Technology on J. David Stark

Technology and Distraction

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 13:00:00 +0000

Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google, discusses at TED the interplay between technology, attention, and distraction.

SBL annual meeting mobile apps

Mon, 31 Oct 2016 08:00:34 +0000

The SBL annual meeting mobile apps are available for both Android and iOS. In each case, after the app installed, I opened it and started looking around for a minute or so before the app pulled in the current conference program version.

Tracking Writing Progress

Sun, 30 Oct 2016 11:09:29 +0000

In How to Write a Lot ( affiliate disclosure), Paul Silvia provides his own progress monitoring system as an example (39–45). Since finishing the book last month, I have been adapting Silvia’s database format to a Google Docs spreadsheet that will track some additional data in addition to the data that he finds helpful. Since it has been helpful thus far, I thought I would make it available with some sample data.

Full-height Footnote Numbers in Microsoft Word

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 22:06:10 +0000

Microsoft Word ties footnote anchors in the main text and footnote numbers at the start of footnotes to the same style. Consequently, it’s difficult to get full-height footnote numbers followed by a period (cf. Chicago Manual of Style, SBL Handbook of style).

The process for getting this result discussed at Word MVPs does not seem to work in Word v16. But Word’s InsertFootnoteNow function can be intercepted to add the following macro commands to produce this result:

Why Searching Shouldn't Replace Reading

Wed, 28 Oct 2015 16:13:35 +0000

Yes, search, but also read, note, and remember.

Lexham Updates

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 21:20:01 +0000

The Lexham Theological Wordbook began shipping late last year and includes my entry on “Forgiveness.”

The Lexham Bible Dictionary has recently been updated with, among other items, my entries on “Haifa” and “Jenin.”

Connections can read these contributions via my LinkedIn page under “Publications.”

Brueggeman, Spirituality of the Psalms

Sat, 31 May 2014 10:52:16 +0000

Walter Brueggemann,

The June free book of the month seems already to be live on the Logos Bible Software website. The included text is Walter Brueggemann’s Spirituality of the Psalms (Fortress, 2001). The optional, $0.99 add on is Brueggemmann’s David’s Truth: In Israel’s Imagination and Memory (Fortress, 2002).

Qumran Sectarian Manuscripts Update in Logos

Sat, 10 May 2014 11:07:26 +0000

After having the product available for over 10 years, Logos Bible Software has released a substantive update to their Qumran Sectarian Manuscripts database (ed. Martin Abegg). Most significant among this update’s improvements are that the resource:

Now contains more than 100 scrolls than in the previous version (737 documents are now represented).
Several texts in the previous version have been reorganized to reflect the latest scholarship on their reconstruction.
The database’s morphology has been updated to WHM 4.18.

For more information, please see the Logos blog.

Back to School with Kindle

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 13:09:17 +0000

According to Amazon,

Special pricing is available on select Kindle Fire tablets to Amazon Student members with an active Prime account (six months free or $39/year plan). Join Amazon Student or start your discounted Prime membership to take advantage of this discount. The promo codes below will become available 24 hours after activation of your account, through September 1. New members, don’t forget to check your .edu email and verify your account.

Upcoming Logos Resources (August 28, 2013)

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 08:19:50 +0000

Recently, I noted that an English Standard Version audio Bible was freely available with registration at Bible.is. This version’s Old Testament is also still freely available in MP3 format on Amazon.

WLC and WHM 4.18 Now Available

Thu, 22 Aug 2013 14:00:56 +0000

J. Alan Groves Center

The J. Alan Groves Center has released version 4.18 for the Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC) and the Westminster Hebrew Morphology (WHM). According to the Center’s notice, this update includes:

41 sets of lemma changes, 85 sets of parsing changes, 16 textual changes with an associated change in bracket notes, the addition of the bracket note “]n” (which designates an unusual or unexpected form) to almost 100 words, 24 other changes to bracket notes, 5 other textual changes, and 5 changes to morphological slashes and/or word divisions. Changes to the text are to make the WHM and the WLC conform to the text of the Hebrew Bible found in the Leningrad Codex.

STEP Beta

Wed, 31 Jul 2013 15:21:58 +0000

Scripture Tools for Every Person

Tyndale House recently announced the beta release of their Scripture Tools for Every Person (STEP) project, headed by David Instone-Brewer. The resource includes a nice selection of original-language texts—apparently including some, like the [Samaritan Pentateuch](http://www.stepbible.org/#!__/0/passage/0/SP/Gen 1/NHV/__/1/singleColumn), not yet listed in the documentation. Later this year, the Tyndale House edition of the Greek New Testament should also appear in STEP.

Get the ESV Free @Faithlife Study Bible

Wed, 24 Jul 2013 07:01:01 +0000

Faithlife ESV Giveaway

The English Standard Version is now free for a limited time with the Faithlife Study Bible ( affiliate disclosure). According to the press release,

Starting July 24, anyone who downloads or signs in to the Faithlife Study Bible app will get the English Standard Version free for life! All Faithlife Study Bible app users will get a full license to the ESV Bible, including offline access when Internet is not available. Users can download their free copy of the Faithlife Study Bible app by visiting the Faithlife/ESV giveaway page anytime 12:00 am [Pacific], July 24–11:59 pm, August 10.

