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NEW! ACNT: Jude (FREE this week!)


R. Mansfield

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Feedback requested! Download the new Accordance Commentary on the New Testament: Jude for FREE for a limited time, and let us know what you think. 

 
See today's blog post for more information. 
 
ACNT%20Jude%20macOS.png?dl=1
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So, I jumped all over this. Spent 15-20 minutes poking around, trying all the links.

 

First thoughts:

  1. Love the concept.
  2. Links work well *even the message when you click on a link to a resource you don't own is consistent
  3. Seems like a good non-technical commentary, but with the links to Mounce etc., can lead to more technical study
  4. I would love to see this for the entire canon!
  5. If I think of anything constructive to say I will ...
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Thank you for the free module!

 

One anomaly: after installing it, when I searched for the author's name (Roy Brown), nothing came up. Other commentaries have the authors' names embedded so one can search for them this way. (If I search for "Jude", I can see the module.)

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Thank you for the free module!

 

One anomaly: after installing it, when I searched for the author's name (Roy Brown), nothing came up. Other commentaries have the authors' names embedded so one can search for them this way. (If I search for "Jude", I can see the module.)

Or if you type Roy Brown in the Library search field. He doesn't appear. Version 1.1.

 

By the way there is a bug. If you open the "About this Text" then between "Copyright" and the "©", there is a line break character.

Edited by Fabian
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I am having difficulty providing constructive comments on this commentary because it is not one that I would find useful. However, here they are.

 

I read through the commentary. One of the difficult issues to evaluate is to whom this commentary is intended. My take is that it is a beginning level commentary with regard to the Accordance links. It is also a basic commentary regarding the content.

 

Let me discuss the Accordance links or "Dig Deeper" sections. There are 44 of them of which 22 tie to Mounce or TDNT. In my simple set up of Accordance I have my Bible open with the Info Pane. A triple click or hover over the 22 words of interest provides me the same information as the link, but may open a preferred lexicon. The Topics section of the Info Pane has links to Jude, Epistle of Jude, Timeline for the Epistle of Jude etc. that the commentary does not reference.  Those references are tied to resources I have in my library so probably better than trying to link to specific resources that I may not have or prefer.

 

There is little discussion of what other commentaries may have to say that are part of the Accordance Library. Links to those commentaries, if the user has them could be interesting. For example who wrote the Epistle of Jude... according to.... Perhaps an Exegetical Guide lite version. Reading what the commentary states is good, but one should compare with other sources using the resources that Accordance has.

 

Lastly, are sources adequately referenced? Most commentaries have many footnotes per paragraph.

 

Perhaps I am trying to make this commentary into more than it was intended. I think $19.90 for this commentary is too expensive for what it is, at least for me. I apologize that I am not more thrilled with the work, but I think you wanted an honest review. Post back if clarification is required.

Edited by John Fidel
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Thank you for the free module!

 

One anomaly: after installing it, when I searched for the author's name (Roy Brown), nothing came up. Other commentaries have the authors' names embedded so one can search for them this way. (If I search for "Jude", I can see the module.)

 

Thanks for the error report! We've just released an update that fixes this issue and others.

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I downloaded and installed v. 1.2, and it still doesn't come up when I put "Roy Brown" in the search box for the library. Maybe it's me?

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I downloaded and installed v. 1.2, and it still doesn't come up when I put "Roy Brown" in the search box for the library. Maybe it's me?

 

Try restarting Accordance in Safe Mode (hold down the Option key (Mac), Alt key (Win)) and select "Clear Library Cache".

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My thoughts are similar to John Fidel's. This isn't a commentary I would use, and it's not clear to me who this work is intended for. My best guess is that this is intended to show people how they might use a commentary alongside a text and at certain points jump out to other resources to enrich their understanding, but there are already podcasts, webinars, tutorials, blogs, forums, entire books (like Keener's book on context and Dr. J's on study methods) to teach that.

 

The main emphasis here appears to be the links to other works, but isn't that already one of the selling points of a digital platform? Accordance modules are already full of links to other works, and the app is continually adding new ways to look up things that aren't directly hyperlinked. I can already amplify to a dictionary for articles on the Pseudepigrapha. I can already amplify from the text to Mounce to get more information on doulos. So making a commentary to highlight those links has limited benefit. 

 

For the price, there are other works already out there that would seem to be a better value. Extrapolating the price out to the whole NT, not to mention the entire Bible, for the same cost one could purchase the ESV Study Bible, the IVP New Bible Commentary, and the Tyndale series. 

 

I love Accordance. I love that the people at Accordance love studying the scriptures and have made these wonderful tools to help others study the scriptures. Toward that end,  maybe this module will be helpful to some people and it'll be wonderful if that's true. But the writing of commentaries, at least of this nature, may not be the most helpful investment of Accordance's abilities, nor is it necessary for Accordance to remain my most treasured program. 

