Logos Bible Software Blog

April 4, 2008

What's New in the Spanish Department?

It's been a while since the last blog post on the Spanish department, so it's about time to fill you in on some of what's been going on. Our Spanish team is hard at work creating great new products and spreading the word to the Spanish-speaking world about how Software Bíblico Logos can help them do better Bible study. And there are some really exciting things coming down the pike!

Equipping Pastors

We are thrilled to watch Software Bíblico Logos meet a massive need, particularly among Hispanic pastors. The average Hispanic pastor has a library of fewer than 30 books, has to work a secular job, and has not had the privilege of seminary education. Logos equips pastors like these with a library that is often several times the size of their print libraries. It's portability, affordability, and efficiency make it the perfect solution for the pastor working two jobs. And having a "seminary library in a box"—as some refer to it—is the next best thing to actually going to seminary.

We currently have three Spanish base collections. The top end package, Bilioteca Academica Bilingue (Academic Bilingual Library), contains 213 volumes and is the best seller in the United States, where many pastors know enough English to benefit from some English resources. The middle package, Biblioteca Pastoral (Pastor's Library), has only Spanish resources and is the most popular collection in the rest of the Spanish-speaking world. The third base collection, Biblioteca de Estudio Biblico (Bible Study Library), is an introductory collection of essential resources. There are also some great add-on collections like the Biblioteca Digital de la Misión (Missions Digital Library) and the Comentario Bíblico del Continente Nuevo (New Continental Bible Commentary).

New Products

And Software Bíblico Logos just keeps getting better. The entire checkout process at http://www.logos.com/es is now in Spanish, making it much easier for users who don't know English to order software online. There's also the new Video de Instrucción Avanzada: Cómo estudiar un pasaje bíblico, an advanced training videos CD, which pastors are finding very helpful. The Addin Archivero de Sermones (Sermon File Addin) is also now available in Spanish.

Coming Soon 

First, Teología concisa, the Spanish translation of J. I. Packer's Concise Theology, is now on Pre-Pub. There are also several other exciting projects in the works. A couple are too top secret to mention, but I can tell you about one of them. There really is no cross-referencing tool in Spanish comparable to something like the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge—at least not yet. Guillermo Powell, who heads up our Spanish department, is leading a team of 18 native Spanish speakers who have a good command of English in creating a Spanish translation of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge using the Reina Valera as the base text. Having a resource like this will a be great addition to the Passage Guide and tremendous help to pastors and Bible students as they interpret the meaning of Scripture. We're excited about being able to provide such an essential tool.

Our Mission

As we say in our mission statement, we see it as "our responsibility to ensure that the investment in technology we can afford to make because we serve the western church pays dividends for the whole world." And you're a huge part in helping us fulfill that mission. When you purchase software from us, you are not only buying a useful tool for yourself, but you are also helping to make possible the creation of products in smaller, foreign-language markets around the world.

Ways to Help

With the growing Hispanic population in the United States, new Hispanic ministries are starting all the time—from Bible studies, to ministries within English-speaking churches, to new church plants. If you have a Spanish-speaking ministry at your church or are aware of one in your area, please let them know about Software Bíblico Logos. You can also help us spread the word by linking to http://www.logos.com/es with the word “biblia” in the anchor text.

August 24, 2007

Logos in Guatemala

Guillermo Powell, Logos' International Director for Spanish Products, recently returned from Guatemala, where he spent an entire week presenting Logos in several seminaries, including radio and TV interviews. Latin American countries are quickly catching up with technology, and as economies improve, even pastors and some students can afford our libraries. Logos' Spanish Department has been working hard to spread the word about our ground-breaking new products - created specifically for the Spanish speaking Bible student.

In February of this year Logos introduced three brand new versions of the program. This release more than quadrupled the number of Spanish books available in Libronix format. The Biblioteca Pastoral represents a huge step for the Spanish world. The number of resources included in the collection has recently jumped from 40 to 143. This is pretty amazing when you consider that NO other Bible software company has more than a few Spanish books. Just take one look at the impressive resource list and you don't have to speak Spanish to realize that this collection was just given a major overhaul.

Of the 110 new books in the Biblioteca Pastoral, the standout resource is undoubtedly the new Spanish-Greek and Spanish-Hebrew Reverse Interlinears. Spanish speakers can now do the same type of research into the original languages that English pastors have been able to do since the release of Logos Bible Software 3.