Upcoming Logos Resources

Fri, 19 Jul 2013 17:06:27 +0000

Logos Bible Software

Recently, a number of noteworthy works have come into Logos Bible Software’s prepublication and community pricing programs. On the prepublication program are collections about biblical backgrounds (9 vols.; T. & T. Clark), the Prophets (16 vols.; T. & T. Clark), the Writings (5 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Old Testament literature and linguistics (7 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Hebrew Bible (7 vols.; T. & T. Clark), topics in Old Testament Studies (11 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Old Testament theology (9 vols.; Oxford University), biblical history and historiography (3 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Jewish Studies (6 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Jesus (10 vols.; T. & T. Clark); the Gospels and Acts (18 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Johannine literature (10 vols.; T. & T. Clark), the Pauline Epistles (10 vols.; T. & T. Clark), topics in New Testament Studies (11 vols.; T. & T. Clark), early Christianity (13 vols.; T. & T. Clark), apocrypha and pseudepigrapha (7 vols.; T. & T. Clark), Apostolic Fathers (29 vols.; various publishers), church history (18 vols.; Oxford); biblical interpretation (3 vols.; Pontifical Biblical Commission and 5 vols.; T. & T. Clark), biblical languages (35 vols.; Zondervan), bibliology (7 vols.; T. & T. Clark), the Bible in art (3 vols.; Standard), theological interpretation (4 vols.; T. & T. Clark), and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (3 vols.; T. & T. Clark), as well as the select Loeb Classical Library works by Tertullian and Minucius Felix (2 vols.) and Virgil (4 vols.).

Nicoll, Expositor's Greek Testament (vol. 5) Free @Logos

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 13:03:13 +0000

As their free book of the month, Logos Bible Software is giving away volume 5 of the Expositor’s Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll. Volume 5 includes:

J. H. A. Hart, “The First Epistle General of Peter”
R. H. Strachan, “The Second Epistle General of Peter”
David Smith, “The Epistles of John”
J. B. Mayor, “The General Epistle of Jude”
James Moffatt, “The Revelation of St. John the Divine”

For more information about the text and to download this volume, please see here.

The Perseus Catalog 1.0

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:57:55 +0000

According to the Perseus Digital Library at Tufts University:

The Perseus Digital Library is pleased to announce the 1.0 Release of the Perseus Catalog.

On the Web (April 11, 2013)

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:27:07 +0000

On the web:

Zotero 4.0.4 is now available with some minor improvements over the previous stable version.
Joseph Kelly highlights some good advice about how not to write a thesis or dissertation.
Logos Bible Software has added the Aramaic Bible series to their pre-publication program.

Zotero 4

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:14:59 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

I’ve just now noticed, but a stable release of Zotero 4 became available earlier this week. This release includes a substantial number of updates over previous versions. For highlights, see here, or peruse the whole change log.

S. R. Driver on Google Books

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:12:31 +0000

Reverend Samuel Rolles Driver (1846–1914; Photo credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)

Google Books has full-text PDFs freely available for the following works by S. R. Driver:

Commentary on Deuteronomy (International Critical Commentary; 1895; repr., 1903)

Google Reader RIP

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:19:36 +0000

Though it has apparently been on the chopping block for some time, Google Reader was a very useful tool. Even so, it has apparently come to the end of the road:

Google Reader will be retired on July 1, 2013. If you’d like to download a copy of all your Reader data before then, you can do so through Google Takeout. You’ll receive your subscription data in an XML file, and the following information will be downloaded as JSON files:

On the Web (January 26, 2013)

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:32:16 +0000

On the Web:

Phil Gons digests Tony Reinke’s suggestions for reading more.
Logos Bible Software has added the 12-volume Clarendon edition of Aristotle’s works (1908–1952) to their community pricing offerings.

Google Drive and Office 97–2003

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:33:14 +0000

Google Drive’s Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps are scheduled to cease supporting exports to Microsoft’s older Office 97–2003 formats at the end of the month. According to the Google Apps blog,

In September, we added the ability to export Google documents to the newer Microsoft Office formats that rely on open standards (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx). . . . As we announced in October, after January 31, 2013, users will not be able to export files to the older Office 97-2003 formats [e.g., .doc, .xls, .ppt]. For users who still use Office 97-2003, we recommend installing the free compatibility plugin from Microsoft, which will allow them to open the modern Office file types.

Syntax Queries in Perseus

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:36:21 +0000

Bridget Almas notes the availability of a new syntax search utility that presently covers about 400,000 words of Perseus’s Greek and Latin texts (HT: Charles Jones).

Edwards, Religious Affections

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:27:47 +0000

Courtesy of Logos Bible Software, Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections is available for free this month:

http://twitter.com/Logos/status/286528925717393408

The Pope on Twitter

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:07:51 +0000

Apparently, the Pope now has his own Twitter account from which he sent the following earlier this morning:

https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/278808536404852736

For a great deal more than 140 characters on the Pope’s tweet, see here.

Patristics @Logos

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:26:20 +0000

J. P. Migne’s two massive compilations of Patristic literature have now made their way onto Logos Bible Software’s community pricing platform ( Greek, Latin). Also appearing there now is some of René Graffin, Francois Nau, and Max de Saxe’s compilation of other Patristic texts not included in Migne’s anthologies.

Edit Spreadsheets on Google Drive for Mobile

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 02:09:02 +0000

The Google Drive mobile apps for Android and iOS now allows users to create and view spreadsheets:

Photo credit: Google Drive Blog

Previous versions had allowed creating and editing of documents but only viewing of spreadsheets created elsewhere. For more information and links to download the appropriate apps, see here.