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More along the lines of really making it an Accordance based commentary, perhaps provide a set layout with live click activated. Have an introduction that explains the Accordance focus of the commentary and how it works. Then rather than links, you could reference the topic sections of the Info Pane, live click to get lexicons, shift click to get to dictionaries, utilize the info pane for timeline, have a pane that compares English texts and Greek Texts. So you would have the commentary section, then Dig Deeper in Accordance with some instructions or if possible links utilizing the suggested layout. I guess, especially after reading Jonathan's post, if you want to do this, then you need to go further into Accordance than what is currently provided.

 

 

 

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Try restarting Accordance in Safe Mode (hold down the Option key (Mac), Alt key (Win)) and select "Clear Library Cache".

I did that. Now "Roy" brings it up, "Brown" brings it up, but "Roy Brown" does not bring it up. Seems to me that any combination of the author's name should work. And I would not have known the author's middle initial. But after I saw it (when I entered "Roy"), I tried "Roy B. Brown", and that doesn't bring it up, either. :)

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I did that. Now "Roy" brings it up, "Brown" brings it up, but "Roy Brown" does not bring it up. Seems to me that any combination of the author's name should work. And I would not have known the author's middle initial. But after I saw it (when I entered "Roy"), I tried "Roy B. Brown", and that doesn't bring it up, either. :)

"Brown Roy" works. 

"Brown, Roy" works.

"Brown Roy B" works not.

"Brown, Roy B." works not.

"B." works for others like "William B. Eerdmans" but not in the ACNT.

Edited by Fabian
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Roy Brown, 

I want to thank you for giving us a tool that highlights some of the features of Accordance.  Different people learn by different methods.  I for one learn by visually using a program.  I can learn by watching podcasts, webinars, and tutorials, and read blogs and forums as Jonathan has suggested.  But as new to Accordance after have coming from BW, I was unfamiliar with Accordance and found myself clicking and going through Accordance to learn this fascinating program.  I only have one screen so having a tool like this for beginners is what some learning styles need.  Thank you for providing a resource that shows, demonstrates, and highlights some of the basic usefulness of this outstanding Bible Software.  

 

In Christ, 

 

Garrell Calton 

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Feedback requested! Download the new Accordance Commentary on the New Testament: Jude for FREE for a limited time, and let us know what you think. 

 
See today's blog post for more information. 
 

 

 

Rich and Roy:

 

Really like the new commentary idea and the way this format ensures awareness of the kinds of tools available in Accordance.

 

Suggestion: Plug the relevant tools once per book. It's not necessary to remind people every time a Greek word comes up that the same lexicons can be used to discover more.

 

Perhaps even better might be to detect if the tool is available, then don't plug it at all, just embed its results...

 

Otherwise, this is pretty neat.

 

Dan

Edited by dandennison
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  • 3 weeks later...

I find the new accordance commentary to be interesting but not overly impressive. I share John Fidel's concern as well, this commentary is just to pricey. I think it would be neat to see maybe a New Testament series like this produced if they sold for somewhere in the vicinity of $10 a book.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm catching up on a few emails, including discussions that pertain to ACNT. First, I appreciate everyone who offered their opinions above. Second, I want to post a few notes from the author that I meant to include when this discussion was initially active.

The ACNT, and in particular the commentary on Jude, has the following goals:

  1. The target audience is intended mainly for teachers and other leaders who are not academic specialists and may not have a seminary degree.
     
  2. The focus of the commentary is to give an easy-to-read explanation of each verse in a book such as Jude, without providing an exhaustive compilation of every possible interpretation from every scholar.
     
  3. The commentary only focuses on the explanation of the text itself without dealing with all the various theological viewpoints that may exist. If there are passages with genuine differences of opinion in interpretation, then the major different interpretations will be explained as fairly as possible.
     
  4. The commentary is designed to work seamlessly as an electronic commentary on Accordance with features such as hyperlinks within Accordance to allow the reader to go into more depth in other resources, if desired. The hyperlinks in Accordance were selected to be resources that many Accordance users would already have.
     
  5. The commentary does provide introductions and summaries of passages within a book, but at the lowest level, it is designed so that each verse will have a separate comment so as to facilitate easy parallel scrolling with the text within Accordance. Sometimes other commentaries will comment only on a group of verses together, which makes finding a comment for a specific verse more difficult.
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Hi Richard,

I suggest, as many commentaries do, to include an introduction on the series with these items included as well as include this in the sales info on the website if you have not already.

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Thanks, Rick. That is helpful information and allows us to understand the goals of the work and the intended audience.

 

—Joseph

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I am not seeing any other volumes in this set. Are there any?

Accordance Commentary on the New Testament

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I am not seeing any other volumes in this set. Are there any?

Accordance Commentary on the New Testament

At this point, Jude is the only released volume.

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