by Harry Hahne

To parse or look up the meaning of a word, simply click on it with the left mouse button, then click with the right button and select "Show Dictionary" or "Show Parsing" from the pop-up menu. This helpful feature would be improved if both parsing and dictionary information were in the same pop-up window. It would also be easier to use if double-clicking on a word automatically opened the lexicon and parsing window. For Hebrew words, all parts of the word (e.g., inseparable conjunctions, articles and prepositions) are listed separately in the dictionary and parsing windows.

Because BWin has no LXX lexicon, looking up the meaning of a word in the LXX which is not also found in the NT simply results in a blank window, rather than a message indicating that no dictionary entry is available for the word. A lexicon of the LXX would be a welcomed addition.

Search Capabilities.

BWin provides more powerful Greek and Hebrew grammatical searching than most PC Bible-search programs, yet the grammatical searches are quite easy to use. By clicking on a word in a Bible passage, the word and the grammatical information are inserted in the search dialog as search criteria. Parts of speech (verb, noun, etc.), grammatical elements (tense, voice, mood, case, gender, etc.), and lemmas (dictionary forms of words) are selected from list-boxes with the mouse. In grammatical searches, words cannot be typed in directly but must be selected from the word list. Wild cards and multiple lemmas are not allowed.

Searches can use Boolean AND, OR, NOT operators, but Greek and Hebrew searches cannot be grouped with parentheses. Agreement can be required between all words for any grammatical element. This allowed a search for Greek genitive absolutes (a construction that includes a genitive noun and a genitive participle agreeing in gender and number).

Searches do not require that one enter Greek accents or Hebrew vowel points, though these are displayed in the text. This makes searches simple to enter and prevents incomplete search results owing to accents which are changed by context. In this version, error checking has been improved to prevent impossible combinations such as a "present tense noun." Impossible combinations, such as a Hebrew "common noun" as a subclass of "verb," however, can still slip through. It would simplify grammatical searches if invalid menu options were dimmed or even removed.

Allowing the exclusion of specific words or grammatical forms between the search terms would open new search possibilities. None of the reviewed programs included this feature (though the GRAMCORD program for DOS allows this). At first glance, it appears that one could use the NOT option to exclude a word. This can produce, however, undesirable side-effects. For example, searching for a genitive absolute construction produces several false matches, for verbs sometimes occur between the genitive noun and participle. If one instructs BWin that the second term must not be a verb, no matches are found, since all participles are verbs. With a true "Exclude Intervening Word" option, the item excluded is not a search term, but a specification about what must be absent for a search-result to qualify. It also would be helpful if the agreement option could be limited to specified search terms. This would allow one to search for the common Greek expression "article1 article2 noun2 noun1," where article1 and noun1 agree, and article2 and noun2 agree.

Searches may be limited to selected books of the Bible by clicking on the book names with the mouse. It is time-consuming to have to repeat this process for every search. It would be simpler to specify the search books in the "Search Preferences." Furthermore, English searches default to double wildcard searches, unless you specify word boundaries. This can lead to unexpected and confusing results, such as a search for "lock" finding references to "flock."

Greek and Hebrew search criteria can be saved. One must remember, however, to save the search criteria before beginning a search, because the previous search-criteria screen is cleared before a new one is entered. English search criteria cannot be saved. Greek and Hebrew grammatical search speeds are fairly good and comparable to the other programs tested. Search speed in English though, was relatively slow.

An optional module available with BWin provides the full text of the Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains. This unique tool groups words according to related meanings, so shades of meanings of similar words can be compared. From within BWin you can click on any word to look it up in this reference tool. Because this uses the Folio Views search engine, it can be run separately as well. The full text of the book can be searched nearly instantly for any combination of Greek or English words or you can browse by topics. The major drawback is that Greek words are transliterated in search expressions and the word pick list. The text of the book, however, displays Greek in a Greek font. This powerful tool greatly increases the utility of BWin for a price comparable to that of the printed edition.

Concluding Observations.

BWin cannot attach personal notes to verses of the Bible. It allows only rudimentary printing of single verses or highlighted verses, with no control on formatting. It may be preferable to paste verses into a word processor file, then arrange page layout before printing. The manual for BWin would be improved by including more examples, an index, and a discussion of the tagging philosophy used in the Greek and Hebrew texts.

While version 2.2.2 is more robust than previous versions, it still contains a few minor bugs and inconsistencies. Two windows opened to different books can be linked (e.g., Genesis and Matthew linked on the same chapter and verse). While clicking on a word apparently always selects it, the word is not always highlighted. The program allows a search without selecting any biblical books, resulting in no matches with no explanation.

BWin has exceptional support for inserting Greek and Hebrew Bible passages into Windows and DOS word processing files. Verses can be pasted to any Windows word processor (including the multilingual UniVerse) through the clipboard or by using DDE. Greek and Hebrew texts can also be copied to DOS programs such as WordPerfect (with the Greek module or ScriptureFonts) and Nota Bene Lingua. A supplemental program enables entering Hebrew in any Windows word processor, with right to left typing and proper word wrap. Thus BWin gives the added bonus of giving any Windows word processor multilingual capabilities for the biblical languages.