos. The program opened with three windows. The first had a search box, and I entered "Fruit of the Spirit." The second window opened four versions of Galatians 5:22, two in Greek, with dozens of other selectable translations. It was fast, easy, and helpful.

But the third window makes this program a dynamo. I moved the cursor over the Bible text, and a flourish of lexicographic information appeared. In this versatile third window, I could make notes, check cross-references, discover a word's use throughout Scripture, and see Bible notes and a Greek apparatus for verses. Then a tab opened an image of a verse in the Sinaiticus manuscript, the transcription of a fellow Christian from almost 1,700 years ago. The handsome uncial script is a work of art.

Once I looked at the instructions and videos, I found many more capabilities and resources, particularly for someone with rusty original-language skills. Considering the strings of icons above and below the main windows, I will be exploring the usefulness of Bibleworks 9 for a long time. But I've already found this program intuitive and easy to use. The blistering speed corrected my newbie mistakes in a flash.

All this swift accessibility is based on a single goal: connecting the user directly with the Scriptures. If that's your goal, then this software is worth a look.

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