Bible vs Leaders vs Scholar

Others have said it, and as someone who just bought leaders and realized it was a mistake, it's true: buy the best package you can at the time you go into the software. I really think, personally, that the top end for most people is Scholars Gold. I would not buy anything else than Languages if I were you. I bought leaders and was disappointed. Sales was kind enough to give me he same discount I received prior to bump up to Scholars. I am now pleased with the results I get from the software. I'd sugges minimum of Scholars if you can afford it - if not Languages.

Alexander Longacre said:

I'd sugges minimum of Scholars if you can afford it - if not Languages.

[Y] Scholars is the minimum package to have all the features enabled.

From what I hear, though, the best bang for the buck is to buy Original Languages and then immediately upgrade it to Scholars (since OL has resources that Scholars doesn't).

Jonathan Cousins said:

For normal bible study

As a layperson wanting to improve my personal Bible study time, I purchased the Bible Study Library and found it to be a great place to start. It had a good core of resources that let me do each of the tasks your described better and faster.

A few years later, when I actually joined a church ministry team in a staff position, I upgraded to the Leader's Library for a fairly minimal cost given all the extra resources in the package, (mostly pastoral how-tos and best practices).

I have not upgraded to the Scholars Library for two primary reasons: 1) Most of the new resources added to my library through the upgrade are in the language tools category that I would not be able to take good advantage of and 2) I have acquired most of the additional non-language resources (i.e. sermon outlines) through add-on purchases.

In advance response to those who might advocate for the advantage of any person studying the Bible to learn the original languages, while I concur in theory, the same "learning disability" that has made learning languages extremely difficult has also made me appreciate the ability to experience some of the built-in word study tools (i.e. reverse interliniar) in Logos all the more.

My 3 cents.

Steve R.

Scholar is the all-purpose starting block for Logos. It doesn't take long for most people to realize how Logos transforms your study. 

Mark Stevens said:

I think people are right, leaders is a bit of a waste of time considering what you might want out of the product.

With all due respect to Mark whose comments are usually very helpful, concise and well considered, on this occasion he's completely 'barking'! The Leader's package is a fine product for all those in full time ministry who do not have the time or the skills to dig deep into the original languages. If you take away the dedicated language tools, then there isn't a great deal of difference between the two, but the additional cost on the other hand is considerable. I'm not deminishing language study for one moment, but for some it might actually be a better investment to concentrate on additional resources such as dictionaries and commentaries (where the original languages are explained for you) than to purchase a more premium product on the pretence that you might use its bewildering language tools one day. No offence meant Mark! [:P] [:)]

The only base packages I recommend are Silver and Platinum - I would skip Gold altogether if upgrading.

Jonathan Cousins said:

Joshua Garcia said:

The only base packages I recommend are Silver and Platinum - I would skip Gold altogether if upgrading.

Hi Joshua,

Can you qualify your statement? You obviously hold this as a personal view, but can you say what type of study you do and tell us why Silver and Platinum are essential to you.

Also can you provide some guidance based on my original description of bible study in the first post.

Thanks

 

From your OP I'm guessing you're looking at the Bible Study base package. This package offers a lot, but lacks what I use the most. First off, it lacks good commentaries. Only when you venture into Silver and above do you start getting good commentary sets. For instance, Silver provides the New American Commentary set. This set alone sells for 500 dollars on Logos. With Platinum things start to look even better with Pillar and the New International Greek New Testament. Both together would set you back $1,100 outside a base package. You also get good original language tools, such as good lexicons (which the Bible Study package does not have).

Think about this: the price of the three commentary sets above equals the price for the Platinum base package. But with the Platinum base package you get over 1,200 more resources, including BDAG!

Investment wise, it is incredibly smart to go big with your ininitial base package purchase. You'll be thanking yourself later. If you buy now before the end of the year you'll also get 15% off this package plus loads of Logos credit.

I was recently asked to provide a Logos buyers guide for students at our local seminary. So the comments below are geared towards seminary students, but they might be helpful to you as well.

Home Library

Includes only the most basic tools and resources, mainly
Bibles and devotionals. No reverse interlinears. No NIV.

Verdict: Not
recommended for academic use or sermon preparation.

Bible Study Library

Includes a few Bibles (including NIV) more reverse
interlinears, maps and images, and a few dictionaries, commentaries and
theologies. Tools include parallel passages and timelines, but only limited
Bible Word Study, Passage Guide and Exegetical Guide functionality. Very light
on lexicons. Note that the NIV included with Logos is the new 2011 version. The
original NIV costs extra.

Verdict: The
minimum you should consider (but only if you're not working with the original
languages).

Leaders' Library

Adds a few dozen practical preaching/ministry books to the Bible Study Library.

Verdict: Most of
the books have an American emphasis, and are probably not worth the extra for UK students.

Original Languages Library

Adds original language texts/tools at the expense of secondary
literature. Fewer English Bibles (e.g. no NIV or NKJV), no commentaries or
devotionals, few dictionaries and none of the Leader's Library extras. But you get two Hebrew Bibles (plus an
interlinear), the Septuagint (including Hebrew/Greek interlinear), and several
Greek New Testaments. All of these are fully parsed. You also get several other
ancient non-biblical texts (including Charles' Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha),
several Greek/Hebrew grammars and lexicons (including Louw-Nida and TDNT),
Metzger's Textual Commentary.
Finally, there's full access to the Bible Word Study, Exegetical Guide and
Passage Guide, plus Syntax Searching and Sentence Diagramming.

Verdict: An
excellent choice for working with the original languages - but it lacks
theological works and, more importantly, commentaries. (Note: You can upgrade from
Original Languages, to not to
it.)