One of the other newly revised collections is the Biblioteca Académica Bilingüe, which was expanded from 70 to more than 210 books. The exciting aspect of this library is that, for the first time, many Spanish pastors can afford a digital library that is larger than their current print library.

The third of these new Spanish collections is completely dedicated to missions. La Biblioteca Digital de la Misión has 40 titles that focus on missions (both foreign and local), church planting, and support for missionaries. All this is done from a uniquely Latin American perspective.

English speaking readers might be thinking, "This is all exciting stuff, but how does it affect me?" Guillermo encourages, "American churches that support missionaries in Spanish speaking countries should consider giving their missionaries these unique libraries. Just the savings in shipping books, pays for the Bilingual library!"

July 26, 2007

What About Homer's Iliad?

[[Note: Homer's Iliad has now entered into "under development" status. We hope to make it available as soon as we can! — RB, Aug 15, 2007]]

The guys over in marketing asked me about the editions of Homer's Iliad that we have on pre-pub. Why would Logos users find that sort of stuff useful?

So I thought I'd take a quick stab. First, it's Homer. Classic epic poetry and all that. If you're not familiar with the basic storyline of the Iliad (and the Odyssey, for that matter) you really should be just because it will make you a more well-rounded individual.

As regards Biblical studies, I think there are two main areas where something like Homer's Iliad can be used.

The first has to do with parallel concepts. One of these parallel concepts can be illustrated using 1Th 4.9-10a:*

Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. (1Th 4.9-10a, ESV)

Now, here's Iliad 23.304-308

304 drew his car. And his father drew nigh and gave counsel
305 to him for his profit - a wise man to one that himself had knowledge.Antilochus,
306 for all thou art young, yet have Zeus and
307 Poseidon loved thee and taught thee all manner of horsemanship;
308 wherefore to teach thee is no great need, for thou knowest
309 well how to wheel about the turning-post;
Homer, & Murray, A. T. (2007). The Iliad. At head of title: Homer. The Loeb classical library (Homer, Iliad 23.309). Bellingham: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

The parallel concept is that of deity teaching man. The Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament further explains: "Achilles had offered a prize for the best driver in a chariot race. Antilochus is encouraged by his father with words that may have been current in the Hellenistic world, echoed by Paul, and recognized by his readers — though of course communicating a different content."*

Second, and to my mind the more useful of the two areas, is examining usage of words and concepts also found in the LXX or the New Testament. The Iliad is a large corpus, routinely dated in the seventh or eighth century BC (read: a looooonnnngggg time ago). The Greek version is fully morphologically tagged. This means that parts of speech and dictionary forms are encoded behind the actual word in the text. The Greek version also has English glosses for each word (note that the interlinear lines can be turned on or off using View | Interlinear, so you can remove the gloss line, and the morph line, and the lemma line if you see them as "crutches"). There are parallel aligned translations in English, French, Spanish and German. Lots of area to look for classical Greek usage of words and concepts, and lots of help for the person somewhat familiar with Greek but unfamiliar with Homer.

The Homeric literature (the Iliad included) gives us a glimpse into how words were used then, in the context of epic poetry. This can help us better understand the Greek of the New Testament. One quick example is that of the word ????????, the verb form of "sin". The NT uses this sense of the word, but the word did not always directly communicate the concept "to sin". In classical literature (e.g. Homer, Iliad 5.287) ???????? is used in the general sense of ‘miss the mark’, particularly of thrown spears (cf. LSJ p. 77, which also cites Iliad 10.372). In specific contexts within classical literature, including Homer, this could be seen as failing or of doing wrong. BDAG notes this generally with no citations (BDAG p. 49); LSJ helps with some citations (Iliad 5.287, 10.372); a search of the Logos edition of the Iliad, however, gives the total list so the word usage can be further evaluated.

In the Logos edition of the Iliad, there are 16 instances of the lemma ????????. These were located with a search for "lemma:????????". The "lemma:" specifies the field to search, the word after the colon is the search target. (Sort of like how some of Google's advanced search operators work). Here are the results:

From here, you can run a lemma report. See the link to Search Analysis By Lemma? Click on that. Here's what you'll get:

With this information to hand, you can work through the morphologically-sorted list of instances and see what you think. The Greek text has glosses, but you can also consult the English (or French or Spanish or German, if you please) as you work through the issues to see how your term was translated.

