For all of you dedicated Christmas day blog readers, we put together a little Christmas video and some pictures from around the office and at our annual Christmas party. Enjoy!
Silent Night (Jazz Trio Version) Less Bass by John Stebbe. Used under Creative Commons License Attribution-No Derivative Works 1.0 Generic
Merry Christmas!
Logos is going to Macworld and we wanted to invite you to come along—in fact, we’re even giving away tickets to the expo!
If you’d like a free ticket to the expo, we have a couple ways you can win.
We only have 90 tickets to give away, so act fast as we’ll give them away on a first-come, first-served basis. If you’re looking to attend more than just the expo, we can also save you 15% on some of the programs offered at Macworld. Just use our Macworld registration link, and the discounts will be shown during on the program listing page. The discount is open to everyone, so enjoy.
If you already have your tickets to Macworld this year, we’d love to see you there. You can find us in the North Hall, booth number 3526-S. Drop us a comment below and let us know you’ll be there!
Important Contest Info: We’re only giving away tickets to the Expo ($45 value). That means, if you win a ticket, you will only have access to view the exhibition floor (but with almost 500 exhibitors, I’m sure you’ll have plenty to do). If you want to purchase tickets for the keynote or any other event, that is up to you. Also, Macworld is in San Francisco, January 5-9, 2009. We’re not covering your airfare, travel expense, or meals… so, please be aware that you are responsible for those items before you enter.
The contest begins. . . right. . . now!
We’re starting a weekly blog contribution from our Customer Service department. In it you’ll learn a variety of tips to help you keep your copy of Logos Bible Software running smoothly. We hope you enjoy the series.
Today’s guest blogger is Elizabeth Sanborn, a member of our Customer Service team.
One problem we encounter often is when users install an outdated version of Libronix from an old disk onto a new computer running Windows Vista. Older versions of Libronix are not compatible Vista, so it’s essential that you install the most recent version, which is presently 3.0e.
Everyone should be running Libronix DLS 3.0e, regardless of which version of Windows you’re using. Products that were released earlier than 2008 won’t have the most recent version. You can save yourself a lot of time and effort either by installing directly from our website or by purchasing a media only disk, which is available for only $4.95 plus shipping.
If your version of Libronix is really old, you may need to purge off the old system instead of using Add/Remove programs. If that looks too complicated or scary, don’t hesitate to call us at 800-875-6467. We’d love to walk you through the process.
So this week’s tip is: make sure you’re installing the latest version on your new machine. More and more computers are coming with Vista, and we want to ensure that Libronix runs smoothly for you.
By the way, to find out what version of Libronix you are running, start Libronix and go to “Help” > “About Libronix DLS.” You’ll see this window pop up.
If you’re not running 3.0e or later, find out how you can easily get up to date—for free!
We’ve updated our endorsements page and wanted to share it with you. Most of you who read this blog are probably already Logos users, so there’s not much personal benefit to reading the endorsements other than being able to say, “Cool! I didn’t know _______ uses and recommends Logos!”
That’s fun and all, but we really have two other reasons for mentioning our new endorsements page. The truth is, endorsements are a huge help to many people.
First, most people make purchases at least partially based on the recommendation of a friend or someone they respect. I’m sure you know people who are potential Logos users. In addition to sharing your own opinions about Logos Bible Software, you can provide additional help by pointing them to the opinions of ministry leaders, industry insiders, academic users, pastors and missionaries, and average Christians who love to study the Bible.
Second, you may know people who love Logos and rave about it (you may even be one!) but have never had the chance to let their voice be heard on a scale where it can benefit lots of other people. If you know of someone who has an endorsement of Logos that they’d like to share with the world, send them on to our endorsements page where they can submit their own feedback.
Although I wasn’t there, I heard that we had a blast at ETS and SBL this year. Thanks for stopping by and saying hello. We love to meet new users and get reacquainted with old ones.
In case you weren’t able to attend and don’t keep up with the blogs of Mike, Rick, and Steve, I thought you might like to know that their papers are now available.
Mike presented a paper on “The Concept of a Godhead in Israelite Religion.” He plans to turn it into two articles: one for a Christian academic audience, the other for a broader audience. If you’re interested in OT studies and theology proper, I’d encourage you to give it a read. He welcomes your feedback. Read more at Mike’s blog.
Rick’s paper was on “The Discourse Function of αλλα in Non-Negative Contexts.” He provides a helpful conference handout, as well as a nice abstract. If Greek conjunctions are your thing, this is sure to be stimulating reading. Read more at Rick’s blog.
Steve presented a paper at ETS on “The Exegetical Significance of Meta-Comments for Identifying Key Propositions,” with an accompanying PowerPoint presentation. The paper is a good taste of Steve’s forthcoming Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction for Teaching and Exegesis, which is available for pre-order at Logos.com.
At SBL Steve gave a second paper on “The Discourse Function of Left-dislocation Constructions and their Contribution to Information Structure,” which also had a PowerPoint presentation. Read more at Steve’s blog.
By the way, we mentioned before that we introduced a number of new bundles and collections at ETS and SBL. They are still available at the same prices, so if you missed the first mention, be sure to give them a look.
Update: John Barry also presented a paper at SBL entitled “Will the Servant ‘See Light’?: A Reexamination of the ‘ôr Variant in Isaiah 53:11." He provides a helpful handout that summarizes his argument. Read more at John’s Blog.
As a hat-tip to all our loyal Logos blog readers, we wanted to let you know about our latest online project, Sermons.Logos.com (beta). While we aren’t ready for a full-out release announcement, we thought it would be fun to let you guys and gals get the first chance to visit the site and “kick the tires.”
Sermons.Logos.com is an online community built around user created sermons and illustrations and already hosts over 56,000 sermons and illustrations.
