Best way of tracing themes throughout a book of the Bible?

This is my first post on these forums, so first... hello!

I'm looking to trace a theme through a book of the Bible, for instance faith and believing in the book of John. What's the best way to do this? I'd like to find every incidence of the theme throughout the book.

I can do a basic word search, looking for each variation of the word separately, but perhaps there is a more powerful way to accomplish this?

I'm currently using Logos for Mac 1.

Thanks for the help!

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TCBlack

This is my first post on these forums, so first... hello!

Hello there! Most of us are friendly, but beware of.... oh never mind [;)]

I'm looking to trace a theme through a book of the Bible, for instance faith and believing in the book of John. What's the best way to do this? I'd like to find every incidence of the theme throughout the book.

I can't speak to the Logos /Mac abilities but if I were going to trace a theme through a book, I would as you have use a word study on a given word group.

However, my first action would be to sit down and read the book in one setting. Several times. As you already know, some themes will use more than just individual words to state an idea. It would be helpful on your second and third read through to watch for and mark those passages which contain unique phrasing but which use the same concepts.

I realize that my approach would remove some of the automation that Logos provides, but once you've read a book 3-4 times you're ready to start deciphering what those word studies turn up.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117134#Comment_117134

There are also some helpful resources in Logos for tracing themes/topics throughout Scripture (broader than a specific word). I'm not sure what level base package library you own, but if you have any of these resources, you could start there by looking up FAITH or BELIEF via the table of contents and see where it references verses in John.

If you have several of these and don't want to poke through them all manually, you could create a collection containing them all and then execute the following Basic search: (faith NEAR <john>) OR (belief NEAR <john>)

Aaron Knotts

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117143#Comment_117143

Rosie,

I looked at the syntax you used "(faith NEAR <john>) OR (belief NEAR <john>)" and realised that I don't know nearly enough of how to get the most out of this software.

At some stage, either viewing a video tutorial, or in reading through articles, I thought I had come across a list of syntax, but now I cannot find it. Are you aware of such a list?

Blessings,

Aaron

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117154#Comment_117154

I looked at the syntax you used "(faith NEAR <john>) OR (belief NEAR <john>)" and realised that I don't know nearly enough of how to get the most out of this software.

At some stage, either viewing a video tutorial, or in reading through articles, I thought I had come across a list of syntax, but now I cannot find it. Are you aware of such a list?

Hi Aaron,

The Logos Wiki (http://wiki.logos.com) is a great place to go to learn how to get more out of the software. It is a user-created encyclopedic reference of all things Logos (sometimes Logos employees edit it, but mostly it's done by us). If you browse around through the pages there you'll learn a ton.

You can search in the search box on the upper left and find specific things. For example, looking for search -- if you ignore all the Bug reports that come up in the results -- would find you this page: http://wiki.logos.com/Search_HELP which will explain that syntax I used. This page is an adjunct to it: http://wiki.logos.com/Search_Fields_List.

In looking this over, I realize that the Search_HELP page is pretty rudimentary and could use some examples to illustrate how one would use all these. Also it doesn't explain about how parentheses can be used to change the order of precedence of operators (as in mathematics), which I've done above. I'll see if I can find some time to beef that page up over the coming days.

The most helpful new bit of information for you will be about searching for references by putting them within angle brackets: e.g., <john 3:16> or <john> will find all places where a resource refers to that specific verse (even when it's within a longer verse range) or any verse in that book.

Also note that I originally thought I could use a simpler syntax for what I wanted to do above. I tried (faith OR belief) NEAR <john> but it didn't work. That surprised me and I've reported it as a possible bug.

Aaron Knotts

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117158#Comment_117158

Slapping forehead! The Wiki of course! I had taken a 'stroll' through there when I was installing L4 and have never thought to go back since.

Thanks for your specific answers as well regarding search syntax.

I'm [8] "off to see the Wiki"[8]

Jeremy

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117164#Comment_117164

You need one resource: The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology.

edgy

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117143#Comment_117143

Thanks everyone for the helpful replies, as well as for the welcome!

I can't speak to the Logos /Mac abilities but if I were going to trace a theme through a book, I would as you have use a word study on a given word group.

I certainly am reading the book through to cull the themes and it seems like once they are identified, doing a word search might be the best way to pull each instance of them. Is there a best way to do a study on a "word group"? Right now I think I should just do a basic "Bible Search" and use a string to search like "faith OR faithful OR believing." Is that my best bet?

If you have several of these and don't want to poke through them all manually, you could create a collection containing them all and then execute the following Basic search: (faith NEAR <john>) OR (belief NEAR <john>)

Thanks for the resource suggestions. Two quick questions:

1. How do a create a "collection" of books to search?

2. Were the recommendations mainly once I have identified the themes, those would provide a listing of where they come up in the Bible?

And a follow up, any good resources for identify themes as well?

You need one resource: The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology.