Attaching Drive Items in Gmail

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:48:40 +0000

For Gmail and at least certain Google Apps Mail users who have opted into the “new compose” experience, Google is now rolling out the ability to attach Google Drive items to email messages:

Photo credit: Gmail Blog

Because these items are stored in and shared via Drive, email attachment size limitations don’t apply, and any updates to the attached item(s) will automatically be available to the message’s recipients. For more information about this update, please see here.

Zotero 3.0.11.1

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 15:48:08 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Zotero 3.0.11 and 3.0.11.1 have just been released with some additional bug fixes. For change logs, see here, and for basic introductory material to the platform, see here.

Zotero 3.0.10

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 19:12:04 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Zotero 3.0.9 and 3.0.10 have recently been released with a number of bug fixes. For change logs, see here, and for basic introductory material to the platform, see here.

In-Browser Office Suites

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:00:46 +0000

Similar to rollApp, which debuted earlier this year, InstallFree is offering a no-cost web-based version of LibreOffice that can be run inside a browser and that integrate with various online storage platforms like Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive. For free, users can also use InstallFree’s Microsoft Office application to view Microsoft Office file formats with full fidelity. Native editing privileges for Microsoft Office formats are available in InstallFree, after the initial 60-day trial, starting at $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year for academic users. For more information about InstallFree, please see the videos below or visit the website.

Logos 5

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 01:32:31 +0000

Logos Bible Software is now shipping version 5. For an overview of the new version, see the playlist below:

&feature=autoplay&list=PLXkjd_l1xkSQAozD4PNGZALI6GolOqTas

New Drive Apps for Chrome

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:52:58 +0000

The Chrome Web Store now includes individual Chrome web apps for Docs, Sheets, and Slides:

To make it even easier for you to create stuff quickly, Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations–now called Docs, Sheets, and Slides–are available as apps in the Chrome Web Store. Once installed, shortcuts to these apps will appear when you open a new tab in Chrome.

Baxter, The Reformed Pastor

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:21:32 +0000

Richard Baxter (1615–1691; photo credit: Wikipedia)

For today’s “Pastor Appreciation Month” sale, Logos Bible Software is offering volume 14 of their series of Richard Baxter’s practical works for free. The volume includes Baxter’s classic The Reformed Pastor (1655) and his Confirmation and Restauration (1658).

NETS Online

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 09:26:00 +0000

The University of Pennsylvania has made available online a series of PDFs containing the New English Translation of the Septuagint (Oxford, 2009). In keeping with the NETS’s printed text, the beginning of each file also contains a good introduction to the translation that it provides (HT: Charles Jones).

The Imaging Papyri Project

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:13:20 +0000

University of Oxford (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Oxford University Classics Faculty’s PINAX “is a digital library comprised of collections of displayed papyrus images and texts at Oxford.” Texts include papyri from Antinoopolis, Herculaneum, and Oxyrhynchus, as well as magical texts (HT: Charles Jones).

Kindling Cave 4?

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 15:33:00 +0000

Amazon’s selection of texts available for the Kindle platform occasionally includes some interesting oddities. For instance, those who really want to do so can apparently read the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert volumes 10 (4QMMT) and 16 (cave 4 calendrical texts) on Kindle for a mere $239.20 and $254.34 respectively, without print-equivalent page numbers. Or, used hard covers are available for just under $180. ;-)

A Westminster Bookstore Blog Partner Program Automatic Link Builder for Firefox

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:47:56 +0000

Tommy Keene notes the revival of an automatic link builder for Firefox and the Westminster Bookstore’s blog partner program. Tommy’s earlier Firefox search bar add-on for the Westminster Bookstore is also a very helpful tool.

On the Web (July 22, 2012)

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:35:20 +0000

On the web:

Tokens makes available the final part of their interview with Walter Brueggemann.
Theological Studies has back issues from 5 years ago and beyond freely available online (HT: Charles Jones).
Michael Halcomb reflects on some of Albert Schweitzer’s comments on Christian scholars.
Tommy Keene highlights BibleArc.
Archive.org has Gordon Fee’s PhD thesis available online (HT: Larry Hurtado).
Bavarian authorities are commissioning annotated editions of Mein Kampf in hopes of further defusing the work’s value for extremists’ use as it comes into the public domain.
Joel Willitts reflects on some of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s comments on “self forgiveness.”

Performance Improvements with LibreOffice 3.5.4

Wed, 30 May 2012 11:31:01 +0000

English: logo(type) of LibreOffice Deutsch: Lo…

From the Document Foundation Blog:

The Document Foundation announces LibreOffice 3.5.4, the fifth version of the free office suite’s 3.5 family. LibreOffice 3.5.4 offers significant performance improvements over the previous versions of the product, which are the combined result of the many code optimizations executed during the last months and the bug and regression chasing activity performed regularly by volunteers and developers. As a result, LibreOffice 3.5.4 is the fastest version of the best free office suite ever, with up to 100% performance gains when opening large files (depending on operating system, hardware configuration and file contents).

rollApp = OpenDocument Support for iOS

Sat, 19 May 2012 12:03:39 +0000

Image representing rollApp as depicted in Crun…

For iOS users, rollApp has now graduated into public Beta and is offering iOS-compatible versions of OpenOffice.org (now Apache OpenOffice) and LibreOffice. The LibreOffice app seems to have a bit of difficulty opening files stored on Dropbox, but my own tests thus far with the OpenOffice.org app seem to have worked quite well. Although these apps run entirely on rollApp’s servers, and so require a fairly decent Internet connection to function, they do offer extended support for additional file formats (like ODT) not natively readable in iOS.

iPad App for Greek Literature

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:11:14 +0000

There is now

an iPad app for introductory and intermediate Greek readers. Its name is Attikos and it includes a selection of familiar texts, including morphological information. The author is Josh Day, himself recently an intermediate Greek student.

