New Version - Barclay's Translation of the Talmud

Thanks to Jay on the BibleWorks forums for a wonderful version: Barclay's translation of the Talmud. He also included footnotes to the text! Here's an example: You will note that this makes the second version of one of the texts of the Talmud, the Pirke Aboth (spelling variances abound) -- here's the first version. But this version, the BVT, also includes notes.

Say it with me now, sweeeeeeeeet!

DOWNLOAD!

New Modules - Old Hebrew Grammar Series

I would be remiss if I neglected to mention that since the last major updating there has been not one, two, or even three new Hebrew grammar modules made available by Pasquale. Quite frankly I didn't even know that so many existed. All of these are out of print and copyright editions (so they are rather old), but nevertheless, they still might be useful to specialists in the field or else to those who simply like to see how others explain certain grammatical features. They are all modules of images of each page of the real book (so searching and copying and pasting is not really an option with them), which may downgrade their value. But then again, you're not going to be paying anything for them, so why are you complaining?

FUN USER CHALLENGE HERE:
However, to increase their value, Pasquale has added a special feature to these files. Can you tell me what it is and how it is helpful? If anyone can figure it out, they will get the spotlight in the next blog post.

So here are the goods: (follow along with the series on the BibleWorks forums)

• Introductory Hebrew grammar : Hebrew syntax by Andrew Bruce Davidson - Pasquale Amicarelli
• Hebrew Grammar by Alexander Meyrowitz - Pasquale Amicarelli
• Manual of Hebrew grammar by Josephus David Wijnkoop - Pasquale Amicarelli
• A grammar of the Hebrew language by Himan Hurwitz - Pasquale Amicarelli

New Module - Von Soden's Apparatus

Another module by Pasquale, this work includes Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments by Hermann Freiherr von Soden, images of the pages of the real book arranged in order of the New Testament.

• The electronic edition of von Soden's Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments pages 102-289 used by permission of Clint Yale
• Table 1 - it came from L.Vaganay - An introduction to New Testament textual criticism - pag 156 - Cambridge University Press 1991
• Von Soden images used by permission of www.csntm.org - Center For The Study Of New Testament Manuscripts

It can be used in tandem with the Tischendorf Critical Appartatus that is already in BibleWorks 7.

DOWNLOAD! 170 MB file!

New Vocabulary File - Hebrew Verb Diagnostics

This vocab module was put together by Matt Hauger. The zip file includes a text readme, which offers the following explanation:

These forms are based on Pratico and Van Pelt’s charts in the back of ‘Basics of Biblical Hebrew.’ This book lacks charts on Qal weak verbs, however; these are drawn from the relevant chapters on each Qal form. In general, only those weak forms that differ from the corresponding strong form are included here. Not all the differing Hithpael weak forms from the chart are included; many of those forms do not even appear in the Hebrew Bible, and Hithpael forms are easily identified by their preformatives.

You can also find more on this module at the BibleWorks forums.

The idea behind it is that by looking at the markers of various verbal forms, the reader can become better at recognizing what makes a Qal imperfect or a Niphal cohortative. A picture shows how he accomplishes this:

The scholarly Hebraist might recognize the above as a typical formation of a Qal imperfect III-aleph verb, with the qames (long a-class vowel) under the 2nd consonant of the verb stem rather than a holem (o-class vowel), as is "typical" for a Qal imperfect. When coupled with a grammar, this vocabulary file is a great way to review the rules of the parsing game!

DOWNLOAD!


Instructions:
Save the zip file to your hard disk, then unzip the .vrt file to your c:\Program Files\BibleWorks 7\init folder (assuming a default installation).

Once you've unzipped the .vrt file to you init folder, then open BibleWorks. Once you have BibleWorks open, open the Vocabulary module --

Tools | Vocabulary Flashcard Module

Once you have the vocab module open, choose File | Import and navigate to the .vrt file you just unzipped into this folder.

A real post?

By my notice we haven't had a real substantive post all year on the BW blog. Talk about not good. At the beginning of the year we had file server issues where we lost all of our files. A little after that we had more blogger issues where our posts wouldn't post properly (meaning, at all), thus the reason for multiple test posts.

As we've said, life has gotten busier. It doesn't mean we have lost track of BibleWorks completely, but we have not been as good as maintaining this as we should be. As I've mentioned, a new marriage, a relocation, the beginning of a PhD program all have taken chunks of my time this year. Fortunately others have been producing new materials, we simply haven't been advertising them very well. If you have been following the BibleWorks forums (which I highly recommend), you should not have missed any of the new offerings that have been posted this year. Most of them I have managed to catch and upload here so that even if they are not blogged about, they are still in one place. However I have missed a few of them here and there during the school year, so if you know of any of those, please alert my attention to them and I will get them up.

Another reason why things have been quiet is because I've been enjoying reading a fellow BibleWorks user (and Lutheran! -- well that's a big deal in my book, you can ignore it, if you wish), Mark Hoffman's blog Biblical Studies and Technological Tools. If you haven't been following his blog, get with it! He has done an admirable job of comparing Bible software programs (among other things!) with regard to their offerings, how you can use them, advantages, disadvantages, etc. Although he was on sabbatical this year (and therefore amazingly prolific), his posts might be a little less plentiful this coming school year, but even so, he will still be worth following.

Anyway, now we try to play catch-up.