OakTree Announces Upcoming Accordance Modules for Spring/Summer 2010

OakTree Software has been producing biblically related software for the Mac since 1994 in Accordance. Up until the last couple of years, the company was fairly tightlipped in regard to upcoming product announcements, but fortunately for users of the program, this has changed. Today, OakTree announced or updated the release status of a number of new Accordance modules:

Göttingen Septuagint (Genesis - Deuteronomy, Ruth to be released Spring, 2010)

Holman NT and OT Commentaries (Summer 2010)

Journal of Biblical Literature [1981 - 2006] (Spring, 2010)

Liddell and Scott [AKA "Big Liddell" or "Great Scott"] (Summer, 2010)

NLT Study Bible (Spring, 2010)

Zondervan New Series including the following titles:

NIV Application Commentary (NIVAC) (8 OT and 20 NT volumes)
Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible (ZEB) (5 volumes)
Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (ZIBBC) (5 OT and 4 NT volumes)
Dictionary of Biblical Prophecy and End Times
Halley's Bible Handbook
1001 Illustrations that Connect
1001 Quotations that Connect
Archaeology Study Bible

The announcement also included a listing of some of the more recent releases for Accordance:

Rabbinic CD-ROM featuring in addition to the previously released Mishna and Talmud modules:

Tosefta
Mekhilta de Rabbi Ishmael
Sifra
Sifrei Bemidbar (Numbers)
Sifrei Debarim (Deuteronomy)
Talmud Bavli

Tyndale Commentaries

Spanish CD-ROM including

Reina Valera 1960 with Strong's Numbers
Reina Valera 1995 Study Bible
Traduccion en Lenguaje Actual
Dios Habla Hoy Study Bible
Descubre la Biblia 3 volume set: La Biblia es literatura, Su formación, sus contextos y su interpretación, La Biblia, aquí y ahora.

Svenska Folkbibeln (The Swedish People's Bible)

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A few personal thoughts: I really appreciate OakTree making these announcements. I do have other Bible software on my Mac (WORDsearch & Logos), but my preference when buying is always for Accordance when the same title is on more than one platform. In my experience Accordance offers a greater flexibility in the way these resources can be accessed and used with other Accordance modules.

I'm especially looking forward to a number of these items. I've been waiting for the JBL a long time to add to the growing list of journals I have in Accordance. It's amazing to be able to look through hundreds (thousands?) of journals over decades of time when researching a biblical topic.

A few months ago, I was working with Philo's writings in Accordance and I came across a word that I could neither translate off the top of my head nor find in any of my Greek lexicons in Accordance. For ancient Greek literature outside the Bible, the Liddell & Scott lexicon is the standard work, and the intermediate abridged Liddell & Scott is available for Accordance. Unfortunately, the word I was looking at wasn't covered in the abridged version I had in Accordance. I realized how spoiled I've become using this software when I actually had to go track down the full Liddell & Scott lexicon in the library. This book is a monster, but is essentially the most exhaustive source available for ancient Greek literature. I can't wait to have it in Accordance on my Mac.

The NLT Study Bible is another module I'm looking forward to. I've never been too big on study Bible notes, but as I mentioned in my original review, I was impressed with the content found in the NLT Study Bible. Logos had a version of the NLT Study Bible available at the product's launch, and even though I wrote a review of the NLTSB for Logos' Bible Study Magazine, I've been waiting patiently for the Accordance release.

Finally, I'm very glad to see the upcoming titles coming from Zondervan. When Zondervan folded their own Pradis software, many misinterpreted their announcement to mean that they had struck an exclusive deal with Logos (see here and here). Obviously not so. As for the Zondervan offerings in the pipeline, I have both the Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible as well as the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary (both testaments) in hardback, and I cannot wait to have access to them in Accordance. Accordance makes it very easy to use photographs in resources like these with other programs by allowing the user to simply drag them from Accordance into, for instance, a Keynote slide. Someday soon, I'll be able to stop simply wishing I could use some of these charts and photos when I teach and actually have access to them on my Mac in Accordance.

Comments

[Danny Zacharias]

Is "great Scott" the same as LSJ, or does the addition of Jones a new version?

[R. Mansfield]

It's the 1995 9th addition that includes the contributions of Jones.

[Danny Zacharias]

So is that the oneaccordance is bringing out?

[R. Mansfield]

Yes. From the announcement: "...we are proud to offer the complete Ninth Edition with Revised Supplement..."