Along with the ability to search Sermons.Logos.com using the same powerful search engine that runs Bible.Logos.com, you can also rate sermons, subscribe to sermon RSS feeds, create links to sermons and illustrations you want to share with people, and even create your own user account to upload your sermons and illustrations to the site.
If you already have a Logos.com account, there is no need to create a new account to use the site. Your Logos.com username and password work on Sermons.Logos.com. Not only that, but you can also promote your church and your sermons by enhancing your profile with a picture, a link to your church, your title, organization, personal blog or website, denomination, and much more. To enhance your profile, just visit: https://www.logos.com/user/MyProfile.
If you’re a Logos user and have the Sermon File Addin, contributing to Sermons.Logos.com is as easy as checking the “add my sermons to the Logos database” checkbox. Your sermons will automatically be added and, even more, when you edit them within Logos, your edits will appear on the site as well.
So, there you go. Remember, the site is in beta, so go check it out and let us know what you think.
As I was riding the bus to work last week, I was reading 1 Peter 1:3-5 on my Beta copy of Logos for Mac (part Bible study, part Beta testing). I sat there thinking about all the great promises of God within this text and thought, “I wonder what Dr. K. has to say about this.” So, I hit apple+L (that’s control+L for you windows users) and opened my library. At that moment I had an epiphany. Now, if you’ve been a Logos users for a while, you’ve probably already had this epiphany. For some of you, this epiphany is the reason you bought the software in the first place. For me, it was a new thought… I have a library on my computer.
Now, sure, everyone who has a Logos base package knows that he or she has a library on his or her computer, but this day was different. As I opened Kistamaker’s commentary, I thought about how big the print edition of this book would be. I own a couple hard copies from Baker’s New Testament Commentary Series and these are big, heavy, hardcover books. I chuckled as I thought about how funny it would look if I were on the bus trying to read my Bible and this commentary. It just wouldn’t work out too well.
Then I opened my Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary to see what it had to say about hope and remembered from my seminary days how incredibly large this book would be if I had it in my lap right now. I clicked more and more resources. As I opened the ESV English-Greek Reverse Interlinear of the NT and my Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament to study the original language in a little more detail, it just got funnier. By this point I probably had 5 or 6 books open, in my lap, on a crowded and bouncy bus. This kind of study would simply be impossible with the print equivalent.
The bus rounded the corner and I saw my stop approaching. I quickly closed my computer and tossed it in my bag. As I stepped off the bus and started walking towards Logos, I thought back to my campus ministry days. OH, how I wish I had Logos back then! I constantly battled between having my library at the church office or my home office. I was continually toting books back and forth. Then there were my trips to study on campus. Between these three places it was inevitable that I would want or need one of the books that weren’t where I was at the moment. How easily this could have all been solved if I only had Logos back then.
So, what about you? When did you have this epiphany? Where do you find yourself saying, “I could never do this if it weren’t for Logos?” Drop a comment below and share your story.
Today’s guest blogger is Adam Navarrete, who works in the marketing department here at Logos.
Just in time to get you thinking about your holiday cooking calendar, we held another bake-off this past Friday. There were more than a dozen delicious treats, but three rose to the top.
Our winners were as follows:
We invite you to download the recipes and give them a try!
If you make any of these for your household, church function, or holiday event, let us know how you like them.
Enjoy!
Steve Runge, a scholar-in-residence here at Logos and author of the Lexham Discourse Greek New Testament, the High Definition New Testament, and the forthcoming Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction to Discourse Features for Teaching and Exegesis has contributed to the blog here on several occasions.
But he has a lot more to say about discourse grammar, his area of expertise, so he’s decided to start his own blog, NT Discourse. His stated goal is to remove the mystery from discourse grammar. If it’s still a mystery to you, you might want to give it a read.
Steve’s hit the blogging ground running, and has been averaging about five posts per week. Here’s a sampling of the kinds of things he’s been discussing:
If you’ve purchased the LDGNT or the HDNT and are looking for some help learning how to put them to good use, you’ll definitely want to check out Steve’s new blog. You RSS folks can grab his newly burned FeedBurner feed.
Even if you’re not into discourse grammar, you won’t want to miss Steve and his dog singing a duet!
If you’ve watched our company video or talked with us on the phone multiple times, you’re probably aware of the various ways we pronounce our name. Some say Lŏgŏs, others say Lōgōs, and a few say Lōgŏs.
Which is it? As Eli so aptly put it, “It doesn’t matter how you say it. It’s Lōgōs, Lŏgŏs, Lōgŏs. It’s all good.”
Take the poll and let us know how you say it.
There are two other variations of our name that I’ve come across several times lately—not in pronunciation, but in spelling: Logo’s Bible Software and Logo Bible Software. Both of these assume that the first word in our name has something to do with a logo (i.e., “a symbol or emblem that acts as a trademark or a means of identification of an institution or other entity”).
It’s easy to understand why people would think this since logo is a very common English word, and our name comes from a Greek word that may be unfamiliar to many.
If it’s still Greek to you, then now’s your chance to learn a little about the Greek word λόγος (i.e., logos)—and the meaning behind our name.
Λόγος is a noun that occurs 330 times in the Greek New Testament. It’s most basic meaning is “word,” “speech,” “utterance,” or “message.” It’s used of Jesus as the Word (i.e., Jn 1:1, 14; Rev 19:13). It’s also used to refer to the Bible or some portion of the Bible as the Word of God (e.g., Mt 15:6; Lk 5:1; 8:21; 11:28; Jn 10:35-36; Ac 6:2, 7; Heb 13:7). Commonly it has specifically in view the preeminent word or message from God, namely the gospel (e.g., 1 Thes 1:5-6, 8).
So that’s what the Logos in Logos Bible Software is all about—the Word of God.
