Electronic Tools for Biblical Study at Home, at the University, and in the Classroom Emanuel Tov Over the past two decades many developments have taken place in the area of the computerized study of Scripture. The impressive progress in hardware enabled much advancement in software and thus provided access to a greater number of users. Twenty- five or thirty years ago the main components for the computer-assisted study of Scripture were developed and used merely on mainframes, media that were only remotely available, and hence extensive use by scholars and students alike was delayed. It was not feasible to expect users, especially not students, to turn to terminals linked to mainframes. Another problem was that several projects, among them our own CATSS project, presented the Hebrew and Greek data in transliteration. Twenty years ago, in my presidential address to the 1988 AIBI conference in Jerusalem, I therefore appealed to our colleagues not only to develop tools, but also to enable greater access for colleagues and students to these tools. 1 When developing tools, specialists used to speak about “possibilities,” but what was really needed were applications for non-specialists and accessible tools for the average person. Today, we realize that an appeal such as that made in 1988 is no longer needed; our colleagues are actively using the tools we have developed, thanks to advancements in the development of what we then named microcomputers, now known as personal computers. The servers of today and the networks of personal computers integrated with servers take the place of the mainframes of those days. There still are many mainframes, immensely more powerful than those of the past, but they are little used for projects in the humanities. Users now employ the databases and programs on personal computers in their homes and universities, on terminals connected to servers, and increasingly more on the Internet and in the classroom. The development of the CATSS database and software went hand in hand with the presence of better and more powerful available hardware. Our project aimed to develop 1 “Achievements and Trends in Computer-Assisted Biblical Studies,” Proceedings of the Second International Colloquium Bible and Computer: Methods, Tools, Results, Jérusalem, 9–13 juin 1988 (Travaux de linguistique quantitative 43; ed. C. Muller; Paris/Genève: Champion–Sladkine, 1989) 33–60.