e-Sword X: Bible Study Extreme 4+

Believer

Excellent program. I usually use only the Free Apps. I have a great Hard copy collection of Bible Study Material over the last 20 years and have been studying the hard way by doing the manual research. I’ve worked with computers since 1966 and finally decided to go online and check for best Bible Apps for the iMac and found this program. I also bought some Bible versions from American Bible Sales. I cannot believe how easy it is to use this application and get the information so I can copy and paste into my own studies. A real time saving application if you really want to Study the Bible and answer questions about the Word of God. Since English is so confusing and many people will quote certain version, it is sometimes necessary to go back to the interlinear Bible and look up the original Hebrew, Aramaic , or Greek to really understand what is written by the Holy Spirt who breathed the word (Jesus) to those who wrote down God’s message to us. It is very helpful to go through a study that you want to understand what God has for you to learn. Every WORD in the Bible is from God. There are no errors in God’s original word. You can prove it to yourself. With the help of other believers you can have a great time learning what God wants us to know so we can have a personal relationship with Him.

Get it and read it!

I used e-Sword for several years on a PC and am now using it on a MAC. It is essentially free on the MAC (a small fee probably probably related to listing on the App Store). I have also used Logos and Oive Tree Bible Study for several years. All have their own virtues. If price is no object and you want the largest availability of theology books (all searchable), Logos is the answer. Olive Tree would satisfy most peoples needs and is much easier to learn and use than Logos. For the average Christian layman (like me) I strongly recommend e-Sword. Almost any biblical resource you could want is availiable free. Several Bible commentaries are available free on e-Sword including my favorite, Kretzmann's Popular Commentary. I am not aware of any other Bible software that offers Kretzmann, Logos has promised it for four years (at a price) but to this day have not delivered. Finally, e-Sword is so easy to use, you can quickly learn to use it by simply using it.

Needs development

I have used Esword for many years on PC with lots of extra modules installed. The latter installed without flaw on the Mac app. However, what is an amazing free application on Windows has become a rather expensive and poor app on the Mac, but that's not the whole story.

Esword has a lot of available resources and all old purchases can be downloaded again for free. This means you keep your comprehensive library. The user-interface is rather clunky and distracting, and should not have aimed to be so similar in layout to the Windows version in my opinion, but it works. Forget comfortable reading as only limited light and font adjustments are available. Other free applications do better in this area. Esword is good for 'technical' study, cross-references, and many other tasks, but achieve all these tasks in a rather awkward way. But one can get used to that too.

In conclusion, it is not a too bad job, but in comparison to similarly priced and even free applications it does fall short. Lastly, there are no ads, no pesky messages to sell you anything at all, and this somewhat offsets the bad points too.

Developer Response ,

There have been two major updates and one minor update since this review.