PDA BIBLE COMES TO AGE:
MORE THAN A TOOL - A GROWTH JOURNEY
Recently, I moved from my Sony Ericsson's P910i phone to the Palm Xplore PDA Phone (above). It was then that I took a second look at Laridian's Mybible4, a program which i did a review ages ago. How surprised I was that Mybible4 is miles ahead of the older version.
As I scanned through Laridian's offerings, I decided to go for AT Roberston's NT Word Pictures, New Bible Commentary and Tyndale's Bible Dictionary as these modules will give me a good 'study bible' on the go. I must add that Mybible4 runs fast on the card; so do their add-on modules.
For the christian, a good bible that you use all the time is so important. Not only to your IT lifestyle but to your faith as well. Use the one that is suits you best. I am looking at the Mybible4 not just a tool to use, not even just a study bible but one that grows with me like a journal - making notes, highlighting stuff, linking it with my daily reading, Prayer Partner... a great investment of time and faith.
It's like the PC bible. First it was a novelty, then a tool; but now I cannot prepare a lesson or sermon without using it.
I started with the Navigator's Wordsearch program (in diskettes then) and later enjoyed the full Logos CD bible library a lot. I am still using the Navigator's Lessonmaker with lots of add-ons (including Life Application bible) and currently using Swordsearcher for fast and easy search, cut and paste to my Power Point slides.
I must say that I am pretty amazed with Mybible4 - it has retain the look and feel of the original Scripture program but has made it faster, with more features and add-ons. Mybible4 retain the original ease of use - tap on the left top corner, hit the book you want, and you have the choice of hitting the chapter/verse for those who want a handsfree use. Or use the stylus (chapter dot verse eg 3.16) - I liked the stylus. The best thing about it is that everything can be on the SD card at the \palm\launcher folder and still runs speedily. The multiple screens that you can sync with your main text is nice. When the silkscreen area is closed, you can use the full screen and run 3 split screens at once.
Although there are may free bibles, imho it is worth paying for Mybible because Laridian keeps working and improving it. Here's where Iwant to put a good word for these great guys
1. You never ever lose your stuff - once you purchased something from Laridian, you get an account with your email and password, so that you can get the latest version anytime - I took a peek just now and all my PPC bibles/add-ons are still there for downloading!
2. Unlike some vendors, Laridian is very professional - they do not require password protection for their software since only christians will use their software. They rightly expect us all to do the right thing.
Enough said, now lets go back to Mybible4. After paying a more than reasonable price for the program, you can stop right there and download the free versions of the bible: ASV (very good), KJV (my favorite - it's free now, but I had to pay for it), WEB, Youngs, Darby etc. Many would probably buy NIV or NKJV; if I had to buy more bibles, I will get the Message - imho it is so today. In these bibles, the word of Christ comes in red and you can highlight any version with a marker like you would on your own bible - very nice! (see below).
Another useful feature is the personal notes that you can put on any passage. It is thoughtful and useful features like this
that will make your eletronic bible as useful, if not more useful than the print copy. It is one that will grow in usefulness through the years, not just a software; but an investment in faith and learning.
There is a huge and ever growing library that supports this bible engine and gets better and better. For example, add-ons like Daily Reader, Memorize and Prayer Partner can pull or paste verses out of Mybible4 with hyper-links. The split views that sync with the text is a real plus factor; it adds value to just simple bible reading, making Mybible4 into a study bible on the go.
The concordance search is great - what is the point of having a bible software without a search function? It is a feature that I'll be lost without. Another feature is bookmarking, something I havent seem to find a need for.
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Now lets get on to the add-ons. Robertson's NT Word Pictures is the first module that I would get after purchasing Mybible4. As a gospel preacher for over 40 years, AT Robertson's NT Word Pictures is an essential tool not only for my study but preaching of the word. It brings out the original Greek text to give the passage its true interpretation and meaning.
If there is only one add-on you can afford, go for this one.
Most add-ons work more or less the same way.
1. Put the file in your SD card at the palm/launcher folder
2. Run Mybible4 (important to have latest version as some add-ons will not run). Just goto www.laridian.com,
log in and download your update - thanks to Laridian who makes this so hassle free)
3. Split your screen and choose RWP.
Now each time you goto a verse, you can peek below and see what the passage is all about in its pristine background and meaning. What you hold in this file is actually 6 big fat hairy volumes on the shelf.
Another feature of this add-on is introduction and background information of every book in the NT,
although I have not yet discovered how to access the above screenshot
(maybe i have too many add-ons and my dictionary won't give way to RWP).
Bottomline:
RWP is great for preachers, teachers and bible students who need to know the original meaning of the Greek text for deeper study. For the average christian, this may be overkill, so we will look at the next add-on: Tyndale Bible Dictionary - an up-to-date, newer work for bible readers who may not care for the Greek text but want to know the meaning in a hurry.
When I was in bible college, I moved from old faithfuls eg Clark, Matthew Henry to the more up-to-date Tyndale series of commentaries as it also features more variety of commentors. So I was very happy to see the Tyndale library develope the Tyndale Bible Dictionary offering mainline Evangelical scholarship to the masses. If you are not quite up to word studies,
a Bible dictionary is a good alternative,
While you can use the dictionary in the same way as the RWP (as per above screenshot)' I would advise you to keep RWP on the split screen and use the dictionary to find words as in the screenshot below.
In this way, you can get 3 programs running at the same time
A bible - choose your favorite version
A lexicon - Robertson's Word Pictures - on the split screen
and a dictionary, like Tyndale's where you can look up words or use the table of contents (see below)
making it a rather powerful study bible already.
Tip: although the top window is pretty easy to scroll, the bottom window is more tricky. So a good alternative is to simply tap the bottom half of the text in each window to scroll. for people who dont want to do their own thinking
but rather let commenators take over, here's ...
The New Bible Commentary for Mybible4. Preachers and teachers would probably go for RWP as it helps them in original thinking and presentation. For the rest of us, a commentary can be extremely helpful.
I was going through Laridian's offerings and was disappointed that my favorite commentaries, Johnson's People NT commenary was not offered. Tips on choosing a PDA commentary, some pointers are
1. It must not be too detailed, like Clark's many volumes
2. In fact, even Matthew Henry can be a pain to the eyes and too wordy
3. I liked Johnson, because it comes to the point immediately
So what a joy it was for me to see that the New Bible Commentary was offered. This is the 21st century edition, combing the best of evangelical scholarship in a concise and up to date volumne. It is based on the NIV bible, very readable and specially designed for bible students. This update is a major revision, edited with the new generation in mind with 3/4 of the materials rewritten.
The New Bible Commentary offers passage-by-passage explanation with great outlines and a lot of other stuff like the useful book introductions (below)
and the introduction to bible history (below).
This is the PDA bible I am now using, one that I would readily recommend to my church members and all who are serious about the bible. Click here to goto Laridian's site to view the products reviewed.