E-sword

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e-Sword
Developer:	Rick Meyers
OS:	Microsoft Windows, Pocket PC
Use:	Bible Study Tools
License:	freeware
Website:	e-Sword homepage

e-Sword ^[1] is a Bible study computer software package created by Rick Meyers and developed for Microsoft Windows and Pocket PC. Development started in January 2000. Since that time, it has continually grown in popularity, reaching 5,000,000 downloads in January 2007^[2]. e-Sword supports several English translations, as well as translations into many other languages.

Contents 1 Purpose 2 Features 2.1 Bibles 2.1.1 Compare Tab 2.1.2 Parallel Tab 2.1.3 Bible Reading Plans 2.1.4 Bookmarks 2.1.5 Verse Lists 2.1.6 Verse Highlighting 2.2 Commentaries 2.2.1 Study Notes 2.3 Dictionaries 2.4 Devotionals 2.4.1 Prayer List 2.4.2 Scripture Memory Verse List 2.5 Map / Graphic Viewer 2.6 Harmony 2.7 Topical Notes 2.8 STEP Viewer 3 Distribution 4 Resources 4.1 Official Resources 4.2 Commercial Resources 5 Users 5.1 User Support Groups 5.2 User Created Utility Programs 5.3 User Created Resources 5.3.1 Issues with User Created Resources 5.3.1.1 Quality Control 5.3.1.2 Copyright 5.3.1.3 Bibliographic Data 5.3.1.4 Locating Resources 6 References

[edit] Purpose

Rick Meyers desired to make Bible study freely available to anyone, while also providing power and depth to research. His theme verse is Matthew 10:8 "Freely you receive. Freely give". Rick Meyers states on the e-Sword homepage:

As a Bible student and teacher I have experienced the necessary work involved in searching the Scriptures for the competent preparation of a Bible study, Sunday school lesson, or a sermon. There are volumes of books available as study tools (and the Christian community is indebted to the various authors' perseverance and scholarship), but there is not enough time, money, or shelf space to properly take advantage of these resources. Computer software has changed the way we can study the Word of GOD. With a simple search or click of the mouse button, we now have access to these same volumes of scholarship within seconds!^[3]

[edit] Features

Version 7.8.5 offers the following components:

• Bible;
• Bible Reading Plan;
• Commentary;
• Dictionary;
• Devotional;
• Harmony;
• Map / Graphic Viewer;
• Prayer List;
• Scripture Memory Verse List;
• STEP viewer;
• Study Notes;
• Topical Notes;

The program allows the user to view the text of the Bible, Bible commentaries, study notes and dictionaries. Through its customizable layout the user can chose which of these resources to view at once, or how they are arranged in an optional split screen view^[4].

[edit] Bibles

All installed ^[5] Bibles are viewable in tabs. In addition all Bibles are linked to the same open reference. This allows the reader to switch back and forth between versions seamlessly.

Examples of available Bibles are Lu Chen-Chung Translation / 呂振中譯本聖經, The King James Version (1611), Westminster-Leningrad Codex, Nestle-Aland 26th/27th edition Greek New Testament, La Santa Biblia Nueva Versión Internacional, and The Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel (Pseudo-Jonathan).

[edit] Compare Tab

The compare tab^[6] allows the reader to view the currently selected verse in Bibles other than Hebrew, and other BiDi Writing Systems. This is especially handy when looking up the original language source of the text.^[7]

[edit] Parallel Tab

The parallel tab allows the reader to create a customized Parallel Bible of up to four versions ^[8].

[edit] Bible Reading Plans

To more easily track where one is, custom Bible Reading Plans can be created from within e-Sword. At the end of the session, click on the "completed" icon. The next time the Bible Reading Plan is opened, it will open to the next session. These resources are easily created from within e-Sword.

[edit] Bookmarks

Up to ten verses can be bookmarked. The bookmarks are displayed as yellow flags on the side of the Bible.

[edit] Verse Lists

Customized verse lists of any size can be easily created users. These are frequently used to store the results of searches. Icons on the tool bar allow one to easily switch verses, without reloading the verse list.

[edit] Verse Highlighting

A basic palate of six colours, and an extended palette of 48 colour are offered to highlight text. Four different ways to underline text is also available. These are stored in a separate file, so that it can be easily shared with others.

[edit] Commentaries

Many commentaries are available for download^[9].

Examples of available commentaries include Matthew Henry's Commentary, Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary, and Poole's Commentary.

[edit] Study Notes

The Study Notes option allows the reader to chronicle her own thoughts as she studies the text, creating a custom and personalized commentary.^[10]

Some e-Sword utility programs (Text2DAO, Commentary Module Editor) can convert a Study Note file to commentary file. This simplifies the process of creating new commentaries.

[edit] Dictionaries

Many original language and English language dictionaries are available for download so as to facilitate in depth understanding of the text.^[11]

Examples of dictionaries include Wulfilla Gothic Concordance, Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, An Aramaic English Lexicon of the Peshitta, and Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries.

[edit] Devotionals

Devotional resources include Day By Day by Grace'by Bob Hoekstra, Revised Common Lectionary Readings (2006), and Utmost for his Highest.

