Educational
Bible Study Tips: Using Study Bibles
Sep 20th
You may have noticed a focus here at Olive Tree on Bible Study and how it can be done with our software. Olive Tree has focused on giving powerful Bible Study tools in a clean, beautiful application. I wrote previously on using Strong’s-tagged Bibles. I will now continue my series by discussing the benefit and ease of using Study Bible Notes in Olive Tree’s BibleReader.
For those who are unfamiliar with these resources, Study Bible Notes go through the Bible, book-by-book, providing background information, historical details, word studies, and brief commentary. They also usually provide an introduction to each book that includes information on the author, date, audience, timeline, outline, and more. Study Bible Notes are a veritable one-stop-shop for understanding the basics about a passage. If you are fairly new to Bible Study tools, Study Bible Notes are probably the first place I would point you.
I have been preparing to teach a Sunday school class on the book of Jude, and have found Study Bible Notes to be an excellent source of background information and quick reference tools. In particular I have been using the ESV Study Bible, the Reformation Study Bible Notes, the Harper Collins Study Bible Notes, and the NIV Study Bible Notes. The screen shots taken throughout this post come from one of those four resources.
One of the first questions I wanted answered when preparing for my class was who the author Jude was. By looking at the introduction to Jude in several Study Bible Notes, I was able to quickly learn all about him. I learned that a better translation of his name is actually Judas (not Iscariot, the betrayer), that there are a few different Judases in the Bible that could be the author, and that the most likely person is the brother of Jesus.
Another question that I sought answers for in the introductory section of the Study Bible Notes on Jude was why the letter was written, or what the intent of the letter is. I can get a quick summary of what was going on in the churches Jude was addressing and see what the discordant views he was combating were. In the case of Jude, he is writing to warn congregations against false teaching rising within the church claiming that because they had forgiveness of sins, they could go on sinning as much as they wanted to. This antinomian mindset is not only combated in Jude, but in 2 Peter and other books as well, a fact that I again am able to learn about in the Study Bible Notes.
Olive Tree’s BibleReader makes using Study Bible Notes easy and very helpful. You can open them in the main window, as my previous screen shots have shown, or you can keep your Bible open in the top window and open up the Study Bible Notes in the bottom window (this is for those platforms that allow split windows). The great thing about using them in split windows is that it not only allows you to see the Biblical text and the notes side by side for easy reference, but the notes will stay in sync as you navigate through the Bible, and vice-versa!
Sometimes you will come to a point when using split windows where you might not want the two windows to sync up. The screen shot above shows an example that I came across where I wanted to tap on the “Angels” link but I didn’t want my Bible text to leave Jude to go to Zechariah. BibleReader does let you “uncouple” the two windows from each other. In you bring up your Settings menu, and tap on “Split Window Settings,” you will see a list of settings related to split windows (see below). By tapping on “Sync Split Windows,” you are presented with the option to completely turn off syncing between windows, or to change which window “leads” the syncing (see below). If I were to select “Main window lead split window,” I would then be able to tap on the “Angels” link without changing the Bible location in the top window!
Hopefully this background of using Study Bible Notes has been helpful and informative. If you would like to see the complete selection of Study Bible Notes available at Olive Tree, click here.
-Steven C; Resource Conversion and Formatting
BibleReader Makes a Church Camp Appearance
Sep 8th
Rick Mansfield (http://thislamp.com) recently sent us a note telling us how he used BibleReader on his iPad to lead the Sunday morning Bible study of his church camping trip. We thought this was a great example of how BibleReader can not only aid in personal Bible study, but also teaching, so we wanted to share his thoughts.
We had 22 adults, 14 children and one dog in attendance. I was wrapping up a study we had been doing in 2 Corinthians. Due to the context [camping], I didn’t want to bother with bringing a Bible and keeping up with notes all weekend, so I prepared everything in advanced using BibleReader. I’ve been using BibleReader quite a lot lately on the iPad, but this was my first experience using it exclusively in a teaching setting. As I prepared the lesson, I was able to add my notes, highlight the verses I wanted to focus on, and add discussion questions. EVERYTHING was accessible in one application. Very awesome! I am very impressed with what I was able to do with BibleReader!
We too think that BibleReader on the iPad is an excellent tool for leading discussion groups, Bible studies, or even for preaching! We hope that you, like Rick Mansfield, will discover the flexibility, power and ease of using Olive Tree BibleReader.
Speaking of Rick, we also want to take the opportunity to tell everyone that Olive Tree CEO, Drew Haninger, will be participating in a discussion panel, “The Impact and Future of Mobile Bible Software,” of which Rick Mansfield is the chair, at the Accordance Users Conference, September 24-25 in Mesquite, Texas. You can click here to find out more information about this conference. And if you are going to be attending, stop by and say “hi” to Drew!
