What triggers Bible Background?

Say I am reading about Bathsheba bathing on the roof and King David walking around in his sleep...

Is there anything that would let me know more about women bathing and why? (Was it common for women to bathe on roofs while the men were off at battle? Was she indoors with the windows open maybe? Was she ritually unclean before David saw her?)

The point is...I am reading along and wonder what in my NKJV might say - click here for more information and say go to Factbook (which I think never has enough info in it) or tell me - click here for the Bible Background in these passages.

What Logos resources do you all make use of to understand what was really going on back then culturally so I can remove my one "modern" glasses and have a cultural background understanding?

By the way....the fact that I have to spend more money to load up and inform my "Factbook" (I have Baptist Silver 6.0 by the way) just seems silly to me.

I really miss my NIV Quest Study Bible (which at least imagined as I read along that I needed more explanation as a modern reader about things).

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Graham Criddle

What Logos resources do you all make use of to understand what was really going on back then culturally so I can remove my one "modern" glasses and have a cultural background understanding?

Some useful background commentaries are:

LimJK

What Logos resources do you all make use of to understand what was really going on back then culturally so I can remove my one "modern" glasses and have a cultural background understanding?

JoshinRI,

Apart from what Graham suggested, you might also want to take a look at this https://www.logos.com/product/49365/cultural-concepts-collection

I have the same question a month or two ago after reviewing what I get in the Cultural Concepts Section in Passage Guide. So, I did a search for "Cultural Concepts" on Logos Product Page and found the link above. Hope you find that useful.

Schumitinu

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738254#Comment_738254

I have the same question a month or two ago after reviewing what I get in the Cultural Concepts Section in Passage Guide. So, I did a search for "Cultural Concepts" on Logos Product Page and found the link above. Hope you find that useful.

Can you tell us in what way you found the cultural concepts collection useful and how it helped you with understanding Bible background?

Francis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738257#Comment_738257

I don't have the collection but I do have some of its resources. This means that I do not happen to have a resource that tags bathing as a cultural concept, but if I right-click on the word wedding in John 2, there is in the list of options of the context menu wedding as cultural concept. Clicking on that I can search for the cultural concept (in specific locations or everywhere) and find relevant articles, for instance an article on marriage customs in the Dictionary of New Testament Backgrounds. The more resources tagged for this, the more chances that there will be something tagged for what you are looking for. The tagging means that the concept can be linked to different words in the Bible text that refer to it.

The product page to which Josh linked above includes an illustrative video.

John Fidel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738283#Comment_738283

Hi Josh,

I have a collection called Background. It contains resources that provide various types of bible background information. Since I tag all my resources, I do not have a formula to share with you. There are some background collections available at several of the Faithlife groups for you to try. You can also go to Logos.com and review the collector's edition that shows all the resources in categories, including Bible Background and create a collection from those.

I then customize my passage guide to include this collection. I also customize my topic guide to include this collection. Below is a screenshot showing some of the results return from my custom passage guide.

Now I have access by both reference and topic to these resources. Hope this helps.

Schumitinu

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738292#Comment_738292

Hi Josh,

I have a collection called Background. It contains resources that provide various types of bible background information. Since I tag all my resources, I do not have a formula to share with you. There are some background collections available at several of the Faithlife groups for you to try. You can also go to Logos.com and review the collector's edition that shows all the resources in categories, including Bible Background and create a collection from those.

I then customize my passage guide to include this collection. I also customize my topic guide to include this collection. Below is a screenshot showing some of the results return from my custom passage guide.

Now I have access by both reference and topic to these resources. Hope this helps.

This makes much more sense to me than the cultural concepts collection. Because in the cultural concepts collection are primarily ancient texts that might shed light on the issue one looks at or not. I find it hard to know what to do with these texts, how to interpret them in light of the biblical passage one studies. So I need a commentary that does it for me.

LimJK

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738450#Comment_738450

This makes much more sense to me than the cultural concepts collection. Because in the cultural concepts collection are primarily ancient texts that might shed light on the issue one looks at or not. I find it hard to know what to do with these texts, how to interpret them in light of the biblical passage one studies. So I need a commentary that does it for me.

Schumitinu,

Thanks for pointing that out, I suppose part of the collection ... such as these are still relevant [:)]

Context of Scripture: Volume 1,2 and 3 edited by William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, Jr. ($299.95)
A Cultural Handbook of the Bible by John J. Pilch ($26)
Easton’s Bible Dictionary
The Encyclopedia of Judaism ($349.95)
The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, revised and updated ed.
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary ($26.95)
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1915 ed. ($79.95)

Assuming purchasing these separately it is in the region of $782.80, whereas purchasing the 20 Volume Cultural Concepts Collection is $469.99 or the applicable dynamic pricing if one owns certain of these resources.

