An Interview with Larry Pierce
An Interview With Larry Pierce
With a background in data processing, Larry Pierce’s search for an effective computer-driven Bible study tool was truly a natural desire. And in the process, it became a mission which today requires a full-time commitment. From his home office in Winterbourne Ontario, Larry publishes and distributes what many regard as the most useful computer Bible available.
When he was searching in 1987 and could not find the answer to his needs, he started developing a software program which has grown into a popular and valuable set of reference tools for pastors, theology students and devoted Christians.
What began as a simple search and display computer program thirty five years ago has evolved into a compendium of theological reference materials which currently has 70 versions of the English Bibles and at least 50 foreign versions, including Hebrew and Greek. Also included are lexicons, Dictionaries, Creationism material and 500 other books.
“We basically got in on the ground floor,” he said. “The few programs that were out there were prohibitively expensive — around $1,200 for a complete package. Prices have dropped considerably since 1987 and Bible students can now choose from a wide range of excellent Bible study tools for a very reasonable cost.”
In the early days, the simplicity of the program only allowed an authorized version Bible text. Today’s DVD-ROM has all the texts, notes, topics and commentary modules amounting to over 3 gigabytes of data. The need to change to the DVD format resulted from the Online Bible growing “bigger and bigger each year”. Things got a little out of hand, Pierce admits, since Version 6 was completed in 1992 requiring between 20 and 30 high density floppy disks.
The first Bible text proofed by Pierce in 1987 showed eight verses missing. Because this is God’s Word, no labor was spared in producing an accurate text. This took two years. The result is a reputation for accuracy which resulted in a unique request from the Queen’s Printer in the United Kingdom. After 400 years, an electronic copy of an English language Bible went back to where the print original came from.
One of his major early projects was Gill’s Expositor. Three volunteers worked with Pierce to proof the text of John Gill’s Expositor. The work takes up about 55 megs of disk space. Gill’s work gives him the distinction of having the most words in electronic form.
Another major project was to digitize the complete works of C.H. Spurgeon, the 63-volume Metropolitan Pulpit, who now has the most words in print. That should take up about 150 million characters of disk space. “The fact it’s still in print after 100 years should tell you a lot.” All this work takes time and Pierce devotes much of the working day, from about six onward to scanning, proofing and other duties. “It took us months to add in the Strong’s numbers support 25 years ago. Now with the advances in technology, we can do much more than that each month.”
The current project Larry is working on with his wife Marion and Gary Gallant (also a Canadian) is The Analytical Bible and The Literal Bible. The Old Testament is complete and they hope to have the New Testament finished around the end of 2022. The Analytical Old Testament brings together in one place all the study tools you should ever need to study the Hebrew text. The more you know of Hebrew the deeper you can go. However, the layman should be able to pick up in a day or so what he needs to know about Hebrew to enable him to do meaningful detailed Bible studies. Since we are dealing with a static text, all the work that would require years of learning at a seminary is done for you. You now have a powerful tool by which to judge the accuracy of any translation and the first one that should be judged is the one the author made. The contents of this package rests on the shoulders of theological giants: Ussher, Newton, Gill, Wigram, Strong, Young, Brown, Driver, Briggs, Berry, Scrivner and Gesenius to mention only a few. Modern scholars would include, John Owen, Todd Beall, Maurice Robinson, Jay Green, Jacob B. Smith and Gary Gallant. The 2013 Hebrew text came from CCAT and was supplied by BibleWorks. We have now completed the work started by Jay Green in the 1960’s of keying everything to Strong’s numbers and giving the analytical information for each word.
The Online Bible takes a strict theological view, with a very high view of the Scriptures especially Genesis.
“I find it amazing that people will take the word of fallible scientists who do not know everything and were not present when God created the world instead of God who was there and knows everything.”
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Second only to Larry Pierce, Peter van der Schelde is the most influential person in the world wide ministry of Online Bible.
Peter’s background is in medical chemistry and biochemical research. Peter became involved with Online Bible in 1990. A missionary gave him a copy of version 4 for DOS. Peter could see the benefits of such a program so he offered Larry his help to develop a Dutch version of the program. Dutch and German Bibles with Strong’s did not exist so he set up projects to develop these. He developed content in many other languages as well including French, Scandinavian languages and many more.
Helping others to publish their material in print led to the startup of Cross Link Services in 2005 together with an associate, Sjoerd van Noort. In 2012 Sjoerd started to work on the Online Bible apps for iOS, Android an Macintosh. These days Peter spends his time developing new content for Bible study and managing existing content for Online Bible.
