ZECNT modules get an update

The optional bad news comes first, and the optional good news follows last.

Two major changes are being introduced in module updates to modules of the ZECNT (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) series. If you own any modules in this series (other than the newest ZECNT-15 and ZECNT-Philippians), you will soon have the option to update them via the “Check for Content Updates...“ menu item in the “Accordance” menu. Be aware that these updates will likely displace any existing user notes or user highlights due to the fact that they will add and remove paragraphs. When the number of paragraphs in a module is changed, it will offset the placement of user notes and user highlights in that module since the location of the user notes and highlights is based on the paragraph number. Adding and removing paragraphs offsets the paragraph numbering resulting in an unpredictable redistribution of user notes and highlights where they are no longer tied to the original paragraph the user intended.

If you do not wish to lose access to highlights or user notes, that is to have them displaced inside your ZECNT module(s), you can simply avoid updating these modules from the “Check for Updates” window. This window allows you to select which modules you wish to update to the latest version and which you wish to leave at your current local version. See the list at the end of this post to know which module updates will be affect by this change in paragraph numbering. Of course, if you own those ZECNT modules but never placed highlights or user notes in them, you have nothing to worry about with these updates.

Now, on to the good news! All the graphical translations from our original release of this series many years ago have been fixed. They now accurately reflect the print volume and the author’s intent. The graphical translations in the ZECNT series are unique in that they display alignment between clauses and phrases across multiple lines of the translation. Subordinate clauses are indented under their main clause, multiple verbs having the same subject are aligned under one another, prepositional phrases are aligned under the word they modify, etc. Unfortunately, the 8 volumes from Accordance’s first release in this series (by the module name “ZEC-NT”) were incompletely developed when it comes to these graphical translations. Newer volumes were always fully developed, but the means and opportunity to fix these unfinished graphical translations was lacking until now. These 8 original volumes, now fixed, are Matthew, Luke, Acts, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians & Philemon, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, and James. This development is what required the addition and removal of paragraphs which is the cause for the bad news above.

In addition to this major change, we have also added a new search field to all the volumes in order to improve the user experience of this commentary series. The “Discourse Label” field is for searching the labels which the commentary authors have placed to the left of their translations of the text. As the introduction to the series explains, these labels are informed by the study of discourse analysis generally and are also informed by narrative criticism in the gospels and Acts. 

As with all module updates released by Accordance Bible Software, they are always optional (see above) and they are always free! We apologize for releasing these incompletely developed modules in the past but we are glad to be able to rectify them today. (That said, we encourage you to buy the most recent upgrade, ZECNT-15, which adds the Philippians volume by George H. Guthrie and incorporates these two improvements in the other volumes.) 

The following list gives each module, the version (update) number which includes the above changes and whether the paragraph numbering was affected (Affected or No). If you update your ZECNT module from a current version number lower than the number indicated here to this number or higher, the update will change the paragraph numbering if it has the label “Affected” here. 

ZEC-NT, version 1.4, Affected
ZECNT-11, version 1.4, Affected
ZECNT-14, version 1.1, Affected
ZECNT-Matt, version 1.3, Affected
ZECNT-Mark, version 1.2, Affected
ZECNT-Luke, version 1.2, Affected
ZECNT-John, version 1.3, No
ZECNT-Acts, version 1.2, Affected
ZECNT-Romans, version 1.1, No
ZECNT-1 Corinthians, version 1.1, No
ZECNT-Galatians, version 1.1, Affected
ZECNT-Ephesians, version 1.2, Affected
ZECNT-Col & Phm, version 1.2, Affected
ZECNT-1&2Thess, version 1.2, Affected
ZECNT-James, version 1.2, Affected
ZECNT-John Epistles, version 1.3, No
ZECNT-Revelation, version 1.1, No

Besides the changes mentioned above minor corrections were made to each volume.

ZECNT-Matt’s Greek field was extensively corrected since it was lacking vowels on many words.

ZECNT-Mark had added a iota subscript in Greek words where it didn’t belong and split some paragraphs that should not have been split.