Bible, Yes, Explorer, No
A Review of Bible Explorer
Ron Enderland
It's a shame that everybody has a Bible, but not too many folks bother to
open it up. The
fact that it is widely available in digital form is encouraging, but once
again the initial
problem remains. Nobody actually reads it!
Bible Explorer is one offering that is out there that provides the Book of
books to computer
users. And, the fact is, it does offer a complete King James version on a CD
ROM for a
reasonable price. There are also a large selection of paintings, sound clips
of scriptural
readings, decent video that dramatizes Jesus' life, and various commentaries
on the Bible.
Problems begin to arise, however.
For instance, the choice of paintings is good, but, often, the image quality
is not. There are
a few paintings that did translate well to disk. Fortunately, Michelangelo's
Sistine Chapel
works look very nice. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by numerous other
classics that
looked blurry and smeared.
In addition, the authors seem to have a hard time with dates for biblical events.
For example, on Biblical Timeline, the following dates are given:
"Jesus is born in Bethlehem-A.D. 4"
"Jesus begins his ministry-A.D. 26"
Note what Grolier's Multimedia Encyclopedia has to say regarding these dates: "The dating of Jesus' birth [is] toward the end of the reign of Herod the Great (died 4 B.C.)."
"Jesus, or Jeshua ben Joseph, as he was known to his contemporaries, was a Jew who appeared as a prophet, a teacher, and a sage in Palestine about AD 30."
What is ironic here is that the encyclopedia, which does not claim to be a
biblical
authority, is reasonably close to the Bible's claim (at Luke 3:23) that
"Jesus himself began
to be about thirty years of age" when he was baptized. This also agrees with
the early
Jewish concept of a man starting out on a major mission at the onset of
adulthood, which
was held to be thirty years of age.
Bible Explorer, however, would have Jesus baptized at the age of twenty or twenty-one. This certainly doesn't agree with the book that it claims to explore.
The maps that are featured are interesting, but many are of very little
practical value. The
sad fact is, you just can't read the printed words on them! In addition,
there could have been some explanation of what the individual maps' purposes
and specific uses were. I'm still scratching my head over what is meant by
"Empire of David and Adam."
The access to the scriptures leaves much to be desired. Let's say you wanted
to read the
150th Psalm. You could either hit "go to next chapter" 150 times, or open the
index screen, click "Psalms" as the search book, then type "psalm 150" in the
search box. It would have been a relatively simple programming change to give
the user a chapter list to pick from when each book is accessed.
To sum up, in my opinion, the program simply doesn't do justice to the great work that is The Bible.
School House Scorecard
| Product: |
Bible Explorer |
| Company: |
Expert Software
|
| Cost: |
$14.95 |
System Requirements:
386 SX or higher computer,
Windows 3.1, enhanced mode,
Mouse, 8 MB free hard disk space,
4 MB RAM (8 MB recommended),
Printer (installed under Windows 3.1),
8 bit or higher Sound Blaster compatible sound card,
MPC compatible CD ROM drive and
256 color video display.
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 2
Learning Value 1
Entertainment Value 2
Graphics 2
Sound 1
Overall Score:
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