Review of Bible Explorer 4.0

For my other JTerm Class I needed to review a Bible Software program. I thought it might be appreciated by those following this as well.

For my bible software review I looked at and began to get use to using Bible Explorer 4.0. This program in its basic form is a free download, and the free software was impressive in its function and amount of free documents included in the way of Bibles, Commentaries, Cross References, Devotionals, Study Tools and other items included in the library. Additional “books” are available for purchase on-line to be added on to the library and some additional research would be needed on those to give a good review of the possible library one could build, so you do not get everything for free!
The browser window within the program allows for multiple windows to be viewed at the same time. I found four documents to be viewed at a time on the screen about the most manageable, but while fooling around I was able to have 10 windows opened at once. So you could have multiple bible translations, commentaries and the built in word processing program all on the screen at once. The Bible translations and commentaries are synced automatically (it can be toggled off) so as you scroll one version the other windows continue to scroll as well which I found to be nice when comparing three versions at once. I liked being able to view Greek and English translation simultaneously and I will continue to fool around with this while doing some exegesis work in the coming months to get a real feel of things.
There is also discussion groups connected to Bible Explorer as well. The free version does not included access to the groups, but with purchases of additional downloads you are granted access. According to many reviews on cnet.com these discussion groups might be something to avoid. I was not able to view the discussion group, but since the group is connected to the software publisher this does raise a potential concern. Overall I found the software a nice addition to my seminary tool box.