How Has ‘Bible Software’ Changed The Way We Read the Bible?

Bryan Bibb writes on Facebook the following fascinating observations-

Experiencing the Bible through a system like Accordance fundamentally transforms the reading process, and changes the nature of the text itself. Technological advances in the past have had comparable effects, i.e., the development of the codex over the scroll, mass printing technology, etc.

The fear of a “fragmentary” reading is particularly interesting to me. The software allows one to view the context of a passage as desired, however narrow or broad. That context, however, could be linear within the passage or spread across the canon (and outside it!) through a search results window.

Ultimately, this system challenges the notion of “canon” by creating a new “text,” the integration of the Bible with extra resources such as ancient texts, tools, and commentaries.

Hmmm….