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We are very excited to be attending and presenting at this year’s Bible Technology Conference in Seattle, WA on January 25th and 26th. Bible Tech 2008 is a conference that will explore the intersection of Bible and technology. If you are passionate about the Bible and technology or just want to meet some of the people working in this field we would encourage you to attend Bible Tech 2008. You can find out more information here.

Olive Tree will be giving two presentations at this years Bible Tech. The President and CEO of Olive Tree (Drew Haninger) will talking about “Electronic Publishing and Bible Software in a Fast-Moving Mobile Landscape.” The handheld mobile technology including PDA’s, Smartphones, and cell phones is in constant motion with the rapidly increasing number of platforms on the market. How does a publisher of Biblical content keep up? How do they decide which platforms are worth supporting now, and which ones it would be better to just wait and see how they mature? For mobile electronic publishers today there is a potential quagmire of platforms, operating systems, screen sizes, user interface paradigms, software delivery methods, and publisher permissions. Mr. Haninger will touch on some of the different methods of approaching this rapidly changing market. In addition, he will present a quick overview of many handheld technologies and platforms such as Palm, Pocket PC, Smartphone, Blackberry, iPod, iPhone, etc.

I will also be presenting at this years Bible Tech. My talk is on “The Challenges and Future of Bible Software in a Mobile World”. Developing Bible Software for mobile devices is a challenging endeavor. Much of the development time is spent on the logistics of developing for mobile devices. I will discuss many of these challenges and offer some insight for how to address some of these challenges. Mobile technology is moving forward at a frenzied pace. What does the future have in store for Bible software in the mobile world? Will these same challenges be around in five or ten years?

We are excited to meet and talk with others in the area of Bible and technology. We hope to see you there. If you come to Bible Tech 2008 please come and find myself or Drew. We would love to talk with you about mobile Bible software.
Stephen

We at Olive Tree are announcing the release of a new Qumran (non-biblical scrolls) module. The discovery of thousands of documents and fragments thereof, known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, at Khirbet Qumran beginning in 1947 is the greatest archaeological discovery related to the Bible in modern times. Dating from 250BC to 70AD, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been of inestimable importance to scholars and students in a variety of fields, most especially Old Testament studies, New Testament studies, and Second Temple Judaism. They have cast light on myriads of historical, theological, literary, sociological, and philological matters.

The Dead Sea Scrolls contain a variety of types of documents. Well-known among them are our oldest copies of the Hebrew and Aramaic Old Testament books (by approximately one thousand years), but they also contain commentaries on Old Testament books, fascinating theological treatises, documents on community living, and more. This new module contains virtually all of the scrolls with the exception of the copies of Old Testament books.

The electronic database of Qumran texts was prepared by Marty Abegg, Jr., the Ben Zion Wacholder Professor of Dead Sea Scroll Studies at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC, Canada. Dr. Abegg is one of the world’s leading Qumran scholars, so his work is of the finest quality. Moreover, Dr. Abegg has tagged the database for morphology. Thus, you can click on a word to see its lexical and parsing information in the same way that you can for the Hebrew Old Testament (BHS) if you have our BHS Add-On—Groves-Wheeler Westminster Hebrew Morphology module. You can also get a quick sense of the meaning of the lexeme from a gloss, also provided courtesy of Dr. Abegg. If you have the BHS Add-On module, then you can even click on a link to the appropriate Hebrew or Aramaic entry in the well-respected BDB dictionary if there is an entry in BDB for that lexeme.

Our Qumran module takes advantage of our recent work in shifting to Unicode encoding for Hebrew and Aramaic in our BHS (HMT) and BHS Add-On—Groves-Wheeler Westminster Hebrew Morphology modules. That means that you will see our Qumran texts with stunningly sharp, aesthetically-pleasing Unicode “smart-fonts” that are geared toward maximum readability. Our Qumran module also contains scholarly editorial marks, almost always the same editorial marks with which you may be familiar from the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD) series. Finally, searching capabilities are provided via our familiar search screen.

We at Olive Tree are excited about this new module! We hope you will check out the product description here.

~Drayton B.

Christmas is barely past, and we at Olive Tree hope you had a very good time with family and friends, celebrating the birth of Jesus. Where we are, snowfall made it a beautiful, quiet Christmas evening, the perfect capstone to a very enjoyable day.

I wanted to take a brief moment to promote two new releases, Webster’s 1828 Dictionary and The Evidence Bible Notes. These two resources are powerful additions to your Olive Tree library, and I highly recommend both of them.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary - Noah Webster, considered by many the “Father of American Scholarship and Education” and “America’s Schoolmaster,” was a devout Christian who influenced generations of Americans with his Blue-backed speller books. He is best known for his 1828 An American Dictionary of the English Language, now available from Olive Tree. This dictionary has perhaps the most verse references in any major reference work. It is unlike any dictionary we have offered before because it defines all the words in the English language in 1828. Surprisingly, most of the definitions are the same now as in 1828, and this dictionary provides a window into what the English language was like in the early nineteenth century.

