Kings

There's a new NBC series called "Kings" based on the story of David in the Bible. I haven't seen it yet (I have it taped), but anybody who's interested better hurry up and watch it because it was a ratings bomb, despite some positive buzz. There's apparently 11 more hours of the episode already filmed, though how long NBC will leave the show on the air is an open question. I hope to have a review of the show after I've seen a few episodes.

BibleWorks 8

I was really tempted to pre-order BibleWorks 8 when the news hit my email inbox, but I'm now glad I held back. If you peruse the forums at BibleWorks, there appears to be the usual glitches and install problems that accompany new software. I think I'll wait a few months before I get my copy; that is, after all the early adopters have had a chance to show the folks at BibleWorks where all the kinks are.

An upgrade from version 7 to 8 is just $150 which in my eyes is justified by the inclusion of the Greek Pseudepigrapha and the BHS update (4.4 to 4.10) alone. In this regard, I'm really glad I didn't purchase the Logos pre-pub of the Greek Pseudepigrapha when it was offered a few months back since it makes it much easier to justify upgrading to BibleWorks 8.

The Red and the Black

Ben Spratling, who is the creator of a great little bible app called BibleXpress, has included a little feature that I absolutely love: the ability to turn off the default red letter text that tends to come with most bible translations on most apps in iTunes App store.


With the default settings, the accursed red letter text can be found in abundance in the Gospels.


However, in the settings you can switch off the red letter text so that you can read the bible in blessedly uniform black letter text as below.


So far, BibleXpress has the ASV, ESV, KJV, NASB, NRSV, The Message, and a couple of Spanish translations, with more to come (he's negotiating with the folks who hold the rights to the NLT and even attempting to get the rights to the Greek NT and LXX). Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your perspective, Zondervan declined to allow him to include the NIV. For more information about this app, you can check out his home page here or check out the app in iTunes.

It seems to me, for the price ($30) it's the best choice out there for those who don't need access to the text in the original languages, for which Olive Tree Software is, of course, indispensable. I hope the folks at Olive Tree are paying attention because their App is the one I use most frequently (the Greek and Hebrew is really coming along in beta) but it's annoying that I have to stare at red letter text anytime I read the gospels in English.

Update: And just like that, Olive Tree Software has a new beta that enables readers to change the color of Jesus' words to whatever they like. Awesome. Additionally, it appears that lemma search in Greek and Hebrew is just around the corner.

In the Mail

I'm a little late to the controversy, but this little book got Peter Enns (PhD in Hebrew Bible, Harvard) fired from his position at Westminster Theological Seminary. Here's a post trying to detail the issues involved. He now has a blog, and here's an interview posted by another blogger. Once I've had a chance to read it, I may get around to making a post on it. On scanning the controversy, it simply brought to mind a book I read a long time ago that I think is somewhat apropros:

Eating For $1 per day

Given the current economic climate, there are undoubtedly people on a tight budget. Here's a blog started by a couple of high school teachers who decided to see if they could survive with on just what they could buy for $1 each day. On their blog you can find video of TV stories/interviews by FoxNews and Inside Edition.