As I said before, I merely scratch the surface of what Accordance can do. I’m not good enough with the original languages to do some of the analysis that can be done, but I’m amazed by what I’ve seen others do.

I do make use of the Bible dictionaries at times. I’ve consulted some of the other works maybe a half dozen times: topical Bibles, old commentaries, etc. There are some nice articles in Spanish on the history of the canon, etc., that have been helpful for my radio program.

What I have used a number of times are the maps. I can get 2-D or 3-D maps, rotate the 3-D maps, measure distances and changes in elevation, and host of other things. I’ve found this helpful when studying the 7 churches of Revelation, for example, or for noting the elevation distance from Jerusalem to Jericho. (hence “a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho” and all the statements about going up to Jerusalem) I could spend hours playing with that sort of thing.

I should point out a couple of things. One is that a growing number of these resources are available on the Internet. You don’t get the interconnectedness that you do by having them all in one program, but quality materials are there. The other is something that was discussed in the comments yesterday: these things are tools. Tools are used to help accomplish things. These tools help us do Bible study, prepare sermons, etc.; they don’t replace study itself. I don’t spend as long pulling books off the shelf or searching to find the information within those books. I do often include more resources than I might have otherwise. Surely that’s a good thing.

On my computer, I use a program called Accordance. To be honest, it’s probably a little much for me. That is, Accordance is used by lots of Bible scholars and researches; I don’t scratch the surface of the things it’s good for. Still, I’ve really come to like the tools I have at hand. If I had an unlimited source of funds, there are lots and lots of modules that I could add, but I’m happy enough with what I have.

My main working setup has five versions of the Bible open on the screen, in this order: the New International Version, Dios Habla Hoy (Spanish modern version), the KIng James Version w/ Strong’s numbers, the Reina-Valera 1960 Version (most used Spanish version), and the English Standard Version. Under these panes, I have the notes from the NIV study Bible, cross references from the ESV, and the notes from the DHH study Bible. To be honest, this set-up goes back to my days as a “local preacher”; I often close several of these after opening. I also have  a separate file that I open when preparing my radio program which only has the DHH open.

The power of these programs, of course, are the links. I can triple click a word in the NIV and it will bring up that word in the NIV Bible Dictionary. Or I can select a place name and have the Map module open with that place on the screen. Triple clicking in the KJV shows the word’s Strong’s concordance number, with the original word and a lexical definition of that word. All of the text references in the notes I have at the bottom of the page are clickable, letting me quickly jump to related passages.

And no, I’m not trying to sell Accordance. Lots of Bible programs can do the same things, I’m sure, including Internet-only sources. I just want to let you know what I use.