Customer Reviews

PC Study Bible Complete Reference Library 3.0

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love this software, and I love it for the capabilities it gives me. At the click of a button, I can see how the verse is translated in a number of translations.

The commentaries come from a variety of perspectives. If one author's view of Scripture doesn't match yours, another may be more to your liking.

But the feature that I think is worth the price of the software alone is its look at the meaning of the words in the original languages. I don't know a jot or tittle of Greek or Hebrew, but the Lexicons offer a tremendous explanation of what the words really meant when the author penned them. If you want the benefit of the original languages without the blood, sweat, and tears that would go into the learning of them, this software is for you.

This is an excellent Bible Study program. I work at a large church and we find this software invaluable. No other suite is this easy to use and contains this much reference material. It is easy and powerful for both the novice and the expert.

It is a great and complete Bible study tool.

It is especially helpful in examining any original Bible word using its Greek/Hebrew study tools which allows you to find all the same Greek/Hebrew words in the entire Bible.

When I took the plunge several years ago and purchased Bible software, I read every review I could get my hands on. I compared features, cost, expandability, and the long-term projections. While every bible software package has weaknesses and strengths, I am very pleased with this purchase. The updates have been fairly inexpensive, and this Complete Reference package provides a good foundation for in-depth research. I like the ease of moving between translations, commentaries, dictionaries, etc. The levels of cross-reference are substantial because you can follow an idea from one passage to commentaries, dictionaries, and more at the click of a button. This version comes with an authoring feature that allows you to add you own materials and books. No software is perfect, so this can't get 5 stars. Some of the drawbacks include the following: you cannot print directly from the program--you have to copy and paste to a Word Processing program, which is sometimes inconvenient; some of the commentaries are a bit dated, but that is changing; for Greek or Hebrew scholars, this does not offer the depth you require and found in other specialized programs; this is a memory drag, so make sure you have plently of memory. Overall, I am very pleased with the performance and would heartily recommend it.

I have had this program for over a year now or so, and use it quite frequently. The search capabilities in this program are top-notch, as you can define very complex searches (ie: [God / Jesus] + [Christ / Lord] - cruc*] will result in all results that have God or Jesus AND Christ or Lord AND do not have any variation of cruc in it - like crucifixion, crucify ...). Also, the resources on this program are very good - look at Biblesoft's website to see a complete listing of products. Ok, now to what I don't like about the product.
1. They have a section in their options that states that they recomend you not change anything in this section, because "2.1 Compatibility - these settings are required in PC Study Bible version 3.0 and above and should not be changed." - why have them included in the options section then I ask you?
2. If you have user profiles enabled in Windows, the program only installs it's reg keys to the user profile you installed it with; this means that if you install it with the user profile of A, then restart the computer at a later time and sign in as user B, you will get an error message; there is a way around this - but you have to be knowledgable with the Windows registry - you have to manually copy the HKCU key for Biblesoft software to the user profile you want to use the program in.
3. Every time you copy a selection from one of the resources (ie: Strong's Concordance, Thayer's, Nave's ...) it will copy your selection AND AUTOMATICALLY INCLUDE copywrite info - this is very annoying I have found - I understand their reasons, but I believe they could have found a better way.
4. Add-ons are not free - look at add-on page ...for the cost, I would think they should be.
5. Some misc. bugs

All in all, if you're just going to use this software to do minor Biblical studies, then this might be useful software for you; if you are planning on delving deep into the Scriptures, I recommend you not purchase this. I hear that Logos Bible Software is pretty complex - I have not checked it out myself, but I do know that this program is not all that I wanted in a program, and I am not satisfied for the price I paid for it.

I have used PC Study Bible since version 1 with complete satisfaction. The supplied Bible versions and other tools for study that are included provide a wealth of information that makes studying the Bible not only a breeze but a joy to do.

This "library" will be helpful to people seeking to find support for conservative fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible. However, it will be a major disappointment for people looking for either a middle-of-the road aproach or a representative sampling of interpretations and commentaries from liberal, conservative and neutral perspectives. Only the conservative viewpoint is presented in this reference library.

I believe this is an outstanding software product, and what convinced me to buy it for its content was a single one-star rating by a postmodern liberal, who like our culture, rejects truth and absolutes. "What's right for you isn't necessarily write for me," doesn't cut it with God. God is absolute, and so is His Word -- no warm and fuzzy stuff to make us feel good about ourselves. Thanks for convincing me to buy this product, Mr. Liberal!