Learn With Chris Mcmaster
Chris McMaster is a Logos Training Specialist dedicated to equipping students at Dallas Theological Seminary. Chris offers many on-campus and online training opportunities each semester. Sign up for live events and start watching on-demand training below.
- Start by taking a free course for new students @ www.easy-lms.com/getting-started-with-logos/course-42298.
- Watch Videos for DTS Courses @ online.dts.edu/courses/6003.
Logos Bible Software 5 Platinum
Abstract
Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2013. $2,149.95.
Logos 5 offers powerful, flexible Bible software that allows users to build and utilize a substantial digital theological library for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, or Android. Logos 5 features various base packages for new users and current users seeking to upgrade: Starter , Bronze , Silver , Gold , Platinum , Diamond and Portfolio . The Platinum package features an extensive library that would greatly benefit pastors, students, scholars, and laypeople in studying Scripture. This review highlights new features in Logos 5, then overviews the Platinum base package, and finally compares Logos 5 Platinum with other commercial Bible software and assesses its value for potential users.
Logos 5 includes several major upgrades from Logos 4. First, version 5 offers five guides that allow users to quickly search relevant resources in their library. The Passage Guide presents commentaries, cross-references, parallel passages, outlines, and even relevant media on a particular biblical text. The Exegetical Guide includes apparatuses and grammars and offers definitions and resources for studying major Greek or Hebrew words in a passage. The Bible Word Study looks up a Greek or Hebrew word in available dictionaries, performs searches of all available texts, lists the words various senses or usages in Scripture, and pictures how the word is translated in ones preferred English version .
Dig In Deep With Details
There are also deep studies in there too. For example, you can actually look up a particular topic that youre interested in reading or a specific person you are interested in reading more about. And if you do look at passages, you can open them in many different translations of the Bible. The Bible was written in Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew, so translations are tricky.
Do you gain the cultural impact of them, or do you translate it word for word? With this particular grid view, you can look at all the different translations, trying to get that whole meaning from it. The translations are everything from very literal translations to more theme and cultural implications of the particular passage.
For example, when looking for an interesting passage that had different meanings, when you looked at other translations of the Bible, I noticed one of the translations of the Bible called someone an airhead. Im pretty sure thats not original, but it probably captured the true meaning of the sentence.
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Logos 7 Academic Basic
Attention Bible majors and aspiring theologians. Logos Bible Software is an industry standard when it comes to personal Bible study, sermon preparation and academic research. The folks over at Faithlife have created a version of Logos with a specially curated library for academics. Best of all it is absolutely free. All you have to do when signing up is provide your college/university name and click the option that you are a student, faculty or staff.
With Logos 7 Academic Basic, youll discover insights that would remain forever hidden in a paper library. Logos hunts down every word you need in every resource, taking you to the right page in the right bookevery time. And you can use it anywhere: mobile, web, or desktop.
It includes over a dozen original language resources, including: Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew lexicon The Septuagint Lexham Hebrew Bible & SBL Greek New Testament. Scroll English translations side-by-side and in sync with your Greek or Hebrew text, work backward from a translation to the original language with Reverse Interlinear Bibles & keep your study going when you leave your home or office. Your notes, highlights, library, and preferences sync automatically.
And New Versions Of Logos Bible Software Keep Awesome Features From Before
We can still right-click any word in my Bible to see what the original Greek or Hebrew word is. And we can still immediately find that words definition. And we can still search the whole Bible for places where that word is used.
Which means Ill still be using it to make infographics, blog posts, and ebooks for you. -)
If youre sold on this tool,you can get it here. Theyll even give you a discount and some free books.
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Logos Bible Software Review Positive #1: Some Cool Bible Study Tools
There are so many cool Bible Study tools in Logos Bible software, I thought I would share a few of them here.
First, it has a tool called New Testament Use of the Old Testament which allows you to quickly and easily see where the New Testament quotes an Old Testament text. This is a cool tool to help you understand the Old Testament context of New Testament passages.
Second, the morph search tool is amazing. The Bible is made of words and these words have meanings so if you want to understand the Bible, you need to understand the meanings of the words .
But all those Duhs! are what Bible scholars have been trying to do for thousands of years.