Bible Study Tips: Using Strong’s Numbers
Aug 9th
Olive Tree Bible Software’s BibleReader is probably the most sophisticated Bible study tool you can get for your mobile device, though I admit I’m a little biased. I would like to start a small series of posts on how using the rich feature set of BibleReader can enhance your Bible study. In this first installment, we will take a look at the importance of doing word studies for your Bible study, and how a Strong’s-tagged Bible from Olive Tree makes doing a word study easy, intuitive and enjoyable.
What is a word study? It is a study on a particular word in a passage you are reading, usually going back to the original language to find a richer, fuller meaning. The primary reason this is important for Bible study is that the Bible wasn’t written in English or any other language used today. Even modern Hebrew and Greek are different than the languages used to pen the Bible. Some of the difficulties that a word study can address are: being able to track and sort out one Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic word that is translated in multiple ways, multiple Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic words that are translated into the same word in English (or another modern language), and being able to find all the places a certain Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic word is used. The translators of the versions we all use to read the Bible in our own language have done an excellent job conveying the what the original languages say and mean. However, it is inevitable that some things get lost in the translation.
An example of this can be easily seen in the exchange between Jesus and Peter after the resurrection in John 21:15-17. Without a word study, it just appears that Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him and Peter responds three times that he does, though he is cut to the heart after the third time, likely a parallel to the thrice denial by Peter before the crucifixion. However, a word study on the word “love,” used seven times in the passage, reveals that two different Greek words are being used. Both “agapao” and “phileo” are translated with the word “love” in the passage, yet we lose the sense of what kind of love is being mentioned. Without this word study, we would never know to ask why Peter is using a different word than Jesus, why Jesus changes the word he uses in the third instance of the question, and if Jesus’ word change is why Peter is “cut to the heart” as the passage describes.
A Strong’s-tagged Bible from Olive Tree can greatly aid this type of study. I use it quite a bit in my own personal study and greatly enjoy the ease which the BibleReader brings to this method of study. Olive Tree offers a Strong’s-tagged version of the following Bible versions: KJV, NASB, ESV, HCSB, and Almeida Revista e Atualizada (Portuguese), with hopefully more to come! BibleReader offers you the ability to view Strong’s numbers in the text or to hide them. 
Hiding them makes each word with a Strong’s number a hyperlink to bring up the dictionary entry for the word in a pop-up with a simple tap. I prefer to hide mine to maintain an visually-pleasing reading experience. You can choose to show or hide the numbers in your settings under “Other Settings -> Show Strong’s Numbers.”
Whether you have chosen to show or hide your Strong’s numbers, a tap is all it takes to bring up the dictionary entry for that word. If you come to a longer dictionary entry, or would like to leave it up while you scroll, you can tap the window icon in the top right corner of the pop-up to open the dictionary, at the current entry, in either the split window (for those platforms that have this feature) or the main window.
As you begin to use the dictionary, you will become accustomed to seeing the code for each word at the beginning of the entry. One of the great features of doing a word study in an Olive Tree Strong’s-tagged Bible is the ability to create an Englishman’s Concordance on the fly. Using our example from above, if you were studying the word “love” and wanted to see all the places in the New Testament where “phileo” is used, no matter how it was translated, BibleReader lets you do it easily. Just take the Strong’s number for the word “phileo,” which is g5368 if you were wondering, and search your Strong’s-tagged Bible for “g5368.” The search result will be a list of every instance of that Strong’s number, no matter how it was translated. Pretty handy!
I hope this brief tutorial of how to enhance your Bible study with a Strong’s-tagged Bible from Olive Tree has been helpful. I hope to do more of these in the future.
-Steven C; Resource Conversion and Formatting
Watch Olive Tree on YouTube, learn BibleReader’s newest features
Dec 8th
We’d like to welcome you to Olive Tree’s YouTube Channel, the home for BibleReader demo videos.
Have you ever wished someone could sit down and walk you through how to use BibleReader’s more advanced features, like morphological searches? Our demo videos are designed to do just that. These demonstrations are created by our engineers and book formatters—the people who know BibleReader best—and they contain explanations and walk-throughs of BibleReader’s features, from basic to advanced. There are already 14 demo videos posted, and more will be added periodically.
You’ll find demos on advanced topics . . .
. . . and learn how to adjust the little things to make your bible-reading experience just right.
You can watch general demos for a BibleReader overview . . .
. . . and new users can get started with the basics.
We recently introduced Olive Tree University on BibleReader for iPhone, a collection of tips and information to help familiarize users with BibleReader’s newest features. Many of the same demonstration videos are available through Olive Tree University, directly on your iPhone.
Visit us on YouTube at www.youtube.com/OliveTreeBible, and learn more!
