Accordance Tips

Getting the most out of Accordance

Accordance is native to the Mac, though it is arguably the best Bible software for Biblical Studies on any platform. Logos packs in more books and BibleWorks gives you more for less money, but Accordance is easy to use and it has more scholarly Biblical texts than any other package - and it is beautiful. Mac can be used on the PC through emulation sofware (I use it regularly) - though it isn't so pretty and lacks some features. However, it is worth it because it has texts unavailable elsewhere - especially in the areas of Targums, Samaritan, Dead Sea Scrolls and NT Greek manuscripts. They also have more tagged texts than others - ie, click on a word and you get its grammar & meaning.

Contents Layouts Tools Basic Searching Clever Searching Cross-Version Search Translations of a word Simple Grammar Search Complex GrammarSearch Atlas, Timeline, Photos PC Installation

. Contents A large variety of packages can confuse the first-time buyer. For Biblical Studies I'd recommend the Premier Scholars collection - see the comparison chart This includes Greek+Hebrew OT, NT, with lexicons, grammars and some English Bibles including 3 more which you can choose from their extensive range. A Biblical Scholar may wish to add to this basic collection: There's a wonderful list of unlockable scholarly add-ons at the bottom of the page, eg * Dead Sea scrolls in tagged Hebrew/Aramaic & English  - more details  * The Dead Sea Scroll Bible texts in tagged Hebrew  & tagged Greek & English  * Mishnah in tagged Hebrew & English  * Philo in tagged Greek  & English * Josephus in tagged Greek  & English * Pseudepigrapha in tagged Greek  & English  * Targums in tagged Aramaic  & English  - more details * Apocryphal Gospels in Greek/Latin & English * Greek NT MSS in their own fonts as well as 'normal' Greek - Codex Bezae, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, the earliest papyri and others. * Ancient Near Eastern texts in Ugaritic and Hallo's English  * Apostolic Fathers in tagged Greek & English

. Theology & Preaching If you are more into Theology and Commentaries there are different starter packs, and you can choose from hundreds of addons here & here & here

. Layouts The screenshots here are based on Accordance 9. A few things have changed things since v.8, for the better. The search area at the top is for both References ("Verses") and Words. By default, texts are shown in vertical columns but click on the bent arrow to produce horizontal alignment. Click on the scroll next to "Add" for a new column of text. If an English text is tagged (eg KJVS, or ESVS) then hovering over a word will highlight it in other tagged texts. Turn on "Window", "Instant Details" which shows vocab & morphology as you hover over a word. - hold down Shift to keep the details showing - hold down Command to show fuller details

. Links to Tools Tools (eg cross references, translation notes) can be opened along with texts (click on the book icon next to "Add") Ctrl-Click on a word to get basic search options: * Search for Lemma (ie each occurrence of that word) Inflected (ie the same form of the word) or Root (ie the this word and verbs, nouns etc related to the same root). * Search in any texts sharing the same language * Look up in a dictionary or commentary opens it in a separate area (as in this screenshot) When you have a layout you like, save it with menu "File", "Save As".

. Basic Search You can type a word into the search box, but it is often easier to Ctrl-click on a word in a passage, and search for the Lemma (ie the same word in any form)

. Define Searching 1) Set the version to search in the top left box. 2) If you are searching for more than one word, define the distance allowed between them by setting "search in every" to "verse" or "clause" or "chapter" etc 3) Define the number of verses of context you want to read either side of any find. 4) If you aren't searching everything, define the range

. Manual searching When you right-click and search for a word, this writes a command in the search box. You can write a command yourself, though it can be tricky, so there are lots of aids. EG: -Put the cursor in the Search box then click on Search -Choose "Lexical Forms" to get a list of all words used in that text, with helpful one-word translations -Start typing a couple of letters to get you to the right part of the list -Click on the word you want -Untick "Use exact lemma" so that it searches for every form of that word OK

. Clever Searching You can construct complex search commands very easily: EG find every verse which contains both "faith" and "believe" or "belief" etc- type "faith believ*" - the "*" indicates a wildcard for one or more letters - type "<AND> between them. This will only look for both occurring together. Click on "Search" then "Command" or "Symbol" to discover other possibilities

. Cross-version search The ease by which you can search more than one version sets Accordance apart. EG to find every time the KJV translates various forms of pistis as "trust" or "trusted" etc- select a tagged Greek NT eg GNT-T - click on "Search", "Lexical", type "pis" and click in turn on pisteuw, pistis and pistos - untick "Use exact lemma" and OK - make sure the context slider is set to zero (otherwise the next search will also look at surrounding verses) - click on "File" > "New Workspace" (you could also open a new Tab but you can't see two tabs at once) - in the new space, open KJVS and in the search box type:      trust* <AND> [CONTENTS GNT-T]