Logos Bible Software includes a helpful tool called the Morph tool which allows you to see the Morphology of any word in the Bible. Morphology, by the way, means studying the forms of words. So this tool helps you study the form of any word in the Bible. It gives you Greek and Hebrew words, along with where these words are used elsewhere in the Bible, and the tense, voice, mood, and person of the words.
Here is a video which explains more of the Logos Bible Software search capabilities at work:
Third, I love the visual filters tool.
You need to see this to understand it. Here is a video:
Fourth, you can be a Private Investigator on any person in the Bible.
Just use the Bible Factbook. Type in a persons name and voila!
New And Changed Features
New features and functionality in Windows 8 include a faster startup through integration and the new “Hybrid Boot” mode ” rel=”nofollow”> hibernates the Windows on shutdown to speed up the subsequent boot), a new lock screen with a clock and notifications, and the ability for enterprise users to create variants of Windows . Windows 8 also adds native support for devices, which allow for faster data transfers and improved power management with compatible devices, and 4KB support, as well as support for to facilitate sharing and communication between devices.
, which has been renamed File Explorer, now includes a in place of the command bar. File operation dialog boxes have been updated to provide more detailed statistics, the ability to pause file transfers, and improvements in the ability to manage conflicts when copying files. A new “File History” function allows incremental revisions of files to be backed up to and restored from a secondary storage device, while allows users to combine different sized hard disks into virtual drives and specify mirroring, parity, or no redundancy on a folder-by-folder basis. For easier management of files and folders, Windows 8 introduces the ability to move selected files or folders via from a parent folder into a subfolder listed within the hierarchy of the in File Explorer.
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Logos Interlinear Ribbon Shows You Hebrew & Greek Insight Right Away
I grew up doing Bible word studies with print books. That meant that when I wanted to know what kindness meant in Pauls list of the fruit of the Spirit, I had to go through a process involving multiple books:
SHEEEESH. Thats a lot of flipping around, and it involved two beloved-yet-heavy tomes.
But with Logos, I dont have to do that.
Instead, I can turn on the Interlinear Ribbon, and all this information floats right below the Bible like so:
Instant insight!
Track People Over Time
They have something called the Narrative Character Maps. And this is information about a particular person. And it goes across from left to right in order of time or events. The vertical rows have to do with other characters and the location this person was going to. It can also show you what other people have made about that particular topic. If someone created some piece of art or a graphic for that, you could see that as well. Its easy for the application to post it to social media or copy it in another app.
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Logos Bible Software Review Negative #: Too Many Resources
In mentioning above all the books that come with Logos Bible Software, I realized that this could also be a negative with the package. Some people might think There are too many books! I wont use them all.
And this might be true for you, in which case, the software might not be something you should purchase. If you are content to simply read your Bible and have a concordance and a one-volume Bible dictionary to help you understand some words and concepts, then it is true, Logos Bible Software has too many books, and you will likely not use them all, and so should not purchase this software.
But if you are planning on preaching, teaching, or writing regularly about Scripture, and if you need high quality, reliable, accurate, and trustworthy resources to help you in your research and study of the Bible, then Logos Bible Study software might be exactly what you need.
Look, I have over 3,000 books in my physical library. Over the past 30 years, I have used almost every single one of them for at least an hour or two. Many of them I use almost every week. But over the next 30 years , I hope to use many of those books a lot more than I did in the past 30 years.
So anyway, yes, Logos Bible Software has a lot books. But you never know which ones you might end up needing
But Its So Much Money
Whichever way you go, it might feel immoral or wasteful to spend so much money. Let me explain why I think its dumb not to.
A friend said for this price I could buy a small car! Thats actually a good analogy. All workers buy the right tools to do their job. For my friend who is a waterproofer, that included a $30,000 Ute. For a doctor it includes a $250,000 microscope. Lucky for us, the best tools available cost 1% of that.
I sometimes see people at Bible College scrimp on their library , and when its for genuine financial necessity then you cant fault them. But if its for any other reason, it is a false economy. Heres why: You are spending $20,000 per year on your degree, plus an additional $50,000 in lost income because youre not working. So if you save $2000 by not buying a program and then lose a couple of hours every week for 4 years going to the library or doing things slower, its a net loss.
