Online Bible: A Review of Software for the Macintosh Computer

By the Editor

Extracted from Ordained Servant vol. 5, no. 1 (January 1996).


Online Bible, from By the Numbers Software, RR 1, Box 75, Sutton, NH 03221. The Classic CD is $40, the Deluxe CD is $90. Either can be ordered with the use of your credit card by calling 1-800-554-9116.

This software has a great potential. But I have to say ‘potential’ because it is still in the process of completion. I received the Classic CD-ROM for review and was pleased to note the reasonable price ($40 for the Classic CD), and the availability of more recent Bible version add-ons (NKJV and NRSV at $15 each, and NIV and NASB at $30 each). All of these versions are included in the Deluxe version CD. And along with it are such resources as Spurgeon’s Treasury of David, John Gill’s Expositor, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary, the Geneva Bible Notes, Robertson’s New Testament Word Pictures, the 1934 Thompson’s Chain Reference Bible’s Topical References, the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Brown, Driver and Briggs Hebrew Lexicon and a number of other resources.

The 1769 King James Version of the Bible is the basic text for the Online Bible. It is this version that is also coded numerically so that the definitions of Strong’s Concordance can be called up automatically. The use of this feature is optional so that one need not have a page full of numbers, when they are not needed, but only the text of the KJV itself.

All of the material mentioned above—and more—can easily be brought up on the computer screen in a series windows by the Sync feature. This brings the English text, the Greek or Hebrew text, the Lexicon definitions, cross references and commentaries selected, to the screen automatically. These windows can be arrayed in a row, one behind another. Or they can be seen side by side within the limits allowed by the size of your screen. And all of this means that when the material is there it’s very easy to use and often quite helpful.

But the trouble is that a number of these resources are still incomplete (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary, and Spurgeon’s Treasury of David are two examples that come readily to mind after using this program). And it is quite frustrating to call up two or three of these—as I have recently in preparing some lessons on the Psalms— only to find that there is nothing there (except a blank window!) because the work of producing computerized versions of these classic works has not been completed. I spoke to the author about this, after contacting him through Email, and he assured me that the work of completing these is being done as rapidly as possible. He also said that this work is being done in such a way as to keep the cost down. This is indeed commendable as there is too much software that is over-priced. But it is disconcerting to note that, in advertisements I’ve seen for this software, it is not clearly stated—as it ought to be—that this is an unfinished product.

I hope the proprietors of Online Bible will move as quickly as possible to supply what is lacking in the generally good material they have selected for this program. Even if nothing new is added to the advertised resources it would then, indeed, be a bargain. However, I would also like to suggest that in the future use might well be made of some of the public domain material from Hengstenberg, Kiel and Delitzch, Hodge and other great conservative commentators of their caliber. If any—and much more if all—of these improvements are made Online Bible will begin to live up to its claim of being the Bible resource program by which all the others are judged.

G. I. Williamson is editor of Ordained Servant.