Finally, the question everyone always asks. "Why only the Iliad? Why not the Odyssey too?" We'd love to do the Odyssey and have plans to pursue it — if the Iliad prepub succeeds, then keep your eyes open for a version of the Odyssey at some time in the future!

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* Boring, M. Eugene, Klaus Berger and Carsten Colpe. Hellenistic Commentary to the New Testament, (Abingdon: Nashville), 1995. pp. 493-494.

June 21, 2007

With Whom Am I Speaking?

Guest blogger Mark VanDyke, formerly a Logos support rep, works in the marketing department at Logos.

Whenever I speak with a customer service representative over the phone I can't help but wonder…where on earth is this person? What are their working conditions like? Have they seen the light of day in the past 48 hours?

Then it hit me. People who call Logos’ customer support line might be wondering the same thing.

For starters, Logos has three types of customer service reps: Spanish support representatives, customer support (or CS) representatives and technical support reps. CS reps are on the front lines of the Logos support team. That’s who you’ll be talking with if you need help with basic program operations like installation or product activation. If a call requires advanced intervention it will be forwarded to a technical support rep.

There are currently 27 people working in the customer support department. While many companies' call centers resemble Industrial Revolution sweatshops, the Logos Customer Support staff actually has some of the best offices in the entire company. In addition to the charming decor and natural light their workspace features a ping pong table and copious amounts of nerf darts (which, of course, accompany the 2 or 3 nerf guns in circulation).

If you end up contacting Logos customer support, here are just a few of the people who you might be on the other end of your call.

From Left to Right Sarah Swier (Technical Support), Elizabeth Borries (CS), Mark French (Technical Support) and Adam Borries (CS).

Mike Bryant (Technical Support) and Luc Button (CS) also known around customer support as Shake'n'Bake, respectively.

Tara Everret (Customer Support) has the best view in the house.

The Logos customer support staff will tell anyone that we have the greatest customers in the world – and our customers have a lot of great things to say about them too...

“I want to tell you what a wonderful experience it was to deal with your customer service. I worked with two women who were polite, patient, kind, calm.... list goes on. (The process) was very simple because they made it that way.” –Karen from Precept Ministries

And

“I've had a chance to interact three times with Logos support, and they have been immediately helpful and pleasant to deal with. Anyone who has ever tried tech support for some other product knows what a big deal this is. The staff there genuinely seems to love both their product and the customers. Could it be an act? Sure...But I'm willing to believe the illusion, aren't you?” –Brian, Dluxe's World

It takes a certain type of person to enjoy solving software issues for 40 hours each week. Is it the chic office or the ping-pong that keep the Logos CS reps going? We asked Jerry Godfrey, Manager of Customer Support, who explains,

"When I'm being served as a customer there is no better feeling than receiving great service, and being treated with care and respect. Here at Logos we constantly work to help all of our customers as well as we possibly can. I really enjoy being a part of a team that truly enjoys making our customers happy and satisfied."

May 17, 2007

Logos and Latin-American Missions

Today's guest blogger is Rob Haskell, who works in the Spanish department at Logos.

It’s been fun to find out through my work with Logos that missions is a growing theme in Latin-American Christianity. This is so much so that we have been able to create a collection of 40 books on missions from a Hispanic perspective called Biblioteca Digital de la Misión (Digital Library for the Mission).

According to COMIBAM, an umbrella organization for missions from Latin America, there are almost 10,000 Latin missionaries around the globe – many of them in the US! And that figure does not take into account the number of "non-professional" missionaries who emigrate every day from Latin-American countries to all parts of the globe, taking with them the good news about Jesus.

Last month an elderly woman approached our booth at a pastor's conference in Monterrey, Mexico. She was dark skinned and dressed in a sari so my initial thought was that she was East Indian. As it turned out she was a Mexican woman who was headed to India as a missionary in a month. She was outgoing, energetic and particularly excited because the Lord had just given her a laptop. Of course, the Logos booth was her next stop. Another person had also given her a crisp $100.00 bill and after applying all possible discounts she was off with her very own Biblioteca Pastoral – our largest collection of books in Spanish. Now she can take a theological library of 144 books in her own language to the ends of the earth.

