TIP - Focus Find Follow - Pt 7 - Bible Book Overview

John Fidel
John Fidel MVP Posts: 3,333
edited November 20 in English Forum

Expository study of the Bible, for me, starts with an overview of the book of the Bible I am going to study. There are many resources that discuss how to do expository studies. www.learnlogos.com has several webinars for sale that go into great detail. Since this is not a "how to study", but instead suggested layouts for this type of study,  I will leave you to follow up on methods.

For me I start with the Biblical Text. In this example I am using 1 John. I am going to read the book several times, (for those that can use the Greek text), maybe in several translations and I want to focus on that alone. to accomplish this I do two things:

I go the the visual filters icon and select "Bible Text Only". This removes all chapter and verse numbers, footnotes, speaker icons etc.

2

I select from the resource panel to use the "Show Reading View". Nothing but the text.

The next step for me is to set up some tools and documents to record my thoughts and collect information. Once I re-dock the Bible, this is what my layout looks like:

Note on the left I have favorites, with folders set up for my study of 1 John; a 1 John clipping document and a 1 John Note file. I have dragged the clipping and note file into the favorites folder for 1 John.

TIP: Favorites can be used to collect information using folders and sub folders. 

Next I use a Logos Now feature called Concordance. I use this to filter information that continues to make me think and focus on 1 John. I have provided a few examples below. This is a great new feature and allows me to glean information useful in the overview of 1 John. This is looking at all the bible senses used in 1 John that occur over 10 times.

This one is organized by Bible Entities:

If you have Logos Now, you should experiment to see how useful this feature may be in your studies. Note: the first time you run a concordance on a reverse interlinear or tagged bible text it will take a while, then it should be saved for future use. If you do not have Logos Now, this feature alone may make it worth considering a subscription.

Go to Logos Pro Videos for more information on this feature.

So far I have gathered information without use of resources in my library. Now is time to find and follow what is available on the book of 1 John. I start with the Factbook. Most of you probably know you can type in a bible book and get a bible book overview as shown below. There is a Logos Pro Video here. Open each section to see what resources you have in your library that discuss 1 John regarding origin, background etc.

This helps us find out about 1 John, the date, author, outline, theme, canon etc. It is a lot of information, so be selective and find some good resources for further study. It is easy to get overwhelmed if you feel you need to read every article provided.

At the bottom of the Factbook you will see a link to open a Topical Guide. This is my next step and my custom Topic Guide will provide me a more targeted approach often times than the Factbook. Note that using collections and incorporating them into this custom Topic Guide is where I am able to target my finding information on 1 John.

Here is an example of what I found in the Bible Introductions and Handbook sections:

Lastly, I continue to drag the articles I want to come back to into the 1 John favorites folder.

This layout can be saved and used as a template for the next time you need it.

I covered a lot of information quickly. If any of these ideas are interesting, you should open them up and give them a view. If you have questions on more specifics, please ask. If you have examples to share on how you go about this process, please feel free to share.

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