Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 09:1 (Mar 2010)
Article: Review Of BibleWorks 8: An Introduction For SATS Students
Author: Franklin S. Jabini

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Conspectus 9:1 (March 2010) p. 117

Review Of BibleWorks 8:
An Introduction For SATS Students

Franklin S. Jabini1

BibleWorks 8: Software for Biblical Exegesis and Research. 2008. Norfolk, VA: BibleWorks. US $349.00 (DVD version) and US $354.00 (CD version).

1. Introduction

The South African Theological Seminary (SATS) has students who come from a variety of backgrounds. They are studying for different purposes and ministries. Some students study for personal enrichment, others to become pastors. Some are already pastors, who want to equip themselves to be more effective in the ministry. Several of our students have recently completed training to serve as Bible translators, while others are experienced translators who need a postgraduate degree with a focus on Bible translation or biblical languages. With these students in mind, I will introduce BibleWorks 8 (BW8). I have been using BibleWorks (BW) since its infancy. I have used it for Bible study and sermon preparation, for exegesis leading to Bible translation, and for research culminating in both popular and academic publications.

I taught biblical languages for more than nine years at several theological institutions in the Caribbean before I relocated to South Africa in 2007. When I studied the languages in college and seminary, the emphasis was on memorizing paradigms and other forms. When I started to teach, I followed the same model that I learned in seminary—until I bought BW. Using the programme, I analyzed the entire Hebrew Bible to see how frequently particular verbal patterns appear in the Old Testament. It discovered that two patterns, the Qal and the Hifil, account for more than 80 percent of all the Old Testament verbs. Some patterns, such as the Hophal and Pual, account for less than one percent. Yet when I studied the languages in seminary, my teachers placed equal emphasis on all the verb forms. I did a similar research for New Testament Greek. The research with BW changed my way of teaching the languages completely. I started to focus on the most important forms and

Conspectus 9:1 (March 2010) p. 118

spend more time translating them in class. That was my introduction to BW. BW has undergone many improvements since then.

In this review, I will first introduce some of the contents of BW8. I will give a brief overview of the various resources that are available in BW8. In the next section, I will give a brief overview of some of the ways in which students can use BW8. I will focus first on students who work only from the English language, and then turn my attention to those who work with the biblical languages.

2. What Is BibleWorks?

2.1. Bible Translations

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