The Evidence Bible Notes - Well known evangelist and Christian apologist Ray Comfort has compiled an impressive array of evidence for the authority and authenticity of the Bible. Using quotes from some of the most eminent scientists and thinkers in history like Charles Darwin, Stephen Hawking and Sir Isaac Newton, Comfort reveals how the Bible holds up to scrutiny while other attempts to explain the world fail. These notes, filled with helpful illustrations, also show you how to share your faith with your family, friends and co-workers. The Evidence Bible Notes is a wonderful resource for the defense of the Bible and the spread of the Gospel.

In this article, we want to let author E. M. Bounds tell you in his own words about the importance of prayer to God, to the Church, to the world, and to you. Thus, we will quote a little from five new classic eBooks by this author available from Olive Tree. First, however, let’s talk a little about the author and his work.

Few have written about prayer with the experience, authority, conviction, and eloquence of this simple man of God from nineteentn-century America. Toughened by the loss of his father at a young age, by lonely years spent in the mining camps of California’s gold rush, by incarceration in Union prison camps during the American Civil War, and by his gritty experiences as a Confederate chaplain on the front lines of that war - praying on his knees within sight of the troops under his charge, E. M. Bounds embodied a blend of firmness and gentleness rarely seen in a man, inwrought by the Christ he loved as he was passing “through it all.” One might say that Bounds’ famous books on prayer read like Emerson’s essays, in the sense that almost every sentence could be framed and hung on the wall, so clear and incisive and perfectly fitting are the words. Unlike Emerson, however, this man would never choose to write an essay on self-reliance; rather, he had learned the secret of whole-heartedly casting EVERYTHING on the Savior through persevering prayer and constant communion with the One for whom nothing is impossible. And he had experienced first-hand the power of prayer and supplication to change the world.

Currently, Olive Tree offers five classic eBooks on prayer by E. M. Bounds, with three more to come. Hyperlinked Scripture references, verse indexes, book marks, and other features of the electronic versions, make reading these eBooks with Olive Tree’s BibleReader software a great experience. Let’s take a brief look at each book.

In The Essentials of Prayer, the author explores prayer as it relates to the whole person, to humility, to devotion, to praise, to thanksgiving, and to other essential elements of prayer. Says Bounds, “Prayer has to do with the entire man. It takes the whole man to pray, and prayer affects the entire man in its gracious results. The largest results in praying come to him who gives himself, all of himself, all that belongs to himself, to God.”

In The Necessity of Prayer, Bounds elaborates on the relationships between prayer and faith, trust, desire, fervency, importunity, character, conduct, obedience, vigilance, and the word of God. Writing about prayer and faith, the author says, “Prayer projects faith on God and God on the world. Only God can move mountains, but prayer and faith move God.” As with all of the author’s books, this one leaves readers greatly impressed with the necessity of prayer in giving God a way to accomplishes His gracious will.

As the title suggests, The Possibilities of Prayer considers prayer in relation to the promises of God and to the phenomenal answers God grants to believing prayer. “How vast are the possibilities of prayer! What great things are accomplished by this divinely appointed means of grace! It lays its hand on Almighty God and moves Him to do what He would not otherwise do if prayer was not offered. It brings things to pass which would never otherwise occur. The story of prayer is the story of great achievements.”

Power through Prayer exposes the folly of God’s people if they try to use any means other than prayer to achieve the fruit God requires. While the church and its leaders look for better methods to bring about the increase of Christ on the earth, God is intending to do a work in the vessels themselves, fitting them for something greater than they can imagine. Bounds asserts, “Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. The glory and efficiency of the gospel is staked on the men who proclaim it.”

Finally, in The Weapon of Prayer, E. M. Bounds sounds again the call to all Christians to exercise their God-given birthright for the sake of God and His kingdom, the success of which He has placed under the law of prayer. “He rules the world just as He rules the Church by prayer. This lesson needs to be emphasized, iterated and reiterated in the ears of men of modern times and brought to bear with cumulative force on the consciences of this generation whose eyes have no vision for the eternal things, whose ears are deaf toward God. Nothing is more important to God than prayer in dealing with mankind. But it is likewise all-important to man to pray. Failure to pray is failure along the whole line of life. Man must pray to God if love for God is to exist.”

As you can see, E. M. Bounds speaks very well for himself and hardly needs anyone to advocate for his books. Readers can open to any page and taste the same indomitable spirit. May God find many who will let the Lord speak to them through the writings of this forthright and devoted man of God!

Olive Tree has a commitment to excellence, and we strive to be responsive to our customers’ needs and requests, as well as anticipate those needs. Recently, we updated six eBooks to have Table of Contents Choosers, making navigation much easier on the Symbian and Smartphone platforms. Although I had not received any requests to implement this newer feature on these eBooks, I knew that they would make navigation easier for all our users. If you want to see how the TOC Chooser works, check out our manual.