“Olive Tree University” is Live on iPhone BibleReader
Nov 19th
New in BibleReader 4 for iPhone, we’ve released a library of instructional videos to teach you about BibleReader’s features. Learning your way around BibleReader has never been easier!
From the main reading screen, touch Menu (bottom right), then touch Olive Tree University in the pop-up menu. You’ll see a list of instructional features that begins with “What’s New in This Version”. It opens a short instructional video that demonstrates all the new additions to the latest BibleReader release for iPhone.
Watch this video to learn about
- new original languages support, including parsing, glosses, and lexical information for Greek and Hebrew texts. Take advantage of our highly advanced search function and learn how to search by morphological code.
- online backup for notes. By syncing notes with your EverNote account, you can keep a backup of notes in your Bible and access it on your device or on your desktop.
- new display and navigation customization to make pop-up reference windows even more useful.
Olive Tree University is new in version 4.10 of BibleReader for iPhone. Version 4.10 has been submitted to Apple, and Apple has approved the upgrade for some BibleReader Apps, but others are still in the approval process. If you haven’t yet been notified that an upgrade is available for your BibleReader App, be patient—you will soon!
How to use the ESV Study Bible on the iPhone BibleReader
Mar 6th
Here is a short video showing how to use the ESV Study Bible on Olive Tree’s iPhone BibleReader.
Newest Display Technology for Biblical Languages
Jun 30th
On June 16-18, I attended the conference “The Bible and Computers: Present and Future of a Discipline” in the suburbs of Madrid, Spain. At this conference, a group of people from many different nations interested in the intersection between Biblical studies and computer technology gathered together to hear presentations on current research. Most of those present were university professors.
There were three types of talks presented. The first group involved research that academics are doing that produce databases that will eventually be—if they have not already been—incorporated into Bible software packages. It was exciting for me to hear some of what is on the horizon. For example, I am interested in Hebrew syntax, so I enjoyed listening to presentations by representatives of two different groups that have been working on syntactically tagging the entire Old Testament. The second group of talks revolved around the progress and state of existing Bible software packages. I got to hear about the latest bells and whistles on a variety of Bible software programs. Finally, the third group focused on the results of using Bible software packages, from successful strategies for teaching Hebrew and Greek more effectively with the use of Bible software to the results of research enabled by Bible software. It was gratifying to hear how Bible software is helping professors in their teaching and research of the Bible.
I presented a talk at the conference entitled “Displaying Hebrew and Aramaic on Handheld Devices That Lack Proper Complex Script Support.” In my talk, I set the stage by discussing the way in which complex script technology has improved on personal computers in recent years, but these improvements have not yet been extended to mobile devices. I then discussed some possible strategies for overcoming these limitations on mobile devices, giving the positives and negatives of each approach. Finally, I discussed the approach we at Olive Tree took in successfully overcoming these obstacles—to my knowledge producing the first aesthetically pleasing Hebrew and Aramaic texts with all the desired vowels, cantillation marks, and symbols on mobile devices. My talk was warmly received by the audience of scholars. I supplemented my presentation’s screenshots by showing off BibleReader’s Hebrew and Aramaic display to many of the conference’s participants on an actual Windows Mobile device.
Here is a list of our products that use this innovative display technology: BHS, BHS Add-On – Groves-Wheeler Westminster Hebrew Morphology, and Qumran (non-biblical texts). You can see my previous blog posts about it here, here, and here.
~Drayton B.
Update to Windows Mobile Soft Keys
Oct 26th
We have made an update to how the Windows Mobile soft keys work if you enable the soft keys (you can enable this option in Menu->Options->Toolbar Options). When you enable the soft keys, the main toolbar is replaced by a left and right soft key. You can customize what commands appear under the left soft key menu by changing the commands for the primary toolbar in the “Toolbar Options”.
This feature is nice for one-handed navigation because now you can access all of the commands on the toolbar through the soft key menu system.
You can download a beta version of the BibleReader with this updated feature from http://www.olivetree.com/download/beta/palmppc/.
- Stephen
An Author Everyone Should Know
Oct 15th
Few Christian writers, from the present or the past, have affected my life and the lives of other Christians I know as much as Andrew Murray (1828-1917). His books are the kind you come back to again and again, savoring every line, reading slowly and prayerfully, drawing near to the Christ he knew and loved and expressed so well. It’s hard to read very far without stopping to pray, for the Spirit of prayer seems to be the very atmosphere of Andrew Murray’s books; moreover, the author speaks so directly to you, the reader, that it’s sometimes hard to believe you don’t know him; of course, in the Spirit, as a fellow member of Christ’s body, you do.
