E-sword Commentaries

[Janise Knollman]

TheCharles Ellicott commentary is generally very good, and has very nice introductory material. Try it out and see if it is what you're looking for. Remember to look in the "Book Level" eSword comments for this Introductory material on each book. You can access the book level materials in the commentaries by selecting the "B" button on the commentary tool bar.

The Ellicott commentary is pretty good. But it's different than what I was looking for. I was hoping to find something that gave cultural comments on books or verses or just a decent source on that type of cultrial background/history. If it would tell me more about sheep or mustard seeds or head coverings, that would be good. Maybe Ellicott does that, I didn't have a chance to read more than the intro to Galatians I mentioned--it was good, but not what I was looking for.

U will not find in e-sword an up-to-date background commentary (that is FREE). SPEND THE MONEY ON IVP background commentary Old Testament (recommended) and/or IVP background commentary NewTestament. Consult dictionaries, Bible Encyclopedias as well, STUDY BIBLES (niv, esv) for background

The College Press commentary series has a lot of good background material, especially in the "book" section, but also scattered throughout the comments. The kind of commentary you are asking for is the kind I'm working on writing. It's slow going, but I've finished James, Jude, Philemon, II John, and currently am working on Habakkuk.

I've noticed that E-Sword has some of commentaries/dictionaries for free that you have to pay for in Logos. Should I use both Logos and E-Sword simultaneously - E-Sword with the free stuff and Logos with the stuff that I can't get in E-Sword?

I've chosen to pay for some resources I own in other programmes, to have them all together in Logos. But I cancelled the Chesterton collection, as I can download that in Kindle format for free, and don't need to read it in Logos format. For a long time I didn't get original language resources in Logos as I had them elsewhere. Then I realised it was a false economy and bought them.

I have asked myself the same question in the past but am slowly converting to only using Logos. I used to use three or four programs but am now down to Logos and one other competitor. One reason is as Thomas mentioned, it is nice to have everything in one program and as I have become more and more comfortable/confident with Logos 4 it has slowly become my program of choice.

The other, and probably my biggest, concern is consumer confidence. Please note: What I am about to type are my thoughts and only thoughts. They are not intended to be degrading towards any company or employees of those companies. We are living in a time of economical uncertainty (at least in my house) and businesses are taking the steps necessary to provide quality products. I think that right now, competition and demand are vital for the companies involved. It is intended with Christian love mixed with human thought. My thoughts are often wrong.

With the free programs, you never know when the person(s) who create it are no longer going to support it for whatever reason. The next time you upgrade your computer to a new operating system, the program may never be compatible and any notes and such will simply no longer be available. As far as paid programs, for Windows, I can think of three other fairly popular programs. One of which I see in Bible bookstores very frequently (PC Study Bible) has not been updated in at least a couple of years that I know of and has some bugs. According to their forums there is no communication happening about the status of updates and that makes me very afraid to purchase. Quickverse has been bought by Wordsearch so their program will be obsolete very soon. Wordsearch has said it intends to update all of the QV resources for free and I have no doubt that they are sincere in this effort but how long will it take? Will QV users have to wait quite some time to get their resources upgraded to Wordsearch once a new operating system is installed? I have no idea to this answer, I just hope for all of the QV users out there that this will be a very expedient process and they don't have to do without while waiting. Finally, Wordsearch itself has new owners. They are now a part of Lifeway Christian Resources. Wordsearch is my second Bible software that I use regularly. Some concerns raised about Lifeway acquiring Wordsearch is that Lifeway may not be willing to publish resources that are not in line with their theology, which would severely hamper the number of resources available to me. I have no way of confirming this so it is only what others are saying on the forums. However, if this is true, and I want to study preterism, will there be any current resources available for me through them? I don't know, but since there has been no clarification I am now kind of leery to invest to much into the program since I am unclear of their direction at this point.

So, when money and valuable notes and study time are at risk, at this current snapshot in history, Logos is the only one that I feel that I can depend on to either (a) be here in five years and still operating on my current system or (b) not have a lopsided group of availability due to theological leanings.

I bought several inexpensive software programs, added some freeware programs like eSword, and switched back forth initially. I still have some of the others, including eSword for a few resources. However, I too wound up with the MacArthur library disc. I liked it, but when I tried L4Mac in beta, the lights came on. Here was a program that not only had all the essential resources, but it put everything forward in a more usable way. I realize it's some serious dollars to do it, but I went for Scholar and then shortly thereafter plunged in for Platinum.

Instead of hopping from program to program, and running back and forth to the bookshelf, I have a solid core of resources that I can pull up for study. Yes I like eSword, yes I still have books I treasure and use, yes, it's expensive, but nothing will transform your study like Logos.

One other thing. I practically stood on my head doing tricks to raise money for Scholar. I plunged ahead and went for the payment plan that Logos has. I mentioned it to my friend because I was really taken with Logos but frazzled and exhausted trying to find the means to do it. In less than five minutes my friend had his bank send me a check for the full amount.

I have over 2650 resources in Logos, I use it every day and love how easy it is to use for doing research. But I can not afford all the Logos books I would use in my studies. But God has provided me with a free program called theWord, for years it was E-Sword that I used as my second program, but theWord is to free programs what Logos is to paid programs...the best,and nobody does it better!

For years I taught believers how to use E-Sword, for the last 2 years it is theWord. With E-sword I have over 3200 modules, but they are not as useful as in the Word. Plus as of this week-end I have over 3500 modules in theWord. I am glad I have it for my DTH studies.

If you are like me using the two programs together is no real problem, you can even have it on a second screen if you want. On the upside, it also has a better note taking feature and it is easy to make your own books for it.

Bill, I am not sure that links to either of theses sites would in anyway go against to forum rules, but to help those out that it would bother, please post your e-mail address and I will send you information.

I too hope that Logos and the others are here for a very long time! The more availability the more likely someone is going to discover the joys of true Bible study. I started out with Libronix (eBible at first then slowly upgrading to Scholar's Silver) and Wordsearch and discovered in a short time just how immense/fun studying can be!

I would imagine so. I earlier had e-Sword but as I can see, some features are not available on e-Sword which one can easily get on Logos. The only snag is that Logos is quite expensive as you would have to pay for most resources. I have decided to use both software simultaneously.

What is E-Sword? E-Sword is a free Windows software package for studying the Christian Scriptures and growing in the Christian faith. It is very powerful and flexible. It allows you to use numerous versions of the Bible for studying, including Greek and Hebrew versions for in-depth study. As of this writing, there were over 70 versions of the Bible for download when different language translations are taken into account. In addition, there are numerous tools available for study, such as commentaries, devotionals, dictionaries and maps. In addition, it is able to read in the STEP libraries, which is a standard used for many Bible software packages. It really is outstanding software for studying the Bible. And of course you cannot beat the price (free) !

We have posted some commentaries below for the 12 steps and how they might relate to the scriptures. These are essentially the same commentaries that are posted online for the various steps. By downloading the files below, however, you can import the comments into your own copy of e-Sword and modify, delete and add your own comments and thoughts to make it personal for your own recovery. These commentaries include passages from the King James translation.

The Sunset Complete Bundle Bible Library for e-Sword provides 84 of the Sunset Institute Press commentaries, textbooks and study guides in a format that can be used in the popular e-Sword Bible software program. This download works with both Windows and Apple Macintosh computers. The following Sunset books are included in this bundle:

IMPORTANT: Requires installation of the e-Sword Bible program before use. We do not sell nor include the e-Sword Bible software with our bundle - you must obtain the e-Sword Bible software separately using the methods below:

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