[edit] Prayer List

This component functions as a way for the individual to track their prayers. Who is to be prayed for, and why the request was made.

[edit] Scripture Memory Verse List

This component allows one to easily create a list of verses to memorize. Several tests to see how well one has memorized the passage are included. The only two resources of this type to be publicly distributed are Four Spiritual Laws and , and The Roman Road.

[edit] Map / Graphic Viewer

Every good study Bible has a set of maps. <CTRL><G> pulls up the maps for e-Sword. Distributed map sets include The CIA World Fact Book, The ISV Foundation collection of maps, NASA photographs,and Star Charts of the Birth of Christ.

[edit] Harmony

This functionality was included in version 7.8.1, released 25 December 2006. The only resource that is currently available is A. T. Robertson's A Harmony of the Gospels. Other sets of parallel passages, such as The Ten Commandments have been announced, but not publicly released.

[edit] Topical Notes

This is the easiest resource for users to create. As such, the range of user created resources ranges from Aleister Crowley's Liber Al vel Legis to Adrianus Haemstedius' Historie Der Martlearen.

[edit] STEP Viewer

e-Sword remains as one of the few programs to offer a viewer for STEP (Standard Template for Electronic Publishing) resources. Light By Designhas licensed several resources for distribution from the e-Sword Home Site.

[edit] Distribution

E-Sword is available for download from it's homepage. Alternatively, it can be obtained on CD, for a donation of $25.00, or more. The program downloads with the Strong's Concordance and the King James Version annotated with Strong's reference numbers. Other resources can be downloaded as plugins.

Ubuntu Christian Edition 2.2 includes scripts to automatically download and install e-Sword.^[12] For licensing reasons, e-Sword can not be included in this, or any other distribution.

Commercial distribution/redistribution of e-Sword is strictly prohibited.

[edit] Resources

[edit] Official Resources

Official resources can be found at e-Sword download page. Resources in roughly 34 languages are available from this site.

[edit] Commercial Resources

eStudySource is the primary outlet of resources that must be purchased. Some publishers, such as The Lockman Foundation prefer to sell e-Sword resources of their material through their website.

[edit] Users

The projects of a small group of e-Sword activists are not officially sanctioned. The results of those projects have spurred the popularity of the program.

[edit] User Support Groups

English is the dominant language of the support lists, venues for Korean, Dutch, German, Spanish, Romanian, and French exist.

Korean users are supported by a web forum. French, German, Dutch, and Romanian users are supported by mailing lists on Yahoogroups. Spanish and English users are supported by mailing lists, and web forums hosted at various sites on the Internet. The size of these groups ranges from 5,342 on the English eSword to Twelve on the French e-Sword list. Activity on the support groups fluctuates.

Whilst the program is not easily used by those with accessibility issues, eSword-Accessibility provides some support for those individuals.

[edit] User Created Utility Programs

Users have created a number of tools to ease the process of creating new resources. Whilst documentation is lacking, their usage can be seen in the number of resources bearing a line stated that the tool was used to create the resource.

The most popular utility programs are:

• Biblos, used to import text files into Bible and Dictionary resources;
• Ben's e-Sword Tool, used to import text files into different types of resources;
• MFC Creator, used for creating MAP/graphic resources;
• Text2DAO, used for creating most resource types;
• TheWORDpad Editor, used for editing existing resources;
• The Tooltip Generator converts scriptural references that, when moused-over, will be displayed as a tooltip.

[edit] User Created Resources

The utility programs have made it very easy for users to create, and distribute resources. STEP modules are the only type that users have not created, and subsequently distributed.

Users have created resources in sixty different languages ranging from Lugandan to Klingon. English and Spanish are the most popular modern languages. Hebrew and Greek are the most popular Biblical languages.

[edit] Issues with User Created Resources

There are some issues with user created resources:

In the past year, some users have tackled the following issues: Their effectiveness has yet to be determined.

[edit] Quality Control

This ranges from very good, to non-existent:

• Textus Receptus (Stephanus) includes an accurate, comprehensive morphological interlinear markup;
• One version of the Spanish Biblia de Jerusalem skips verses, duplicates entire chapters, and misplaces entire books;

[edit] Copyright

Because of the ease with which material can be converted into e-Sword, resources that violate copyright law have been publicly distributed. Examples include New World Translation of the Bible, The Spanish translation of The Jerusalem Bible (1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions), The Dead Sea Scrolls, and The Nag Hammadi Library (2nd edition).

The sporadically issued Currently Available e-Sword Resources attempts to list the copyright status of e-Sword resources.

[edit] Bibliographic Data

This can range from the very good --- to the point of including the copyright notice of the material it is pirating ^[13] --- to non-existent^[14].

The e-Sword Module Database attempted to provide full bibliographic information for the resources it listed.

[edit] Locating Resources

Due to a centralized listing of user created e-Sword resources, there has been some duplication of effort in creating resources. For example, five different versions of the Didache. An additional effect is that when a user site goes down, the resources usually are no longer available for public distribution.

• [Original Languages Library] contains a current list of all publicly distributed Biblical language resources, along with where they can be obtained from;
• The sporadically issued Currently Available e-Sword Resources attempts to list the name and location of modules for e-Sword;

[edit] References