This committed missionary woman from Monterrey is probably the most striking image I have of the growing Latin-American passion for world missions, but there are many other amazing stories and surprising statistics which all point to a growing movement. It will be interesting to watch it develop and see how Logos can continue to play a role in the Lord's work around the globe.

September 14, 2006

Here's Something Nuevo ... er, New

Last week, I posted about syntax searching for "fronted complements".

Today, I ran the same search with a slight preference change. Here's the result. Can you see what's new in this screenshot?

Did you get it?

That's right, the difference is that the syntax hits are highlighted in Spanish (the 1960 Reina Valera New Testament). Now, the Nuevo Testamento Interlineal Revertido Español-Griego: Reina Valera 1960 is still in development, but you can see how, even though it is Spanish, it just plugs right in and is useful in the same way as the ESV NT Reverse Interlinear.

Search hits work the same way:

This was all done — again, on my computer here at the office because the resource has not been released yet — by switching my preferred Bible to the Reina Valera Revisada (1960).

Oh, yeah ... we're working on an RV1960 Old Testament Reverse Interlinear as well ...

June 14, 2006

Spanish Department on the Road

In May, Guillermo and Rob of the Spanish department hit the road with Logos 3. First stop was Expolit in Miami, which is the largest book fair for Spanish language Christian literature in the world. This was a great time to develop our network of international distributors, connect with individual customers and publishers and sample some of the tasty restaurants of Miami (in that order, of course). The world of Spanish Christian literature is growing at an incredible pace and it is exciting to be part of it all.

After Expolit they split up. Guillermo traveled to Lima, Perú, to participate in the “Excellence in Training” conference organized by Overseas Council International. The conference aimed at strengthening the leadership of Spanish seminaries. Attendees were presidents and deans of seminaries from 17 different countries. Logos presented the tools and resources that students and faculty have available in their language and also proposed the development of new resources for the study of the Hebrew language. Logos is excited to partner with experienced and knowledgeable experts in Latin America to facilitate this development. More to come on that in the near future. A rather interesting side trip was a visit to “El Hueco”, the piracy mall of Peru. Here the visitor can buy a pirated copy of anything, including newly released DVD movies complete with plastic case and picture insert for US $0.50! Fortunately there was no Libronix on display (and no, he didn’t buy anything, tempting as it was).

Meanwhile, Rob had already boarded a plane to Spain right after Expolit. There he hooked up with Jon Haley, a great supporter of Logos, to put on some presentations and training. Jon uses our Biblioteca de Estudio Bíblico in the distance ed school for Spaniards that he started last year. The response to our presentations was enthusiastic and it showed us that Spain is bound to be a growing market. It’s also a fun place to visit! Rob drove by too many castles to keep track of and also visited the Church of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, a famous architectural marvel that has been under construction for over 80 years. The trip to Barcelona also provided an opportunity to visit our publishing partner Clie, which is the largest Christian publisher in the Spanish world.

 

April 28, 2006

Meet the Staff: Roberto Haskell

Rob works with Guillermo Powell, promoting our Spanish-language products. In this video interview you'll hear about some of the programs Rob works on, including the Spanish affiliate program.

Windows Media (1.7MB) | Quicktime (2.2MB)

March 31, 2006

Meet the Staff: Guillermo Powell

Guillermo Powell heads up the Spanish department at Logos, which is responsible for creating and promoting our Spanish language products to North America and the world. Guillermo was also the subject of a recent post about his trip to Perú.

Did you know that we offer a growing number of Spanish language collections, a Spanish toll-free order line -- (800) 570-5400, a Spanish website complete with product demos in Spanish, Spanish support articles and training articles? Well, now you know.

Windows Media (2.1MB) | Quicktime (2.8MB)

February 23, 2006

Of the Making of Books (Part 8)

El Departamento de productos en español de Logos se complace en presentar este artículo y los productos de Caribe-Betania para nuestros lectores de habla hispana, para leer el artículo haga clic acá.

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Today’s guest blogger is Ken Smith, General Manager of Electronic Publishing Services at Logos.

(This is the next installment in a series of articles about our nearly 60 publishing partners who market their own electronic products using our technology.)

Caribe-Betania Editores

Since early 2000, we have worked with Caribe-Betania Editores, the Spanish language division of Thomas Nelson, to create CD-ROM products to serve their market.

