Question:

Bible Study Software

What computer software do you use to assist you in your Bible study and sermon preparation? In addition to software that you might pay for, are there free websites that are helpful to you also?

Responses

Pastor Kevin Berry – Lansing, MI

Logos Software is the best I know on the market. With this resource, I have over a 1,000 books at my fingertips.

A very simple and free resource I enjoy is BlueLetterBible.org. This gives you access to limited, non-scholarly commentaries, dictionaries, and access to Hebrew and Greek definitions. I enjoy the ease of this, and the simplified commentaries are a breath of fresh air at times.

I also use the Kindle app software on my iPad. My favorite commentaries are kept there: The Pillar series, Zondervan’s Exegetical series, and Craig Keener’s commentaries.

Hope this helps!

Pastor Benjamin Conway – London, England

My most useful go-to site for Bible study is blueletterbible.org, which lets you look up Bible verses, see what all the ancient commentaries thought (classics such as Torrey and Spurgeon are in there, free of charge), look up the Greek and Hebrew words in the verses and see how they are used across the Bible and translated across the Bible, as well as read Strong’s definitions of them. You can end up following trails of how certain words are used for hours. You can also read any verse in about 20 translations and compare them. I haven’t even mentioned the hours of free audio in there too.

Pastor Ray Almaguer – Covina, CA

I like to use Logos Bible Software. They offer a package designed especially for Pastors that includes lots of translations, commentaries, and other great resources. They also have an app that works well on your devices.

As far as websites, obviously tonycooke.org is a good one! I like pastors.com, and I like to listen to podcasts by Gerald Brooks and Craig Groeschel as well as their websites, geraldbrooksministries.com and life.church.

Pastor Jane McDonnough – Tampa, FL

Bible software: One Touch for Mac produced by Bible Soft is my main study tool for sermons.

Online: Bible Gateway for various translations and comparisons of translations. It’s so easy to use.

Book/Study Aid: Dr. Spiros Zodhiates’ Hebrew/Greek reference. This is a wonderful resource for a more thorough, but still simple, definition of Hebrew and Greek words.

Hope this helps!

Pastor Barry Fredericks – Newtown, CT

I have PC Study Bible 4 on my computer. The program has been good for a number of years, but now it seems there are other programs available that are better. The commentaries on PC Study Bible are not good, and the translations available are limited. Overall, PC Study Bible has been a blessing, primarily for copying verses for my messages or for slides for my messages. The concordance is very useful to find scriptures. The Greek and Hebrew dictionaries are good—Vines, Strong’s, Brown Driver Hebrew Lexicon, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon. The Bible dictionaries are adequate, but I would like to have more translations available and I would like to have better commentaries to reference.

On my cell phone I have a Bible program called Bible Gateway. Supposedly, it has everything I am looking for in translations and commentaries. I need the help of a young fellow in the church who did a great deal of IT work when he attended Rhema to show me how to use this program. Another fellow in the church put Bible Gateway on my computer. I will learn to use it.

A good Bible software program is invaluable in time and the ability to enhance a message. I look forward to hearing what other ministers use and either learning Bible Gateway or implementing what they recommend.

Pastor Mark McCord – Montreux, Switzerland

I have used PC Study Bible for years. They came out with a version for Mac, and I bought the Mac Air and the new program—it rots! The program is not really made for Mac, so I went back to PC Study Bible and my old, loud, overheating laptop.

The only web site I’ve been on is tonycooke.org!

Pastor Jack Yurus – West Harrison, NY

I use PC Study Bible for a few reasons. One, I have been using it for a long time. There might be newer improved programs but this works for me. Two, I mostly use it to cut and paste scriptures, but it does a whole lot more. Three, the feature that I like best (and it may sound silly), is that you don’t have to put the two dots when looking up a scripture. Example: for 3:16, you can just type 3 16.

The best program to look up scriptures is Google. You just start typing a scripture and it finishes it for you, as opposed to getting one word or letter wrong in other programs and it says it cannot be found.

I use Microsoft Surface Pro with PC Study Bible and Microsoft Word, and I use my iPad with my Apple pen to take notes. I don’t type as fast as I can think and write, so the Apple pen lets me get my thoughts out quicker, and I can always find them. If I write on a piece of paper when I get ideas, then I have papers all over the place (PS: my wife loves the fact that I don’t have pieces of paper all over with sermon notes. How many times have you asked your wife if she has seen your notes?!?).

Pastor Charles Moran – Georgetown, TX

I use Bible Gateway on my computer and phone for scriptures and various translations. It also has commentary from other sources.

In sermon preparation, I will use Sermon Central for ideas and PowerPoint for media presentations. Other than that, I use a lot of old-fashion word studies and concordances, and paperback versions.

Pastor Wendy Preston – Aylesbury, England

I don’t actually use any software; just Bible Gateway (a free source for Scripture comparisons).

Pastor Jann Butler – Tacoma, WA

I do not use any computer software or websites in my Bible study or sermon preparation. I use study helps in book form and excerpts from other pastors. Also, I rely on those who have the expertise in those two areas, such as my staff and those in various departments within my church.