One of the great features about purchasing from Olive Tree is that you always get free updates for your files. If you have already purchased any of the eBooks below, just log in to your personal account to access the updated files. If you have not purchased any of these, check them out. They come with my highest recommendation. We even have a collection of Bible Biographies by F.B. Meyer available at a significant discount. Check it out here. Also, see all the titles by F.B. Meyer and Amy Carmichael. Oh, and just an advance heads up. If you like F.B. Meyer Bible Biographies, be sure to check our New Releases later this week. I have 6 NEW F.B. Meyer titles slated for release! One final plug - Olive Tree has a wide selection of eBooks. Want to see them all in a big list? Then click here!

• David: Shepherd, Psalmist, King - by F.B. Meyer
• Gold Cord: The Story of a Fellowship - by Amy Carmichael
• If: A Dohnavur Book - by Amy Carmichael
• Mimosa - by Amy Carmichael
• Moses: The Servant of the Lord - by F.B. Meyer
• Paul: A Servant of Jesus Christ - by F.B. Meyer

-Tim-

Olive Tree offers a number of different software bundle options that provide users an excellent way to purchase software at a discounted price. Among the pre-selected collections and CD packages, there is also a Build Your Own Collection option, which offers the most flexibility. You can choose the resources you want to add to include in the collection, and you will receive a bundle discount based on the number of items in your cart and your order total. The corresponding discount will be applied automatically as you add items to your cart. Below is a table with the different discounts available if you build your own bundle:

Ready to start building your own collection? Start browsing our product list now!

~ Kristi

We have recently released 9 new collections, including a couple new study Bibles, and we have more collections and study Bibles on the way. We’ve taken a slightly different approach with this season’s collections, trying to bring together resources that cover common themes or topics, and offering some of the most popular texts in that category. Here are a few examples…

We just posted the Bible Biographies Collection, which bundles together all our eBooks that are biographies on different figures in the Bible. So with one download, and at a very discounted price, you can have all 7 of these resources easily accessible on your PDA.

Another of our new collections is the Basic Study Tools Collection. In this package we brought together some of the essential resources for studying the Bible, with the goal of providing a basic, affordable package to get any student of the Bible started with PDA Bible Study.

Here’s one that everyone’s sure to enjoy: the eBook Classics Collection, which includes writings from some of Christianity’s most well-respected authors: Madame Guyon, Martin Luther, Andrew Murray, St. Augustine, John Calvin, and several others - 26 eBooks in all! And as an added bonus, this collection is available absolutely free We have another eBook Classics Collection coming out in a few weeks that includes some of our other Classics that are licensed through a publisher, and will thus be available for sale.

One final thing to make mention of here - we have a new section on our website for Study Bibles, and we have just recently posted a few more: the Catholic Study Bible and New Scofield Study Bible, both with notes from Oxford University Press, and the Ryrie Study Bible.

Well, that’s all for now! Enjoy browsing our new selections!

~ Kristi

We are back from the national conferences for ETS (Evangelical Theological Society) and SBL (Society of Biblical Literature). We had a great time at both of these conferences.

The highlight of the conference for me was meeting and talking with Olive Tree users. We had a great response to the early release of the Unicode Hebrew with BDB. The Unicode Hebrew will be available on our web site within a few weeks. I upgraded numorous people to the new Unicode Hebrew. It was fun seeing their excitement when they saw how amazing the new Hebrew looks! We got many oohs and ahhs over the new Unicode Hebrew. For more information on the Unicode Hebrew you can read these blog articles http://www.olivetreeblog.com/2007/08/02/hebrew-and-aramaic-developments/ and http://www.olivetreeblog.com/2007/08/29/unicode-on-palm/.

While at the conferences we talked with many publishers about electronic publication of their content in the Olive Tree format. We made some good contacts and started the ball rolling on a number of projects.

The most common question we got was, “Do/Will you support the iPhone?”. In February Apple will be releasing a development kit for developing native iPhone applications. Once this development kit is available we will be able to better investigate what will be involved in porting the BibleReader to the iPhone. After we have better information about porting the BibleReader to the iPhone we will make a decision about supporting the iPhone.

Here is a picture of myself, Drayton, and Drew in the Olive Tree booth at SBL. I am on the left, Drayton is in the middle, and Drew is on the right.

For those of you state side, have a great Thanksgiving Holiday!

-Stephen

I’m in San Diego right now standing at the Olive Tree booth at the annual conference for ETS. We were excited to see user responses to the new Unicode HMT. We talked to and helped a lot of happy Olive Tree users - this was my favorite part of this year’s ETS. Now it’s off to downtown San Diego to get set up for SBL. More later…

- Stephen

This week we are headed to beautiful San Diego, CA for the Evangelical Theological Society’s (ETS) national conference and for the Society of Biblical Literature’s (SBL) national conference. We would love for you to come by our booth at ETS and/or at SBL. We will be at booth 517 at ETS and booth 419 at SBL. We will have an early release version’s of the new Unicode HMT available for sale at both of these conferences. For those who have already purchased the HMT you can drop by our booth and we will upgrade your files for free

Stephen