Schumitinu

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738481#Comment_738481

Yes, this is true!

Francis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738507#Comment_738507

And I would add that while John's approach has a lot of merit to it and should be used, there are also some limitations, not least the fact that dictionaries depend largely on picking the right headword to find relevant articles. By contrast, tags -- which are by no means unfailing -- are designed to point to a concept rather than a word, concept which may be represented in different dictionaries by different headwords.

A headword search in a background collection could be supplemented by a Bible reference search, and multiple headwords, but then the syntax becomes more complicated and a number of users will that more difficult to use than a collection. The topic guide may also provide an entry point that is less dependent on picking the right headword, but also not specifically narrowed to cultural concepts.

Yet when I say that John's method should be used, I mean that the collection reflects resources that have been tagged for cultural concepts, and you may well have very relevant resources that are not so tagged. So depending entirely on the cultural concepts approach could make you miss out also.

In terms of ease of use though, I would suggest using cultural concepts as step 1 and a customized search as step 2 if step 1 produces no result or if one wants to compare results between a larger number of resources.

Finally, with regard to the Context of Scriptures type of resources, this is obviously less immediate than just being told by a dictionary what the deal is. Nevertheless it has its place and value when one wants to acquire more culture about ancient practices. The idea here is not just to tell you what Jews did as marital customs, but -- for instance -- show you ancient texts that describe marriage ceremonies in other ANE cultures. In the process you acquire a broader exposure to what was being practiced and can perhaps appreciate more some of the similarities and differences between different practices. Admittedly, this may be more than many users care for.

John Fidel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738508#Comment_738508

Hi Francis,

A few clarificactions:

When you put a collection in a Passage Guide, it performs a reference search, not a headword search.

I do not put many dictionaries (Type:encyclopedia) in the collection.

I put resources that may not otherwise be accessible through Topics, Cultural Concepts or Ancient Literature. For example Manners and Customs and other resources that are background specific. I find this to be a great way to start a background study from a particular pericope.

In the PG once you open that collection you have the option to run a search. This opens a search box that can easily be amended.

I agree with your comments regarding the limitations that currently exist using this in a Topic Guide, depending on how the resources is tagged.

Given the OP the Passage Guide option could provide more of the information requested automatically in the PG tied to the biblical text.

I think in combination with the Cultural Concepts, Ancient Literature and a Topic guide or Topic search you can get some great background information related to the biblical pericope you are studying.

Mark Barnes

Is there anything that would let me know more about women bathing and why? (Was it common for women to bathe on roofs while the men were off at battle? Was she indoors with the windows open maybe? Was she ritually unclean before David saw her?)

I have a collection of background commentaries I use for this sort of thing. I'd also use the Factbook entry on "Bathing".

Looking quickly, New Manners and Customs of the Bible tells me that roofs had parapets, and…

"because of the heat in that climate, the family would often sleep on the roof at night (1 Samuel 9:26) and even eat meals there. Even palaces had such roofs. It was from a roof that David saw Bathsheba bathing (2 Samuel 11:2), which she may have been doing on her roof, which was often done because of the coolness of the night and the ease of emptying water. Most of the time, however, a screen was placed around the bathing area, or bathing was only done within parapets built specially high for that purpose."

It's possible that the height of the palace roof meant that David could see what would be hidden from the view of lower roofs.

Other commentaries suggest that "Bathsheba’s bathing is probably an act of purification following her menstrual cycle (see 2 Sam 11:4). This would be based on the laws of ritual purity as described in Leviticus 15:19–24."

From the Factbook I found entries in Bible dictionaries that suggested people bathed on their roofs partly because they could collect rainwater for that purpose, and wouldn't therefore have to transport large volumes of water in order to bathe.

Schumitinu

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738536#Comment_738536

I'd also use the Factbook entry on "Bathing".

I find the Factbook helpful as well when looking up a specific concept. Another good entry point.

Sean Boisen

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738677#Comment_738677

I'd also use the Factbook entry on "Bathing".

I find the Factbook helpful as well when looking up a specific concept. Another good entry point.

Also note that, in addition to the articles in the Dictionaries section of Factbook, there are some selected links to reference resources like dictionaries in the Cultural Concepts section (and the Lexham Cultural Ontology Glossary). These are often more focused on the specific cultural practice if that's the background information you're looking for.

Here's a screenshot from the Glossary for bathing.