As I am sure you have heard by now Logos Bible Software will be releasing the entire Perseus Collections for free. Like some other bloggers I got my hands on it before it was released to the public. That happens on the 28th of this month. If you have not yet pre-ordered do so now.

Why should you order this package? Thank you for asking!

First of all, it is free! Yes, free.

Second, it is a collection of some of the all time great classics. This includes writings by the likes of Aristotle, Cicero, Hippocrates, Livy, Plato, Plutarch, Sophocles, Tacitus, Xenophon, and many others. If a text is in Latin you’ll get the Latin. If a text is in Greek you’ll get the Greek. Also, you’ll receive the English translations. This is over eleven hundred volumes.

Third, it integrates with what you have already. If you do a study on an important word in the Book of James it will show you not only how that work was used in the rest of Scripture but it will browse these other volumes so you can see how it functioned in ancient literature. If you are examining a word in BDAG and it cites one of Cicero’s works you can access that work by clicking the reference. This will expand your research.

Again, this is first come, first serve, so you need to pre-order soon if you have not already done so.

Let me show you some screen shots (click to enlarge):

This is Aristotles’ Economics in Greek:

Let’s say I want to read more on a word I come across in this work. I can use my lexical resources:

Let’s say I want to compare the Greek with the available English translation. I can open two windows side-by-side to do so:

Now let me show you how the Perseus Collections can expand your research. Let’s say I want to do a word study. I want to look up the word διήγησιν in Luke 1.1. I will use the word study function and go to the left hand side where each word is parsed. If I keep my mouse on the lemma it will give me the option to do a word study.

When I have the word study section open I can scroll down and I will have the option to see how the word is used in the rest of the NT or the LXX, but now I have the added category “Classics”.

I can click on “Classics” and suddenly the world of Plutarch, Plato, Lucian, and others is at my disposal.

Logos has done us all a great big favor by making this available and then they went above and beyond by making sure it was free and integrated. I’m sure you’ll enjoy having these resources.