As a minister you will cost the church $100,000 per year. They will want us to do our job well in that year. They dont want to pay us almost $2,000 every week for us to spend a day every week going to a public library and flicking through books. Thats false economy. Its cheaper just to buy the right tools so that we can do the job quickly and efficiently.
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Online Services And Functionality
Windows 8 provides heavier integration with online services from Microsoft and others. A user can now log into Windows with a , which can be used to access services and applications and settings between devices. Windows 8 also ships with a client app for Microsoft’s service, which also allows apps to save files directly to SkyDrive. A SkyDrive client for the desktop and is not included in Windows 8, and must be downloaded separately. Bundled multimedia apps are provided under the Xbox brand, including , , and the companion for use with an console. Games can integrate into an hub app, which also allows users to view their profile and . Other bundled apps provide the ability to link and . Due to Facebook Connect service changes, Facebook support is disabled in all bundled apps effective June 8, 2015.
is included as both a desktop program and a touch-optimized app, and includes increased support for , , and . The Internet Explorer app does not support plugins or components, but includes a variant of that is optimized for touch and low power usage. Initially, Adobe Flash would only work on sites included on a “Compatibility View” however, after feedback from users and additional compatibility tests, an update in March 2013 changed this behavior to use a smaller of sites with known compatibility issues instead, allowing Flash to be used on most sites by default. The desktop variant does not contain these limitations.
Logos Bible Software Review Positive #: Online Courses From Leading Scholars
The Courses tool allows you to take theological courses from leading seminary professors and Bible scholars around the world. I think the number of these courses will only expand over time as more and more people take online courses. I myself have started offering some theology courses here on my site. Courses involve video content and written content, and many of these courses are offered for free.
And of course, you can use your Logos Bible Software to study right along with the Professor.
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Logos Bible Software Review Positive #1: The Logos Search Tool Is Smart
When I first started using Logos Bible Software about 10 years ago or so, I got a little frustrated with the search function of the software. Why? Because it gave me way too many results. I would search for help on a particular verse or topic, and I would get tens of thousands of results back.
Thats overwhelming.
If any of you remember the days before Google, this is how internet search worked as well. You typed something into the search engine, and you got back millions of results, completely random and unsorted. But now, thanks to Googles smart algorithm, the results you get on the first page of Google are generally the best results for your search.
Logos is learning some from this, and is now able to filter and sort the results better so that it gives you the best results for your search. This makes using the search feature a whole lot more enjoyable. You no longer have to sift through thousands of search results, and can instead get back to studying the biblical text.
Logos Bible Software Review Positive #: Great For Devotional Reading
It is a delight to be able to read the Bible devotionally with Logos Bible Software. As you are reading with your favorite device, you can read the Bible the way you would anywhere else, or, if you so choose, you can quickly pull up parallel Bible translations, cross references, commentaries, word studies, or maps to help you better understand what you are reading.
Or if you just dont know what to read, there are several reading plans, which include Reading Through the Bible in Year, 10 Days on discipleship, 30 Days on Marriage, and other similar topics. You can also create customized reading plans of your own based on the time you would like to spend reading, the topic you want to learn more about, or the genre of biblical literature you want to spend more time reading.
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How To Get Logos 9 On Any Budget: The Ultimate Buying Guide
The newest version of Logos Bible Software has arrived! New and improved features help you do the work of ministrywithout the busywork.
Pastor, professor, and self-proclaimed Bible nerd John K. says, Logos 9 has built upon prior versions by making the tool more user friendly and faster. Its everything you love about Logos Bible Software only better in nearly every way.
It wouldnt be user-friendly to give you just one way to get Logos. Instead, we try to provide an option for everyoneeven if you only have a few dollars a month to budget for Bible study tools. So whether youre new to Logos or youve loved it for decades, read on for all your options!
Before you start, though, answer this one question:
Do you already have a Logos package?
If you do, keep reading from right here.
If you dont already have a Logos package, skip toIf you dont have a Logos package.
How Much Is Logos Cloud
Head on over to LogosCloud.com to find out more about the service. Heres the basics.
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