Request for feedback on how we use Logos

MJ. Smith

I would really appreciate a bit of feedback on these suggestions as in would you find them useful or way outside how you use Logos?

https://community.logos.com/forums/t/104797.aspx on types

https://community.logos.com/forums/t/104796.aspx on passage parallels

https://community.logos.com/forums/t/104795.aspx on  bible people visual timelines

Dave Hooton

Hi Martha

Types: not essential to my study

Passage Parallels: Yes, most interesting.

Bible people visual timelines: those concerning Nimrod come from Jewish tradition or apocalypses, so it is dubious how they would relate to a timeline of Abraham's biblical life! They would be interesting in another context, as with stories of Jesus' childhood.

Mark Barnes

• Types: I'm not sure how you might see this working, but something on biblical theological themes (including types) would be very interesting to me.
• Passage Parallels are always interesting, but I'm personally not sure of the value of the examples you've given. I see them as cross references, not parallels. To qualify as parallels (in my definition), then neither column could have references scattered through the Bible.
• Overlays: Possible useful information, but I don't use the visual timeline. I'd rather more people than more information about the existing people.

SineNomine

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/724527#Comment_724527

• Types: I don't know exactly how it would work, but as long as it connected type->fulfillment in some useful way, I think I'd probably use it a fair amount.
• Passage Parallels I don't know that I'd use it.
• Overlays: I don't know that I'd use it.
  

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/724559#Comment_724559

Thanks guys.

Lew Worthington

Hey MJ,

I might have some interest in types (depending on how it would be defined and implemented) and probably less interest in bible people visual timelines.

But I would be most interested in something similar to passage parallels, especial when it becomes a component of "type scenes". While not many people do narrative analysis these days, it's still an interest of mine. Perhaps parallels like this could give us a clue as to the narrative understand the first readers of biblical passages might take into a passage as they read it. Certain catch phrases or elements of setting seem to be pulled from the biblical writers' literary quivers repeatedly to invite readers to share a mutual understanding of the way the story is going to work.

These narrative ground rules can be illustrated by Snoopy of Peanuts fame when he types, "It was a dark and stormy night...." We just know what he's getting at. We know the literary genre, we know the mood, we know the feeling. We just get it. That kind of thing happens all the time in any literature we read, from comic strips to blogs to novels by Tolstoy. (What? Another 20 page conversation about 19th century economics?)

For biblical stories, those understandings shared between writer and reader are lost to us, for the most part, but we can recover some of that sense when we recognize these repetitions and patterns. Perhaps a passage parallels tool could help us see these shared literary snippets in a new way.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/724527#Comment_724527

Mark Barnes said:

• Passage Parallels are always interesting, but I'm personally not sure of the value of the examples you've given. I see them as cross references, not parallels. To qualify as parallels (in my definition), then neither column could have references scattered through the Bible.

Another difference in terminology. I use "parallel" to describe two or more sets of verses whose relationship is best shown by laying them out in parallel columns. Usually, especially in a pastiche,  at least one column is relatively compact and in canonical sequence. By contrast, a cross-reference is a relationship between discrete verses not an element in a larger pattern i.e. comparing sets of verses I think of as parallel; comparing verses I think of as cross-reference. Or if you think of them displayed in tables, I think of cross-reference as a table with a single row and parallel as a multi-row table.

Schumitinu

Most of all passage parallels!!!

Types: I only consider types when they are actually indicated as such by the text like Hagar and Sarah in Gal 4.

Bible people visual timelines yes if they visualize the biblical facts.

Mark Barnes

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/724677#Comment_724677

MJ. Smith said:

Or if you think of them displayed in tables, I think of cross-reference as a table with a single row and parallel as a multi-row table.

Here's a good example of what I would see as true parallel. You'll notice that whilst only one side is in a canonical sequence, the other side is not randomly scattered, but from a single source. It allows you to say "Passage X parallels Passage Y", rather than just "Here are some parallels to Passage X". I'd find the former very useful, but not the latter.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/724729#Comment_724729

I also appreciate the variety of parallel you prefer. However, I also respect the variety of parallels put forth by major historical scholars - they are picking up real patterns as well. I view Logos/Verbum as needing to serve both those interested in historical interpretation (reception history) and those who are not. However, to say "rather than just "Here are some parallels to Passage X"" is to miss the point of the rabbis analysis which is closer to the biological theme of  "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" or the sharing of patterns between the macrocosm and the microcosm.