Thanks Jeremy. Could you elaborate a bit more? I read the section on "How to Use This Dictionary." It seems that in part two they go through the themes of each individual book of the bible, I assume from a theological perspective. And then possibly I could use part three to look at particular themes as used throughout the whole Bible. Is this how you would use the resource?

Last, a newbie question for all (I did try to search for the answer first)... how do I best navigate a resource? For instance, in The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, the table of contents does not list each book individually, but rather has a subsection for "Article on individual books." How can I go to the book I am looking for. I'm now just scrolling along until I get to it. The arrow down button just brings me to the next sub-subsection within each article. And is there a way to pop back to the Table of Contents in any resource?

Thanks!!

Jeremy

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117190#Comment_117190

There are two options - you can trace topics throughout the entire Bible and trace the theology/theologies of entire books of the Bible.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117190#Comment_117190

If you have several of these and don't want to poke through them all manually, you could create a collection containing them all and then execute the following Basic search: (faith NEAR <john>) OR (belief NEAR <john>)

Thanks for the resource suggestions. Two quick questions:

1. How do a create a "collection" of books to search?

Collections are the foundation for doing focused study in Logos -- limiting Searches (and Passage Guides and the Cited By tool) to just a subset of your entire library -- so it's worth taking some time to learn about them.

Here's a good introduction: http://wiki.logos.com/Collections

If you prefer it in video format, here's Logos's very basic video on them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK1X2s-yeD0

And Logos user Mark Barnes has created a couple of great videos on collections: http://www.vimeo.com/8118581 and a more advanced one on nested collections: http://www.vimeo.com/8145864

2. Were the recommendations mainly once I have identified the themes, those would provide a listing of where they come up in the Bible?

Yes, I was assuming you had themes in mind (you had given faith and believing as examples).

And a follow up, any good resources for identify themes as well?

Once you've created it, you could search your topical/thematic collection for <john> and it will show you all the topics (not just major ones but minor ones too) that are mentioned in John. For major themes, though, I will second Jeremy's suggestion of the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology for that.

Last, a newbie question for all (I did try to search for the answer first)... how do I best navigate a resource? For instance, in The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, the table of contents does not list each book individually, but rather has a subsection for "Article on individual books." How can I go to the book I am looking for. I'm now just scrolling along until I get to it. The arrow down button just brings me to the next sub-subsection within each article. And is there a way to pop back to the Table of Contents in any resource?

You can open up a more detailed Table of Contents panel on the left side of a resource (for resources that have it) by clicking on the >> icon at the upper left of the resource tab:

This will expand a TOC that you can navigate through. In this particular book, it contains links to each of the books of the Bible within that "Articles on individual books" section:

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117215#Comment_117215

And a follow up, any good resources for identify themes as well?

Another suggestion is the Thematic Bible: Passage Register, which comes as part of the two-volume Thematic Bible bundle (http://www.logos.com/products/details/3130):

This identifies the themes present throughout each book of the Bible. Then you can click on the little blue triangle to the left of a particular theme to open the companion book, Thematic Bible: Topical Analysis, to that theme and see where else in the Bible that theme occurs.

edgy

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117219#Comment_117219

Again to all, thank you. But in particular... wow Rosie! Thanks for all the great help! [:D]

Judy Berisford

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117143#Comment_117143

Rosie, this screenshot is EXTREMELY helpful to me!! Thanks for posting it!! I still have Logos 3;but will look for these book on the website!:)

Sean Boisen

This is my first post on these forums, so first... hello!

I'm looking to trace a theme through a book of the Bible, for instance faith and believing in the book of John. What's the best way to do this? I'd like to find every incidence of the theme throughout the book.

I can do a basic word search, looking for each variation of the word separately, but perhaps there is a more powerful way to accomplish this?

I'm currently using Logos for Mac 1.

Thanks for the help!

Welcome to the forums!

People might mean different things by "theme". In particular, themes aren't always expressed by individual words. A different approach would be to use the Sermon Starter Guide, which has a theme (as we define them) that covers both Faith and Belief: click this link.

This will show you all the pericopes (larger units of text) that we thought were relevant to this theme: if you save them as a Passage list, then you can browse through and focus on those from the Gospel of John.

Matthew

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/117219#Comment_117219

the two-volume Thematic Bible bundle

I had looked at this before, but was a little underwhelmed that it only traces 56 themes in the entire Bible. Most topical reference works have WAY more than 56. Can anyone comment on this?

Helena

Hello, a quick way to look up themes is to use the blue letter bible online resource and type in the word or theme you want to trace and it will give you every scripture that word or theme is in. Be blessed!

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1181667#Comment_1181667

Hello, a quick way to look up themes is to use the blue letter bible online resource and type in the word or theme you want to trace and it will give you every scripture that word or theme is in. Be blessed!

Just wanted to point out that you're responding to a question that someone posted 11 years ago. And that person has not posted again to the forums since then. They won't see your answer. Be sure to check the dates of what you're responding to.

And welcome to the Logos forums, BTW. I see this is your first post.