Link to the app store page:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/attikos/id522497233?mt=8

. . .

Texts include the Iliad, some Lysias and Plato, and the Antigone. Some texts have been parsed completely; no translations are included, however.

Passing the Piazza

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:12:17 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“125” caption=“Piazza (Image via Wikipedia)”] [/caption]

In his article Sunday in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Jeffrey Young comments:

[Pooja] Sankar, a recent graduate of Stanford University’s M.B.A. program, leads a start-up focused on finding a better way for college students to ask questions about course materials and assignments online. Her company, Piazza, has built an online study hall where professors and teaching assistants can easily monitor questions and encourage students who understand the material to help their peers.

Select Kindle History and Biography Texts for $1

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:37:23 +0000

Through the end of the day tomorrow, Kindle with Special Offers users or Kindle users who have turned on the Special Offers feature are able to take advantage of a promotion that Amazon is running to “Buy one of 50 biography and history titles for $1.” A list of eligible titles is available here. Among the eligible titles of particular interest here are:

Viewing Nonprinting Characters in LibreOffice

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:33:36 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“150” caption=“Image via Wikipedia”] [/caption]

Apparently, recent versions of LibreOffice have a slightly different defaults for what nonprinting characters will display in a document. Instructions for customizing these settings are available here.

On NT Blog

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:45:50 +0000

NT Blog turns eight today, and Mark Goodacre also notes that the German Bible Society has made the main texts of BHS, Septuaginta (ed. Hanhart), and NA27 available online.

A Major InscriptiFact Update

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:46:31 +0000

According to Ancient World Online, InscriptiFact has just added “approximately 5700 new images of 296 new texts from the Persepolis Fortification Archive. The majority of Aramaic texts from the archive are now available.” From this archive, the InscriptiFact database also includes several anepigraphic and Elamite tablets.

Zotero 2.1.7

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:42:03 +0000

Zotero 2.1.7 is now available with a number of performance improvements and bug fixes over the previous stable version. The current version is available from the Zotero homepage.

Zotero at the Chronicle of Higher Education

Fri, 27 May 2011 06:40:59 +0000

On Tuesday, Brian Croxall compared Zotero and EndNote. At least until a stable release of Zotero standalone arrives, the review has the two platforms standing fairly on equal terms. Recent updates to Zotero’s SBL citation style have included some additional issues, but hopefully, those problems will soon be remedied also.

New Zotero Styles and Updates for Biblical and Theological Studies

Thu, 26 May 2011 16:30:59 +0000

The Society of Biblical Literature style for Zotero has recently been updated (8:16 pm, May 11, 2011). Since I had last visited the style repository, development versions of the following styles have also been added:

Currents in Biblical Research
INTER. Romanian Institute for Inter-Orthodox, Inter-Confessional and Inter-Religious Studies
Universidad Evangélica del Paraguay
Wheaton College PhD BITH

For some time Zotero, had only supported SBL style, but the addition of CurrBR as another major field journal format is certainly positive.

An NEH Grant for a New SBL Website

Tue, 03 May 2011 20:58:03 +0000

The Society of Biblical Literature has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to produce a new website that will “invite[] general audiences to engage with biblical scholarship.” The website is currently scheduled for a full launch in 2013. For the full SBL press release, see here.

Kindling Aristotelian Poetic Penguins

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:26:18 +0000

At least for the present, Amazon has available two Kindle versions of Penguin’s edition of Aristotle’s Poetics, page numbering included. The difference between the two seems mainly to be the difference between an older and a newer cover, with the version that has the newer cover retailing for $1.90.

Zotero Updates

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:51:14 +0000

Zotero 2.1.3, 2.1.4, and 2.1.5 have rolled out with several minor updates. The Microsoft Word plugin has also been updated, but details about this update are still forthcoming from the plugin change log page.

New Innovations from Google

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:05:44 +0000

Never failing to amaze, Google introduces several du jour innovations:

I particularly like the new protocol for creating a Google Docs Drawing (pictured here) and think it may make Google Docs much more useful for biblical studies. ;)

Zotero 2.1.2

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:11:38 +0000

A new Zotero update is now available. The update mainly contains bug fixes, but it also allows Zotero to “[r]ecognize .csl.txt files as CSL files.”

New and Forthcoming Resources from Logos Bible Software

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:30:23 +0000

Logos Bible Software has recently released or will soon release several noteworthy resources:

James, The Gospel of Ruth

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:25:23 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_7151” align=“alignright” width=“80” caption=“Carolyn Custis James”] [/caption]

Now at number 3 on Amazon’s top free Kindle book list is Carolyn Curtis James’s The Gospel of Ruth: Loving God Enough to Break the Rules (Zondervan, 2008), and Zondervan presently has the EPUB edition for free also. The book boasts favorable blurbs from Robert Gundry, Timothy George, and Karen Jobes. According to the Amazon product page, what James describes

Free Logos Resource: Warfield, The Canon of the New Testament

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:30:04 +0000

If you’re a Facebook friend of Logos Bible Software, like their fan page, and you can download their edition of B. B. Warfield’s Canon of the New Testament: How and When Formed for free.