In April of 2000, they released their first product, titled Biblioteca electrónica Caribe or BECA, which was updated in July of 2003 to the Libronix Digital Library System. Some of the key titles in this collection are Spanish translations of: Nelson's New Illustrated Dictionary of the Bible, Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary, Life Application Bible notes, and the Spirit-Filled Life™ Bible notes.

In 2003, Caribe released two author-focused BECA collections: an "Inspirational Edition", featuring books by Max Lucado, and a "Leadership Edition", featuring the works of John C. Maxwell.

In November of 2004, Caribe released their largest collection to date, known as the BECA "Professional Edition". Additional titles in this collection include Spanish versions of Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Commentary, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Facts, and the New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance.

Next: AMG

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El hacer de libros (parte 8)

Nuestro escritor invitado hoy es nuevamente Ken Smith, Gerente del Departamento de Servicios de publicación electrónica de Logos.

(Esta es la siguiente en una serie de artículos acerca de las casi 60 editoriales que promueven sus productos electrónicos por medio de nuestra tecnología.)

Caribe-Betania Editores

Desde el año 2000, que estamos trabajando con Caribe-Betania Editores, la división hispana de Thomas Nelson, creando productos en CD-ROM para satisfacer las necesidades de su mercado.

Su primer producto, titulado Biblioteca electrónica Caribe o BECA, salió al mercado en abril del año 2000, luego fue actualizado en julio del 2003 al sistema de Biblioteca Digital Libronix. Algunos de los títulos mas importantes en esta colección son: Nuevo Diccionario Ilustrado de la Biblia, Diccionario Expositivo de palabras del Antiguo y Nuevo Testamento de Vine, Biblia del Diario Vivir con notas, y la Biblia Plenitud con notas.

En el año 2003, Caribe produjo dos nuevas colecciones de autores reconocidos: la Biblioteca electrónica Caribe edición inspiradora, destacando los libros de de Max Lucado, y la Biblioteca electrónica Caribe edición de liderazgo, destacando los libros de John C. Maxwell.

En noviembre del 2004, Caribe trajo al mercado su mayor colección a la fecha, conocida como Biblioteca electrónica Caribe edición profesional. Algunos de los títulos adicionales incluyen Nuevo Comentario Ilustrado de la Biblia, Enciclopedia Ilustrada de Realidades de la Biblia, y la Nueva Concordancia Strong Exhaustiva.

Próximo: AMG

September 2, 2005

Spanish Dividends

It costs so much to build English-language tools and, incrementally, so little to enable them for other languages that it seems a waste not to do so.

Our large investment in the large English-speaking market should pay dividends around the world, not just here in the US. Building a multi-lingual technology like the Libronix DLS enables that, but users still need Bibles and reference works in their own language.

We’re working on acquiring licenses to those resources, but it is a slow process made all the more complicated by multiple ownership: a Spanish reference work may be a translation, by a Spanish publisher, of an English work, but the translator only owns the print rights and the electronic rights remain with the English publisher, who doesn’t own the translation. (We are working through this, though, and getting results.)

Years ago Logos funded the development of a complete set of biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek lexicons by James Swanson. Controlling the rights as well as high-quality XML source files allowed us to have this Dictionary of Biblical Languages translated into Spanish at a reasonable cost without having to re-do all the tagging and linking. The translators started with the well-tagged English source files and only translated the English, ensuring that the original languages text and extensive links to other resources remained intact.

The Greek dictionary has been translated, and we hope the other volumes will follow soon. Look for it in an upcoming Spanish release.

English:

787 ?????? (artios), ?? (ia), ?? (on): adj.; ? Str 739; TDNT 1.475—LN 75.4 qualified for a function; capable (REB), efficient (NEB), proficient (NRSV), competent (NAB), (2Ti 3:17+), note: many versions use vocabulary that emphasizes the thoroughness or completeness of the equipping; thoroughly (NIV), fully (NJB), complete (ASV, RSV, NKJV), perfect (KJV)

Spanish:

787 ?????? (artios), ?? (ia), ?? (on): adj.; ? Str 739; TDNT 1.475—LN 75.4 calificado para una función, capacitado (RVA, NVI), eficiente, eficaz, preparado (RVR, DHH, TLA), equipado (LBLA) (2Ti 3:17+), nota: muchas versiones usan un vocabulario que enfatiza la meticulosidad o totalidad de la preparación; minuciosamente, completo, perfecto