. Find every way a word is translated Strong's numbers form a quick way to search for words in an English translation. EG find every way in which the KJV translates the pisis group of words: - in the last example the Instant Details window showed that pisteuw is numbered G4100, - click on "Search" > "Key Numbers", type G4100 then click in turn on G1400, G1402, G1403 - you might want to add apistis, apistia and apistew (G0569 - G0571) to complete the set All the English words translating those terms are highlighted. It brings surprising insights and links in the passages which are difficult to express in English - look at Rom.3.2 in the screenshot! Note: This only works for versions tagged with Strongs, such as KJVS, ESVS, NAS95S (they all have a final "S")

. Grammatical searches Simple grammatical searches are easy - just click on "Search" > "Grammatical" then pick what you want EG find out where else rachaf (the spirit moved on the face of the waters) occurs in Piel: - Ctrl-click on the word in Gen.1.2 and search for the "Lemma" - click on "Search" > "Grammatical" > "Verb" and pick Stem = "Piel" (there's a host of other things you can easily pick) OK find Now you can see why some translations speak about the Spirit at creation as "fluttering" like a bird

. Complex Grammatical Constructions 1) link to a Construct Click on "File" > "New Construct" If this doesn't link itself: - click on "Search" > "Enter Command" > "Link" and pick "Construct"

. 2) build the Construct Eg to find where God "makes" (poiew) the earth with Aorist Active Indicative (as in Gen.1.1):- drag "Lex" into the first box on the bottom - in the lexical box which opens, start typing "po" then pick poiew- drag a second lexical box for theos and a third for ge. - drag "Verb" into poiew and pick Aorist, Active, Indicative - drag "Agree" between poiew and theos and pick number - drag "WITHIN" between poiew and ge and limit it to 10 words to try to ensure that it is a subject of the verb - click on Find

. Atlas, Timeline, Photos There are lots of visual things in Accordance which the scholar may not be so interested in, but they are great for teaching. And hey, we all like to look at pictures! And diagrams are sometimes more powerful than even our words. Accordance had a 3D fly-through long before GoogleMaps thought of it, and you can adapt their maps to your needs. Timelines come with a handy scholarly and conservative option for contentious matters like the date of the Exodus.

. Emulator on PC Accordance can run on a PC using emulation software. It isn't as pretty as Accordance on a Mac, but the functionality is the same, though without the pretty maps and timelines. You can download it here, though they also supply it on DVD - and for 64bit Windows they supply the modules which can't be read from the installation DVD. The EmulatorManual5 available on the website provides illustrated instructions. Their instructions are very full,  though you might find mine useful, based on my own experience. How to install Accordance on a PC: 1) Run "BasiliskSetup.exe" - just keep clicking "Next" & "OK" 2) Run "C:\accpc\BasiliskIIGUI.exe" and change as follows: - in tab "Memory" set "RAM size to 128 - in tab "Disc" click "Create" and set "Size in megabytes" to 2000 and name it "C:\accpc\Accordance.HFV" "OK" - in tab "My Computer" tick ""Enable external file system and any ungreyed drives - in tab "CD" tick "CD-ROM enabled" and highlight your CD drive in the right-hand "Available" column then click on "<<" to Install it. - in tab "Screen" set width=1024 height=768 (depending on the size of your screen), colours=thousands. 3) Run BasiliskII.exe and Mac OS starts up - the 2000Mb disc you created has to be "initialized" (ie formatted), so: - Name it "Accordance" and click "Initialise" (wait a few mins while it finishes) 4) Try out your Mac by running the Accordance v5.2 demo on the desktop - Atl is the "Apple" key, which works like Ctrl on a PC, so Alt-C = Copy, Alt-V = Paste etc - the menu line for every program is at the top of the screen irrespective of where windows are - there is no right-click, but there is a Ctrl-click which is similar to right-click - to exit, click on "Special", "Shutdown"   or, if it crashes, press Ctrl-Alt-Del and end "Basilisk" 5) Install Accordance - Insert the CD and THEN start or restart Basilisk - double-click on the CD icon, and on "Primary Installer.68k" - tell it to install in the "Accordance" drive, not the "OS Drive" (this takes some time to install - be patient) - open the Accordance drive and highlight "Accordance ...68K" then click on "File", "Make Alias" (Mac version of a shortcut)- drag the new Alias onto the desktop 6) Install Modules - run Accordance by double-clicking on the Accordance alias - put each CD or the DVD in the drive, then open the "Modules" folder. - select all the modules (eg by clicking on "Edit", "Select all", then click on "File", "Open" to install them all. OR, using keystrokes, press Alt-A then Alt-O - if you are asked for an installation code for something you haven't bought, press cancel and the others will continue to load. If you have trouble reading CDs on a PC run BasiliskIIGUI.exe and: - in CD: add the CD drive in Available cd's and untick "Use Windows 95/98 real mode CD drivers" - make sure CDENABLE.vxd & ...sys are in Windows/system32/drivers - download emaculation.com/quick/hdexp131.zip = HFVExplorer - extract it and run it then: -- find the virtual drive "Accordance.HFV and double-click to mount it -- Copy the Modules from the CD to Accordance -- close HFVExpolorer before running Basilisk, else the drive will be locked