If you’re in or near Greenville, South Carolina, this conference on April 9–10 may serve you (brochure | online registration). I’m looking forward to it.
Bible Software for iPhone and iPod Touch: Olive Tree vs. Logos
In my post on iPhone Resources, I mention that Logos Bible Software (more info) is one of my favorite apps. Someone asked this in the comments:
Have you had a chance to use the Olive Tree Bible app at all? Any thoughts on comparisons with the Logos app?
I replied,
I haven’t used the various Olive Tree apps because my understanding is that Logos can do everything they can and more (esp. if you use Logos 4) for free. I may be wrong on that.
Well, I was wrong on that—at least for now.
1. What is Olive Tree Bible software?
Here’s how it describes itself:
Olive Tree Bible Software provides mobile Bible versions and study tools for iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Palm OS, Pocket PC, Smartphone and Symbian cell phones. We currently offer over 500 mobile resources including over 100 translations of the Bible as well as commentaries, dictionaries, devotionals, eBooks, and Strong’s numbering system. The Bible is offered in various languages, including German, French, Spanish, Chinese and many others. Original Hebrew and Greek texts are also available. Additionally, we provide online web and cell phone (WAP) Bible search engines.
2. What does Olive Tree Bible software offer for the iPhone and iPod Touch?
- Bibles. Hebrew, Greek, LXX, ESV, NIV, NASB, NET, NLT, The Message, and more.
- Study Bibles. ESVSB, NET notes, NIVSB, NLTSB, and more. [Read more…] about Bible Software for iPhone and iPod Touch: Olive Tree vs. Logos
iPhone Resources
I got an iPhone this month, and it surpassed my high expectations. It’s amazing.
My 3GS model is 16 GB and weighs 4.8 ounces. That means that the little phone I keep in my pocket holds eight times as much space as the laptop I used from college through my first PhD (1998–2006).
If you have an iPhone (or iPod Touch), these resources may help you use the tool more efficiently.
1. iPhone Apps
The iPhone comes with several apps already installed, and over 100,000 apps are available through the iTunes Store.
Here’s a screen-shot of my apps as they appear iTunes (click on the image to enlarge):
- Cf. Phil Gons’s list of the main iPhone apps that he uses on his iPod Touch.
- My favorite apps include Logos Bible Software (more info), Google Mobile App, Dragon Dictation, Red Laser ($1.99), Dropbox, and Mint.com Personal Finance.
- There are many other useful apps that I’ve chosen not to use for various reasons (e.g., PIM, news, sports).
Here are some practices I’ve found to be helpful:
One Rule to Ring Them All
How’s that for the title of a sermon on the story of Adam and Eve’s fall in Genesis 3? It popped into my head while my daughter and I read that story from The Jesus Storybook Bible.
(Jenni and I are currently listening to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy [1, 2, 3] in which the “One Ring to rule them all” is prominent.)
Tyndale Commentaries
Less than one week remains before Logos Bible Software releases the Tyndale Commentaries, a 49-volume series that covers the OT and NT. The pre-pub price is $179.95, which is about $3.67 per volume, and it will go up after the product ships.
I own print copies of all the NT volumes and several OT volumes, but I’m planning to get the Logos version because using Libronix is far more efficient than using print books. I’ve argued this in some previous reviews:
- “Scholar’s Library: Gold: A Review Article.” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 11 (2006): 151–60.
- “PNTC, BECNT, and NIGTC: Three New Testament Commentary Series Available Electronically in Libronix: A Review Article.” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 12 (2007): 81–99.
- Review of Anchor Yale Bible commentary series (84 vols.) in Logos Bible Software. Themelios 34 (2009): 226–27.
- Review of The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testamentst (40 vols.) in Logos Bible Software. Themelios 34 (2009): 455–57.
2010 SGI Conference
The Student Global Impact National Conference, a missions conference for college students and young adults, took place this week at Inter-City Baptist Church in the metro Detroit area. About 340 people attended.
- 36 free MP3s (including several by Dave Doran, Mark Minnick, and Matthew Hoskinson)
- Live-blogged by Joe Tyrpak
Six Books for Children on the Bible’s Storyline
In 2008, Jenni and I profited from reading two “documentary novels” by Paul Maier:
We recently received six of his books for children, and they’re outstanding.
1. The Real Story of Creation
2. The Real Story of the Flood
3. The Real Story of the Exodus
4. The Very First Christmas
Jenni warmly recalls reading this many times as a child.
5. The Very First Easter
6. The Very First Christians
The picture of Agrippa (p. 27) reminds me of someone I know!
Related: About a year ago, Jenni and I reviewed several hundred children’s books and highlighted our favorites: “Theology for Kids.”
Extracanonical Jewish Literature That Is Significant for NT Studies
I’ve recently begun researching the use of some OT passages in extracanonical Jewish literature for a dissertation chapter. Six primary bodies of literature are most significant for NT studies:
- OT Apocrypha
- OT Pseudepigrapha
- Dead Sea Scrolls
- Philo
- Josephus
- Rabbinic literature (i.e., Targums, Talmuds, and midrash)
This may raise two questions.
1. Why is extracanonical Jewish literature significant for NT studies?
G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson give five reasons (“Introduction,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament 
[ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007], p. xxiv, bullet points added):
How is the OT quotation or source handled in the literature of Second Temple Judaism or (more broadly yet) of early Judaism? The reasons for asking this question and the possible answers that might be advanced are many. It is not that either Jewish or Christian authorities judge, say, Jubilees or 4 Ezra to be as authoritative as Genesis or Isaiah. But attentiveness to these and many other important Jewish sources may provide several different kinds of help. [Read more…] about Extracanonical Jewish Literature That Is Significant for NT Studies