AROUND HOME : Getting the Word

BACK IN THE 1950s, when Bishop Fulton J. Sheen was beating the pants off TV comedian Milton Berle in the TV ratings wars, Berle complained that it wasn’t a fair contest because Sheen had better writers: “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.” Nowadays, Berle wouldn’t have that excuse--not if he had Wordworker, the Accelerated New Testament, in his personal computer. Wordworker isn’t just the New Testament on a floppy disk. It’s a screaming data base, which is to say it’s so fast that the program practically jumps out of the screen at you. The word window gives a list of 6,063 different words, arranged alphabetically with their frequency of occurrence. God, it turns out, occurs 1,354 times, father 352, Satan 36, Caesar 21 and Gethsemane twice.

Searches are instantaneous. And the text with accompanying chapter and verse appears in a window on the right of the screen while the list of search words appears on the left. It’s possible to search for individual words, lists of words or words in a sequence (“Verily, I say unto you,” for instance, appears 102 times.)

When you find the desired chapter and verse, you can export the pertinent passage directly into your sermon, paper on comparative religion or letter of encouragement to your son or daughter.

For additional commentary, Wordworker also cross-references the usage of each of the New Testament’s 7,956 verses to 12 standard Bible reference volumes by the publisher, The Way International.

There’s something intriguing (though still a bit shocking) about having the Bible on a data base. Out of curiosity, you find yourself looking up every reference to wine, blasphemy or adultery. Or comparing Matthew’s account of the birth of Christ to that of Luke. Men of the cloth have long known that even the devil can quote Scripture to his purpose. Now with Wordworker, so can anyone with a personal computer.

Wordworker is a shareware program, available free or at minimal cost (without a manual) from bulletin boards or software sources. A registered copy with a bound manual is available from the publisher for $45 plus $2.50 shipping. Contact The Way International Bookstore, P.O. Box 328, New Knoxville, Ohio 45871; telephone (419) 753-2523.