Andrew Murray grew up in South Africa nearly two centuries ago, both his father and grandfather being Scottish missionaries to that vast, untamed land. After attending school in Aberdeen, Scotland, and receiving theological training in the Netherlands, Andrew returned to South Africa as an ordained minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. This author almost never refers to himself in his books, so it’s surprising to read a biography of Murray and to find out about the trials he endured and the burdens he bore. Once, as a young pastor, serving remote farmers in the wide-open landscape, he was surrounded by wolves. After his horse threw him and ran away, Murray walked by faith the rest of the way to his parishioners’ farmhouse, many miles it was, wolves snapping at him all the while but never touching him. Though a man of much practical experience, it seems that Murray focuses every book on one thing only: the indwelling Christ.
Olive Tree Bible Software is privileged to be able to publish in electronic format several of this beloved writer’s books (which number some 240), a few of which I’ll describe briefly. In The New Life: Words of God for Young Disciples of Christ Murray addresses new believers concerning the wonderful life they have received, his clear intention being to establish firmly their faith in Christ and to encourage them on the path of life and fruitfulness in Him. In With Christ in the School of Prayer, the author presents thirty-one lessons on prayer, one for every day of the month, echoing the disciples’ plea, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Reading this book, one is infused with faith that God wants to answer our prayers even more than we want them answered; in fact, He put the desire within us to begin with. In The Deeper Christian Life, Murray relates that the first and chief need of our Christian life is fellowship with God. Indeed, this theme, and the blessedness of abiding moment by moment in Christ, in absolute surrender, trusting Him to accomplish all that He has promised to do in us and through us, is the essential message of Andrew Murray’s fervent ministry to the body of Christ.
“I have learnt,” he says, “to place myself before God every day, as a vessel to be filled with His Holy Sprit. He has filled me with the blessed assurance that He, as the everlasting God, has guaranteed His work in me. If there is one lesson that I am learning day by day, it is this; that it is God who worketh all in all. Oh, that I could help any brother or sister to realize this!”
New Features for One Handed Navigation
Oct 4th
Many of you may remember my post about one handed navigation on Palm from the start of the summer. I am pleased to say that we have added more one handed navigation features to both Palm and Pocket PC 
I have three main ways that I use the BibleReader. I use the BibleReader for reading, following along in church/Bible studies, and studying the Bible. When I am reading or following along in church I typically don’t have my stylus out. Having to pull it out is distracting and too cumbersome for performing a simple task. This is where one handed navigation is a life saver. You can now use most features of the BibleReader without using a stylus
The new one handed navigation features are in version 3.69.228 and above of the BibleReader. You can download this version from the beta web site http://www.olivetree.com/download/beta/palmppc/.
The big new feature that we added for one handed navigation is “5-way navigation of hyperlinks”. This feature lets you select hyperlinks (including publisher notes) using the 5-way arrow pad. There are two options that you can enable with this feature. You can have the left/right arrows navigate hyperlinks and/or you can have the up/down arrows navigate the hyperlinks. Palm users can find these options the Menu->Options->Preferences and then select “Scrolling” from the drop down in the upper right corner. Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) users can find these preference in the “Scrolling Preferences”.
If you choose to have the up/down arrows navigate the hyperlinks then when you click on the down arrow it will put a dotted box around the next hyperlink on the screen. If there are no more hyperlinks on the screen then it will do the scrolling behavior for the down arrow. You can click on the center button to follow a hyperlink. For books like CWSB and Gramcord that have lots of hyperlinks it can be helpful to enable both the up/down and left/right arrows to navigate hyperlinks. When you have both options selected clicking on the down arrow will go to the hyperlink below the hyperlink with the box around it.
When you are just reading having the arrow keys constantly highlighting hyperlinks can be annoying. You don’t want to have to go to the options every time to turn this feature on/off since that would defeat the purpose of being able to quickly select a hyperlink without pulling out your stylus. We added a shortcut called “Toggle 5Way Hyperlink”. You can assign this shortcut to a hardware key on your device. You can use this shortcut to turn the 5-way navigation of hyperlinks on and off.
On Windows Mobile 5 Phone Edition and Windows Mobile 6 Professional (Windows Mobile devices with soft keys) we have added another toolbar that makes one-handed navigation much easier. In the toolbar options you can enable the option to “Use Windows Mobile 5 & 6 Soft Keys”. This will make the main toolbar be two buttons that work with the left and right soft keys. With this toolbar you can easily access all of the BibleReader features without having to use the stylus to access the toolbar.
As if that wasn’t enough we have also fixed up the 5-way navigation on many of the Windows Mobile BibleReader dialog boxes. Now you can use your 5-way keys to navigate dialog boxes like the search screen.
There are other one handed navigation features in the Palm and Windows Mobile BibleReader. You can read about some of them in the blog one handed navigation on Palm. Many of the features talked about in that blog article also apply to the Windows Mobile BibleReader.
-Stephen