So rarely does a software program come along that utterly and completely captures a desperate need – when it does happen, it’s like a miracle. I remember the day I stumbled onto The Word Bible Software. It was nothing less than epic. A once in a lifetime altering event, that changed the very course and nature of reality as we know it.

Well. Maybe not so much. But, still….

Before TW3, I struggled with programs like the Online Bible and E-Sword, simply because that was all that was available. I didn’t want to throw down $800 or more for programs like Logos, and the freeware simply wasn’t cutting it. In my nomad days, I literally had a duffel bag full of books (interlinears, lexicons, encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc) and it was a bear to lug that thing around.

Fast forward to today: I have an entire library in TW3 that surpasses the Library of Alexandria, all neatly organized on 1’s and 0’s, that can fit in a flash drive, literally in my pocket. For bibles I have: New King James Bible, Literal Transparent Bible, Literal Translation, New International Version, as well as the CEV, HCS, MSG, WEB, DRC and NWT for comparison. One great element of TW3 is they have the Apostolic Bible Polyglot’s complete interlinear text available, as well as the Hebrew Interlinear Bible (both are nicely formatted and very easy to use, until previous e-sword versions I’ve used). I also have a copy of Westcott & Hort’s Greek New Testament for comparison when needed. The bible is fully searchable in any and all versions and is a wonderfully life-saving replacement for my thick and heavy exhaustive concordance (which, of course, only works for ONE translation, while TW3 search all translations).

As for “books” or “tools” in TW3, I have: Mickelson’s Enhanced Strong’s Greek & Hebrew Lexicon, replacing the old Strong’s. I have a Greek Lexicon for the LXX, both volumes of Vines, a copy of the Christian Thinktank, the Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer, and a host of bible dictionaries (Smith, Easton, Naves, etc). I also have, which I consider a mainstay in my research, a copy of the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Rounding off the book section, I also have a full copy of the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

Of my commentary section, I have: Chuck Missler’s Commentaries, The JFB Commentary, Through the Bible Series by Chuck Smith, the Pulpit Commentary, the Literal Transparent Bible Commentary, Dake’s, Gill’s, Clarke’s and Poole’s. For cross referencing, there is nothing better than the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (well, until the Literal Transparent Bible Cross-Reference System is released).

The book + commentary sections both have an exhaustive search feature just like the bible modules do. It is tremendously helpful to be able to mine and harvest data from something like the ISBE. It saves countless hours.

If you want a great bible software for anything more than occasional, cursory study, I would highly recommend the Word Bible Software. I would go as far as say it’s comparable to the expensive models, only FREE (though I’ve never used the paid models).