Zotero 2.1 Is Live

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 08:15:04 +0000

Zotero 2.1 is now available with a number of enhancements over the previous stable version. You may download the latest version from the Zotero homepage.

Kindle Gets Real Page Numbers

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:40:13 +0000

In the preview release of the latest Kindle software update (3.1), Amazon is beginning to allow Kindle edition readers to access the same page numbers that their print edition-reading counterparts can see:

Our customers have told us they want real page numbers that match the page numbers in print books so they can easily reference and cite passages, and read alongside others in a book club or class. We’ve already added real page numbers to tens of thousands of Kindle books, including the top 100 bestselling books in the Kindle Store that have matching print editions and thousands more of the most popular books. Page numbers will also be available on our free “Buy Once, Read Everywhere” Kindle apps in the coming months. If a Kindle book includes page numbers, press the Menu key in an open Kindle book to display page numbers ( [Amazon](//www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_navbox_top_kindlelg?nodeId=200529700" target="_blank">)).

Zotero Standalone Alpha

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 07:38:37 +0000

In the fairly short time since the initial notice, the alpha version of a browser-independent Zotero has now become available. A fully stable release is likely some time away yet, but the noticeable and rapid progress on the initiative is encouraging.

Qumran Biblical Scrolls Database to Ship Soon

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:55:56 +0000

What wonderful news just came through from Logos:

We are about to begin processing Pre-Pub orders for Qumran Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls Database.

For a description of the resource, see here. Oh, happy day. :)

Twelve Free NookBook Classics from Barnes and Noble

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:00:15 +0000

As an incentive to download and install NookStudy, Barnes and Noble is offering registered users the opportunity to download up to twelve NookBook classics for free. Among these texts are Dante’s Inferno and Plato’s Republic.

Now on Logos Pre-pub: Eerdmans Biblical Resources Series

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:27:25 +0000

Through its pre-publication program, Logos Bible Software is now offering the fourteen-volume Eerdmans Biblical Resources Series. Series titles include:

Adele Berlin, The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism
Richard Burridge, What Are the Gospels
John Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination
John Collins, Between Athens and Jerusalem
Frank Moore Cross, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry
Joseph Fitzmyer, To Advance the Gospel
Hermann Gunkel, Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton
Richard Hays, The Faith of Jesus Christ
Colin Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia
Anthony Saldarini, Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees in Palestinian Society
Anthony Saldarini, The Semitic Background of the New Testament (vols. 1–2)
Mark Smith, The Early History of God
Samuel Terrien, Till the Heart Sings

The Google eBookstore is Live

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:16:26 +0000

The Google eBookstore is now live and offering more than 3 million ebooks with an accompanying web-based ebook reader.

Donnerstag Digest (December 2, 2010)

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:04:46 +0000

This week in the biblioblogosphere:

Bob Cargill notes that, on December 11, the National Geographic Channel will re-air its special on “Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
Brian LePort hypertextually ponders Derridean non-extra-textuality and deconstruction, and he notes twenty-nine doctoral theses that the University of Durham has recently made available.
Michael Bird shows how to benefit most from the new SBL Greek New Testament and notes that the new Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters now has its own blog.
Google Editions are poised to hit the e-book market later this month and allow fee-based full access to copyrighted titles. For some additional details and thoughts, see Blog Kindle and Google Books Help.

SBL Blogger and Online Publication Podcasts

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:39:23 +0000

Thanks to Chris Brady for making available a series of podcasts with the papers from this year’s SBL Blogger and Online Publication Section:

James Davila, University of St. Andrews, “What Just Happened: The Rise of ‘Biblioblogging’ in the First Decade of the Twenty-first Century”
Christian Brady, Pennsylvania State University, “Online Biblical Studies: Past, Present, Promise, and Peril”
Michael Barber, John Paul the Great Catholic University, “Weblogs and the Academy: The Benefits and Challenges of Biblioblogging”
James McGrath, Butler University, “The Blogging Revolution: New Technologies and Their Impact on How We Do Scholarship”
Robert Cargill, University of California-Los Angeles, “Instruction, Research, and the Future of Online Educational Technologies”

Having unfortunately been unable to attend this particular session, I am very much looking forward to catching up on the presentations there through these podcasts. Thanks, again, Chris!

New Thoughts from Tyndale Tech

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:31:15 +0000

Yesterday, Tyndale Tech released the following series of helpful posts:

Future Developments Preview at the Document Foundation

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:54:03 +0000

Just a bit ago, on the Document Foundation’s listserv, the following press release came out:

“The Document Foundation is about documents and the associated software is pivotal to create, exchange, modify, share and print documents”, says Thorsten Behrens, a software developer and a member of TDF Steering Committee. “LibreOffice 3.3 is the first flavour of this long term strategy, but the journey has just begun, and the enormous advantages of our developer-embracing environment are not yet fully reflected in the upcoming software release”.

Emanuel Tov Online

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 14:58:33 +0000

Emanuel Tov has posted a number of his publications online in openly-accessible, PDF format. Hearty thanks to Dr. Tov for this contribution to digital scholarship in biblical studies.

HT: Tommy Wasserman.

Lightfoot, "Colossians and Philemon"

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:00:36 +0000

In working on the phrase εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν τοῦ μυστηρίου τοῦ θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ in Col 2:2 ( NA27 punctuation), I stumbled upon J. B. Lightfoot’s commentary on Colossians in full view, PDF format on Google Books. According to Lightfoot ( 239),

New Ancient World Bibliographic Resource

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:59:49 +0000

Over at Academia.edu, Charles Jones, Head Librarian at New York University, has requested suggestions for additions to a new list of “Ancient World Open Bibliographies.” Of course, as it develops, the bibliography should certainly list New Testament Gateway. Maintainers of ancient world bibliographic resources can note additions on Academia.edu or the bibliography page itself.

