Logos Bible Software
Logos Bible Software is a digital library application designed for electronic Bible study. In addition to basic eBook functionality, it includes extensive resource linking, note-taking functionality, and linguistic analysis for study of the Bible both in translation and in its original languages. It is developed by Faithlife Corporation. As of October 29, 2019, Logos Bible Software is in its eighth version.
Logos Bible Software is compatible with more than 143,000 titles related to the Bible from 200 publishers, including Baker, Bantam, Catholic University of America Press, Eerdmans, Harvest House, Merriam Webster, Moody Press, Oxford University Press, Thomas Nelson, Tyndale House, and Zondervan. Logos also recently published its own Lexham Bible Reference series, featuring new scholarship on the original Biblical languages.
Until October 2014, the name Logos Bible Software was often used to refer to the company behind the software. At that date, the company was rebranded as Faithlife Corporation as a response to the greater diversity in products and services the company then offered.
History
Windows and Macintosh versions
Logos Bible Software was launched in 1992 by two Microsoft employees, Bob Pritchett and Kiernon Reiniger, along with Bob’s father, Dale Pritchett. The three quit their jobs to develop Christian software. After acquiring data from the CDWordLibrary project at Dallas Theological Seminary, Logos released an updated version called the Logos Library System platform in 1995, which added support for more resources and introduced the concept of a digital library.After a long beta cycle that began in 1999, the LLS was replaced by the Libronix Digital Library Systems in 2001. This was a 32-bit application and had been rewritten from the ground up in a more modular fashion that made it easier to add future expansions. As with all other versions of Logos Bible Software, it was offered as a free update to existing customers. In terms of branding, Libronix Digital Library System refers to the software itself, whilst Logos Bible Software Series X was used for packages that included both the software and electronic Biblical studies resources.
Version 2 of Libronix DLS appeared in July 2003 as Logos Bible Software Series X 2.0. This added support for documents such as notes and word lists, visual filters, and a graphical query editor. Version 3 was launched in June 2006 and introduced reverse-interlinear Bibles, the Bible Word Study tool, and syntax searches. The Series X name was dropped, and the software was known simply as Logos Bible Software 3. In March 2008 an alpha version of Logos Bible Software for Mac was released for testing, with the retail edition shipping in December. This was known as Logos Bible Software for Mac 1.0, and although based on the Windows version, full parity was never achieved, even with versions 1.1 and 1.2 which shipped in 2009.
However, on November 2, 2009, Logos announced Logos Bible Software 4 for Windows, along with an early alpha version of Mac edition and a cut-down iPhone version. Like the original release of the Libronix Digital Library System, the application had been substantially rewritten, and featured a very different graphical user interface than its predecessor. Crucially, once the Mac version was completed, both editions of the software would be almost identical in function, and settings, documents and resources would seamlessly sync between the different versions. The Mac version reached beta in July 2010, and was released in September 2010. Various updates later came to both platforms, with version 4.1 adding sentence diagramming and print/export, 4.2 adding various minor features and bug fixes, 4.3 adding Personal Books to allow users to add their own content, 4.5 adding improved notes and highlighting, and 4.6 offering bug fixes and a few tweaks.
Logos Bible Software 5 was released for both Mac and Windows in November 2012, with an emphasis on connecting disparate features and databases, making Bible study easier and more efficient. Datasets and tagging added to Bibles meant users could now explore the roots of words and their sense, and the Sermon Starter Guide and Topical Guide made accessing Bible topics much simpler and quicker. Logos 5.1 added read-along audio and a new topic layout, with several more minor improvements in 5.2.
Logos Bible Software 6 was released at the end of October 2014, and became the first version to support 64-bit architecture. It too added a number of new datasets and features, including Ancient Literature cross-references, Cultural Concepts, original manuscript images, multimedia and the new Factbook that attempted to integrate the increasing number of databases to an even greater extent than was possible in Logos 5. Logos 6 also integrates with the Send to Kindle service provided by Amazon.
Logos Bible Software 7 was released towards the end of August 2016. Features added with this full version include, Sermon Editor, Course Tool, Figurative Language, Hebrew Grammatical Constructions, Longacre Genre Analysis, Sentence Types of the New Testament Dataset, Quickstart Layouts, Speech Acts, An Empty Tomb, Exploring Biblical Manuscripts.
Logos Bible Software 8 was released at the end of October 2018.
Mobile versions
An iPhone app was released alongside Logos 4 in November 2009. It allows users to access most of their Logos resources on the iPhone, with basic search and study features. Resources can be accessed over the cloud, or downloaded onto the device for offline access. Native iPad support was added with version 1.4 in April 2010. Version 2.0 added notes, highlights and inline footnotes. Version 3.0 added reading plans and community notes, and version 4.0 a new UI updated for iOS 7. A topic guide was added in 4.3, and a scrolling view in 4.4. The app is now available in several 'flavours'. In addition to the standard Logos Bible Software app, other very similar apps exist under the Faithlife Study Bible, Vyrso, Verbum and Noet brands. These apps offer similar functionality, different branding, and a slightly different UI. The iOS app was awarded the DBW Publishing Innovation Award in 2011.An Android app entered a public alpha in May 2011, with a beta in July, and 1.0 released a year later. The initial release allowed little more than the reading of Logos books, so version 2.0 followed quickly in August 2012, which added notes, highlighting, reading plans, Bible Word Study, the Passage Guide and a split-screen view. This brought much closer parity with the iOS app, and future development has continued along similar lines to the iOS version.