Scholar's Library

Quite a price jump. Basically you get all of Leader's Library and most of Original Languages (the Hebrew
interlinear, Syriac and ANE texts are missing, as are Metzger's Textual Commentary and a few grammars
and lexicons), plus a Greek/English interlinear Septuagint, and several
practical preaching/ministry books. You also get the NT Louw-Nida coding, and
Greek pronunciation tools.

Verdict: Doesn't
offer quite the value of Bible Study
or Original Languages, but worth it
if you need lots of English Bibles in addition to the original language tools.

Scholar's Library (Silver)

Another big jump. Everything in Scholar's, plus several
additions. The most valuable are the 37 volumes of the Church Fathers, plus
many commentaries: Holman NT Commentary (12 volumes: simple but OK), Keil &
Delitzsch OT (10 vols: old but good, fairly technical), New American Commentary
(37 vols: generally good; similar level to Tyndale series but more detailed),
the Pulpit Commentary (77 vols: dated but sometimes useful). You also get the
Concise OED, an NT interlinear, an Analytical Greek Lexicon and a few more
practical preaching books and Lightfoot's Apostolic
Fathers in Greek and English. Most of the Original Language resources that were missing from Scholar's are also added back in.

Verdict: Pricey,
but worth the jump (if you can afford it) because of the Church Fathers, Keil
& Delitzsch and the NAC.

Scholar's Library (Gold)

Everything in Silver plus some extra goodies. The highlight
is 13 volumes of the New International Greek Testament Commentary (technical,
but very good). Also usefully included is the Good News Bible, an OT
interlinear, Tischendorf's NT, the complete set of UBS Handbooks
(verse-by-verse guides to help you translate the Bible), the Exegetical
Dictionary of the NT (similar to TDNT, but shorter and more recent), Carl
Henry's 6-volume God, Revelation and
Authority, and the rest of the missing items from Original Languages. Less useful, but also included, is the 4-volume
Encyclopaedia of Christianity and the 91-volume Semeia journal.

Verdict: The 13
volume NIGTC alone justifies the upgrade from Silver. It's just as well it does though, as the other additions
are not as attractive.

Scholar's Library (Platinum)

Everything in Gold, plus some useful extras, mostly
commentaries. The highlights are certainly the 10 volumes of Pillar
Commentaries (which though still incomplete, is shaping up to being one of the
best technical NT sets) and BDAG (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament
and Other Early Christian Literature) which at more than 1,100 pages is the
definitive Greek lexicon. Also included are The
Believers' Church Bible Commentary (19 volumes, expository, moderately
useful), Charles Simeon's Horae
Homileticae (21 vols., old and rather sermonic, but sometimes insightful), Classic Commentaries on the Greek New
Testament (14 vols., mainly Westcott and Lightfoot, and worth consulting),
and a few others. Also useful is Schürer's 5-volume History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, 40
volumes from A.W. Pink, 14 volumes from G. C. Berkouwer, 15 volumes from R. A.
Torrey and 3 volumes (61 works) of John Bunyan, and a few dozen other books.

Verdict: A very good value upgrade from Gold. 
Worthwhile for Pillar and BDAG alone, and Berkouwer is also well worth
reading. And if you're a fan of Charles Simeon, Schürer, Pink, Torrey or Bunyan
then it's even better value!

Portfolio

As you'd expect it has very many additions to Platinum,
including several commentary sets (though none are outstanding), more than 20
volumes useful for studying Judaism and the DSS, and no less than 12 to help
you with your Ugaritic! It also adds two excellent lexicons: HALOT (perhaps the definitive OT lexicon,
though it's not that easy to understand), and Liddell-Scott (Greek). The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia
is also useful, Chafer's 8-volume Systematic
Theology is comprehensive, and there are more than 100 other books.

Verdict: It's hard to see value in the jump from
Platinum - although if you need the academic resources included, and can also
make use of the non-academic ones, it might just be worthwhile. But personally,
if I had Platinum and a lot of money burning a hole in my pocket, I'd buy BST, Tyndale,
Calvin, NICOT/NICNT, Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary and the IVP Reference
collection instead.

Todd Phillips said:

Jonathan Cousins said:

Thanks everyone, I am still debating whether to move from Scholars down to Bible package or not.

I appreciate all your responses. Many of you have express how and why a certain package is of great value to you, however I was wondering if putting aside your own uses for your particular package, can you objectively say if Bible package is good enough for private bible study, not involving languages other than English?

Would the money be better spent, buying Bible package and using the $250 extra to buy a certain commentary set etc

Thanks

I think you would greatly benefit from buying the Bible Study Library and the Tyndale Commentaries (which cover every book of the bible).  If you shop around you could probably find the Tyndale set for cheaper, and you would have money to put towards something else too, like maybe ISBE.

I'd second this, based on all you've said I think Bible Study Library would suit you better than Scholars.

Tyndale and ISBE are good additions. IVP reference set is an alternative to ISBE. Each has their fans.

nm

Jonathan Cousins said:

Am I better getting a refund on both and going for a few of the following as mentioned

As you have Scholars/PNTC, you're now in the best position to know whether they are right for you. They're both excellent, but it seemed from your first post that they might be a bit much, and you would prefer something simpler. We can make suggestions, but as you have them in front of you, only you will know whether something simpler would be better. If so, then Todd's suggestion might well be the way to go. If not, what you already have will be great.

Jonathan Cousins said:

In Bible Study Library, do I still get the Louw-Nida and Strongs tools as part of the ESV Reverse interlinear?

Strong's yes. Louw-Nida, to be truthful many of us are not sure! You don't get the Louw-Nida lexicon certainly, but whether you get the LN numbers in the reverse interlinear, I'm not sure (I've never had Leaders to know for certain).

RMC said:

I have Bible Study library, and yes, you do get the LN numbers in the ESV interlinear.

Thanks for clearing this up.