Get Metzger's Manuscripts of the Greek Bible on Kindle

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 12:21:24 +0000

Among the growing body of scholarly resources available on Kindle ( sans page numbers, unfortunately), is Bruce Metzger’s Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: An Introduction to Palaeography. Sounds like a good thing to read electronically in bright sunlight to me. :-)

The SBL Greek New Testament on Logos 3

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 20:50:43 +0000

Along with Logos 4 users, Libronix users may now download and install the SBL Greek New Testament and its apparatus.

HT: Logos.

Zotero Here, Zotero There, Zotero Everywhere

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:38:39 +0000

Earlier today, the Zotero Project announced concrete plans to release a stand-alone, browser-independent version of their open-source, bibliographic management system. Since its inception, Zotero has been tied to Mozilla Firefox as a support for its underlying architecture. Yet, as the members of the Zotero Project recognize, “not all researchers can or want to use” Firefox. In addition to maintaining Zotero’s compatibility with Firefox, this “major new initiative” for a stand-alone version of Zotero will “soon” allow users of “Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Microsoft Internet Explorer” to use Zotero with whichever of these browsers they choose. This move will extend Zotero’s availability to approximately 98% of internet users.

Zotero 2.0.7–8

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 02:44:20 +0000

Another set of Zotero updates is available that remedies some stability issues and brings us up through 2.0.7 to 2.0.8.

Zotero 2.0.4–6

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:29:25 +0000

This past week, along with several bug fixes, Zotero got some substantive updates to its syncing and word-processor integration features. As usual, the Zotero website has change logs for the main new release, 2.0.4, as well as what are, thus far, the two additional, supplementary ones ( 2.0.5, 2.0.6).

Göttingen May Be Fairly Close After All

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:00:42 +0000

A while back, when I finally decided to preorder the Göttingen Septuagint from Logos before the initial, pre-publication special ended, and when I did so, I was quite prepared to wait several years before this resource actually went through and came out of development. Yet, earlier today, I happened to stumble across this on the Logos website: So, rather than a couple years, the Logos edition of the Göttingen Septuagint is apparently just over a couple months away (!).

It's Here, Albeit in Beta

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:37:23 +0000

Earlier this morning, Logos Bible Software announced the release of the beta version of Biblia.com. To all visitors, Biblia.com offers access to slightly more than forty resources, including various Bible translations and a few more dated Greek New Testament texts. Free registration at Biblia.com allows users to access still other resources.

Donnerstag Digest (August 26, 2010)

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:46:44 +0000

This week in the biblioblogosphere:

Mark Goodacre finds and makes available a PDF version of Wilhelm Wrede’s Paul.
Daniel and Tonya draw attention to Alex Andrason’s recent article on the use of yiqtol in Biblical Hebrew (via Uri Hurwitz) and Randall Buth’s response to the article.
Via Ekaterini Tsalampouni, Holger Szesnat mentions the availability of the new Journal of Ancient Judaism.
Christian Askeland notes the availability of a stable, Unicode-compliant Coptic font.
At BioLogos, Peter Enns interviews N. T. Wright about Jesus’ humanity.
Kirk Lowery ponders current developments in the peer review process for scholarly publications.
Scot McKnight prepares his readers for a change of blogging address.
Larry Hurtado uploads an essay on Martin Hengel’s impact on English-speaking, New Testament scholarship.
Charles Halton considers cartographic hermeneutics and some of their implications for readers of biblical texts.

Donnerstag Digest (August 19, 2010)

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:03:05 +0000

This week in the blogosphere:

James McGrath helpfully notes that John Byron, Associate Professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary, is now blogging at The Biblical World.
Sadly, Gerald Hawthorne passes away (HT: John Byron).
Helen Bond discusses the composition of the Sanhedrin in first-century Palestine.
Trevor provides a good summary of a variety of different ways to add records to Zotero.
Happy Dissertating suggests priming the writing pump as necessary via 750 Words. Based on what the site provides, it looks like a fully private blog could also be used in much the same way, but particularly for those who would prefer not to need to ensure for themselves that all their privacy settings are correct or who might enjoy some of the other features that 750 Words offers, the site may be worth a look.
Pat McCullough begins a bibliography of resources about the application of Social Identity Theory to biblical studies and invites suggestions for additions.

How Many Books Are There?

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:02:54 +0000

According to Google, the world contains about 129,864,880 books. Google calculated this number by combining duplicate entries from a data base of nearly one billion raw, bibliographic records and by eliminating about an additional 16.5 million non-books that had records in Google’s raw data base.

