Accordance 10 Roundup: Starter Collection

If you are thinking about purchasing a new Accordance 10 Collection, you might be wondering which Collection is right for you. It’s an understandable question, as each Accordance Collection includes dozens, if not hundreds, of modules. To help you in your decision process, I thought it might be helpful to write a series of blog posts that focus on each of our six Collections, highlighting some of the modules I’ve personally found useful in my own Bible study, and those I know others have found useful.

Starter Collection Overview

For today’s post, I will be covering the Starter Collection, the most affordable way to get up and running with Accordance 10. Despite its low price point, the Starter Collection gives you everything you need for basic Bible study in Accordance. Namely, it includes a modern Bible translation tagged with key numbers, a modern Bible dictionary, a modern Bible commentary that covers every book of the Bible, and intro-level Greek and Hebrew dictionaries for basic word studies. The Starter Collection even includes a complete Greek New Testament (textus receptus) tagged with Strong’s numbers, allowing you to see cross-highlighting between Greek and English words. These are just some of the highlights, as the Starter Collection also includes over a dozen other modules for your Bible study. Even with all this, the Starter Collection will run you just $49.99, an incredible value.

Starter Collection Video Overview

Module Highlights

Here are some standout modules in the Starter Collection that I have found useful in my own Bible study.

ESV with Strong’s Numbers

The Starter Collection includes six English Bible translations, but the ESVS is the most modern of these translations. In terms of translation philosophy, the ESV falls into the “formal equivalence” category—meaning the translators err on the side of a literal, word-for-word translation from the original Greek and Hebrew where possible. This makes the ESVS a good companion for original language studies, because individual English words often match up with individual Greek and Hebrew words. The ESVS is also tagged with Strong’s numbers, allowing you to search for key numbers, hover over words to see Instant Details, or add a Dynamic Interlinear to the text.

Greek New Testament Textus Receptus with Strong’s Numbers (GNT-TRS)

The textus receptus served as the basis for most Reformation-era New Testament translations, including the King James Version. It’s not the primary Greek text most scholars use today, but it’s a good way to get your feet wet with some of the basic original language tools in Accordance. The GNT-TRS is not morphologically tagged, so you won’t be able to run grammatical searches, such as finding all the first-person present active indicative verbs. However, it is tagged with Strong’s numbers, which means that you can see cross-highlighting with your ESVS and look up Greek words in the Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament. Speaking of which…

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament

As you use the GNT-TRS, you may come across particular Greek words that you would like to learn more about. That’s  a good time to crack open the Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament. You can search this resource for Greek words, English definitions, or Strong’s numbers. This dictionary is also linked to the ESVS, allowing you to triple-click on a word in the ESVS’ New Testament to open the Mounce Greek Dictionary right to the entry on that word. This is pretty handy, and certainly an efficient way to learn the general meaning of a particular Greek word. While it’s no substitute for a full-featured Greek lexicon like BDAG, the Mounce Greek Dictionary typically provides a solid gloss definition, and often goes beyond this to list a range of possible meanings.

Kohlenberger/Mounce Concise Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary

The Starter Collection does not come with a full Hebrew text, but it does come with the Kohlenberger/Mounce Concise Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary which will allow you to do Hebrew word studies right from your English Bible. All you need to do is triple-click on a word in the ESVS’ Old Testament to look up its key number in the KM Hebrew Dictionary. This allows you to learn about the underlying Hebrew words behind your English translation. Like the Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary, the K/M Hebrew Dictionary can’t compete with a full Hebrew lexicon, but it’s a good starting point for Hebrew word studies and learning about the triple-click feature.

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible is a one-volume Bible dictionary with nearly 5,000 entries. Unlike Easton’s, this is a modern Bible Dictionary that takes into account recent archaeological discoveries and biblical scholarship. While the articles aren’t nearly as in-depth as something like the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, that’s not always a bad thing. In my own study, I find that Eerdmans typically offers a sufficient overview of a given subject while remaining concise. Whenever I come across an unfamiliar person, place, or object in Scripture, Eerdmans usually gives me all the information I need in a single paragraph, and then I get right back to reading Scripture.

IVP New Bible Commentary

The IVP New Bible Commentary is a one-volume commentary that covers every book of the Old and New Testament. It is based on modern biblical research, and similar to the Eerdmans Dictionary, I find that the New Bible Commentary often hits the informational sweet spot. It’s a great way to gain insight and context about a passage without burying you in extraneous information. That being said, there are also times when this commentary glosses over the particular verse I’m interested in, as it often covers a wide range of verses at a time. As a result, those who want at least one in-depth commentary that provides verse-by-verse discussion may want to consider one of our larger Collections.

Other notable modules in the Starter Collection:

Outlines of Bible Books: a good way to gain a big-picture view of Bible passages

Parables and Miracles: a hyperlinked list of verses for Jesus’ parables and miracles

Naves Topical Bible: an alphabetical list of Bible topics with hyperlinked verses

Matthew Henry’s Commentary: a classic 18th century Bible commentary

Easton’s Bible Dictionary: an older, but still useful Bible dictionary

Ready to Buy?

The Starter Collection offers a capable set of introductory Bible study tools for an unbeatable price. If you feel like this is the right Collection for you, just click on the Buy Now button below to add this product to your cart. There is no custom upgrade path to the Starter Collection, so regardless of whether you are buying Accordance for the first time or upgrading to Accordance 10 from an earlier version, the Buy Now button below is the correct product in both cases.

Regular Price: $49.99

Feel free to post any questions you might have about the Starter Collection in the comments below. I’ll be posting on the remaining Accordance 10 Collections in the coming days, so stay connected. The best is yet to come!

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