Donnerstag Digest (August 12, 2010)

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:53:51 +0000

This week in the blogosphere:

Baker acquires Hendrickson’s academic arm (HT: Nijay Gupta and Rod Decker).
Larry Hurtado rightfully lauds and recommends careful attention to Harry Gable’s Books and Readers in the Early Church.
Cynthia Nielsen continues her discussion of interconnections between Joerg Rieger and Frederick Douglass with a post about duality in identity construction.
Michael Halcomb has a new website specifically dedicated to Getting (Theological) Languages.
Kirk Lowery returns to the biblioblogosphere after a hiatus for the development of the Groves Center as an independent research unit. I had the privilege of doing an Aramaic and a Hebrew Bible text-linguistics seminar under Kirk and am again looking forward to seeing what shows up on his “scratchpad.”
Happy Dissertating suggests PhD2Published as a potentially valuable resource for new PhD graduates in humanities disciplines.
James McGrath spots several video recordings of presentations at this past year’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
Michael Bird starts reading a recent biography of Ernst Käsemann and reproduces several, brief quotations from Käsemann that are, as one might expect, particularly insightful.
Todd Bolen reports a recent spectrometric analysis that suggests a Jerusalem origin for a newly discovered cuneiform tablet.
Ken Schenck discusses the reading of biblical literature as Christian scripture.
Brian LePort discusses the relationship between scripture and tradition in view of the Trinitarian-Oneness debate. On this relationship, our Writing Center director at Southeastern recently brought to my attention F. F. Bruce’s edited volume, Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. I have yet really to peruse it, and the book is scarcely findable in print at this point. Still, it does look like a very interesting volume, and much of it is available through Google Books.
Google and Verizon propose, regarding Net Neutrality,“that ‘wireline broadband providers [sh]ould not be able to discriminate against or prioritize lawful Internet content, applications or services in a way that causes harm to users or competition’, but broadband providers [sh]ould be able to offer ‘additional, differentiated online services’.”
Chris Brady shares some of his conclusions from his recent International Organization for Targumic Studies presentation about Boaz in Targum Ruth.

Waving Goodbye

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:49:23 +0000

In the past few weeks, I had thought of what might be a pedagogically helpful application for Google Wave. I had all but decided to experiment with it in a course assignment, but on Wednesday, Google announced that it would not “continue developing Wave as a standalone product” but would, over time, “extend the technology for use in other Google projects.” So, apparently, it is time to “wave” goodbye and wait to see what the next iteration of the technology holds.

Oxyrhynchus Papyri on Logos

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:40:23 +0000

The equivalent of 15 print volumes of over 1,800 Oxyrhynchus Papyri fragments are now available to order from Logos via their pre-publication discount program. Details about the module and a list of the papyri it will include are available here.

Koninklijke Bibliotheek on Google Books

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:00:20 +0000

According to Google’s blog, the National Library of the Netherlands will soon start making over 160,000 public-domain volumes available through Google Books. Works targeted for digitization “constitute nearly the library’s entire collection of out-of-copyright books, written during the 18th and 19th centuries.” Among the authors whose works this post explicitly notes as being included within this group is Abraham Kuyper (at least via a direct link to his Wikipedia page), the Dutch Reformed theologian, philosopher, and politician.

Ubiquity Search Command for Evernote Web

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:42:19 +0000

The Evernote blog has a helpful new video for Google Chrome users, showing them how to get Chrome to search their Evernote accounts directly. Firefox users can achieve the same results with Ubiquity (0.1.9.1) by copying this code into the Ubiquity command editor or by subscribing to this command feed.

New Manuscripts, New Blog

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:20:10 +0000

This morning, Tommy Wasserman introduces the new “Digitised Manuscripts Blog,” which will “report on various issues related to the current digitisation projects at the British Library, in particularly the Greek Manuscripts Digitisation Project funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.” Wasserman especially draws attention to Juan Garcés’s post from yesterday. There, Garcés notes that “[t]he first phase of the Greek Manuscripts Digitisation Project, funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, will include no less than one majuscule from the 7th century, 33 minuscules from the 10th–14th centuries, and 16 lectionaries from the 11th–14th centuries,” and he mentions plans to “post on a selection of these over the following weeks,” a series that will surely prove interesting.

Zotero 2.0 Final Release

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:28:51 +0000

The final release of Zotero 2.0 is now available. For a list of changes since 2.0rc5, see here, or check this page for upgrade instructions and a list of new features in Zotero 2.0.

Logos Partners with Baker

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:18:50 +0000

This morning, Logos Bible Software announced an agreement with Baker Books that will soon allow Logos to bring “hundreds” of Baker titles into pre-publication. According to Logos’s normal procedure, once available on the Pre-Pub page, production will begin on a given title once a sufficient number of people have ordered that title at the Pre-Pub price. Some of the new Baker titles already available on the Pre-Pub page include:

Create Your Own Feed for DaveBlackOnline

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:19:25 +0000

Various people have expressed, at different points, the wish that David Black’s blog had its own feed, but Google Reader users can now have this feed—somewhat. Last week, the Official Google Reader Blog announced an update to Google Reader that allows individual users, much as they would add any normal feed within Reader itself, to have Google Reader watch for changes on any webpage.

Zotero 2.0 RC 3–4

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:11:56 +0000

Zotero 2.0 release candidates three and four have been released with several improvements, including upgrades and fixes for the synchronization and indexing functionality. As always, new Zotero users can download the latest version from the Zotero homepage. For those who may be interested, although composed for Zotero 1.5, the screencast below still highlights the main features of Zotero 2.0.

Want to Help SBL?

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:26:20 +0000

Take this survey about a new website that the Society of Biblical Literature is developing with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. According to today’s email announcement from the Society, the site is generally intended to function as a medium for making biblical scholarship more widely available and encouraging interaction with the biblical literature. So, if you might be interested in using such a site, head over to Survey Monkey, and give the Society your input.

Evernote for Windows Overhaul

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:57:02 +0000

Evernote is a program that manages assorted notes and images while attempting to render searchable any text—even handwritten text—that is in its database. While the program already provides some very useful features for biblical studies research, a beta version of a major overhaul for Evernote’s Windows client is now available. The new version mostly aims to enhance performance and to make future improvements easier.

Little Bunny Fufu Meets the Maccabees

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:46:37 +0000

Sometimes, a bit of humor or oddity can be pedagogically advantageous. In this connection, I have tried to fit the chief, Maccabean figures into the chorus from “Little Bunny Fufu” (who may apparently appear, at least occasionally, as “Little Rabbit Fufu” in the UK) ( midi audio, lyrics).

Background Transparency for the Biblioblog-SBL Affiliate Badge

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:58:51 +0000

Thanks to Mark Hoffman for introducing a version of the Biblioblog-SBL Affiliate badge with a non-white background. With this color change, in an effort at collaborative improvement, I was able to get OpenOffice.org Draw to translate this background to transparent for use on blogs or places on blogs with non-white backgrounds.

Creating Research Timelines in Excel

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:14:01 +0000

Although it certainly can be used otherwise, a progress tracking system like the one Paul Silvia suggests in his book How to Write a Lot seems to work best for writing that can be open ended: by following a regular writing schedule, projects can regularly and reliably come to completion. What happens, however, if one is working under a deadline (be it self-imposed or not) and, therefore, needs to develop a writing schedule backwards from this due date?

Codex Sinaiticus Update

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:05:26 +0000

A while back, I mentioned that Mark for Codex Sinaiticus had been digitized and made available online. The Codex Sinaiticus Project website now reports that “[f]rom 6 July 2009, the Codex Sinaiticus website features all extant pages of the Codex.” In addition to the page images, which have been available for some time at the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, the Codex Sinaiticus Project website allows users to modify lighting options and view transcriptions and translations for the manuscript.

Zotero 2 Beta Launches

Fri, 15 May 2009 09:17:58 +0000

Zotero is a bibliographic and research management addin for the Firefox web browser. The latest test release, 2.0b3, succeeds Zotero 1.5b2.1 with some substantial improvements, particularly by increasing Zotero’s flexibility and usefulness for research collaboration among several, different Zotero users.

PDF Markup Tool

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 10:00:04 +0000

I recently found a thread on the Zotero forum that mentions the PDF XChange Viewer, which is supposed to allow users to markup PDF files.

Especially if you use Zotero, you may want to use PDF XChange as your default PDF browser plugin. After installing PDF XChange, you may still need to do the following:

Technology on J. David Stark

Technology and Distraction

SBL annual meeting mobile apps

Tracking Writing Progress

Full-height Footnote Numbers in Microsoft Word

Why Searching Shouldn't Replace Reading

Lexham Updates

Brueggeman, Spirituality of the Psalms

Qumran Sectarian Manuscripts Update in Logos

Back to School with Kindle

Upcoming Logos Resources (August 28, 2013)

WLC and WHM 4.18 Now Available

STEP Beta

Get the ESV Free @Faithlife Study Bible

Upcoming Logos Resources

Nicoll, Expositor's Greek Testament (vol. 5) Free @Logos

The Perseus Catalog 1.0

More from Mohr

On the Web (April 11, 2013)

Zotero 4

S. R. Driver on Google Books

Google Reader RIP

On the Web (January 26, 2013)

Google Drive and Office 97–2003

Syntax Queries in Perseus

Edwards, Religious Affections

The Pope on Twitter

Patristics @Logos

Edit Spreadsheets on Google Drive for Mobile

Attaching Drive Items in Gmail

Zotero 3.0.11.1

Zotero 3.0.10

In-Browser Office Suites

Logos 5

New Drive Apps for Chrome

Baxter, The Reformed Pastor

NETS Online

The Imaging Papyri Project

Kindling Cave 4?

A Westminster Bookstore Blog Partner Program Automatic Link Builder for Firefox

On the Web (July 22, 2012)

Performance Improvements with LibreOffice 3.5.4

rollApp = OpenDocument Support for iOS

iPad App for Greek Literature

Passing the Piazza

Select Kindle History and Biography Texts for $1

Viewing Nonprinting Characters in LibreOffice

On NT Blog

A Major InscriptiFact Update

Zotero 2.1.7

Zotero at the Chronicle of Higher Education

New Zotero Styles and Updates for Biblical and Theological Studies

An NEH Grant for a New SBL Website

Kindling Aristotelian Poetic Penguins

Zotero Updates

New Innovations from Google

Zotero 2.1.2

New and Forthcoming Resources from Logos Bible Software

James, The Gospel of Ruth

Free Logos Resource: Warfield, The Canon of the New Testament

Zotero 2.1 Is Live

Kindle Gets Real Page Numbers

Zotero Standalone Alpha

Qumran Biblical Scrolls Database to Ship Soon

Twelve Free NookBook Classics from Barnes and Noble

Now on Logos Pre-pub: Eerdmans Biblical Resources Series

The Google eBookstore is Live

Donnerstag Digest (December 2, 2010)

SBL Blogger and Online Publication Podcasts

New Thoughts from Tyndale Tech

Future Developments Preview at the Document Foundation

Emanuel Tov Online

Lightfoot, "Colossians and Philemon"

New Ancient World Bibliographic Resource

Get Metzger's Manuscripts of the Greek Bible on Kindle

The SBL Greek New Testament on Logos 3

Zotero Here, Zotero There, Zotero Everywhere

Zotero 2.0.7–8

Zotero 2.0.4–6

Göttingen May Be Fairly Close After All