Verbum Tip 4o: Bible Browser: Speaking to God

MJ. Smith

Docx files for personal book: Verbum 9 part 1; How to use the Verbum Lectionary and Missal

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Yes, I am releasing with no mention of visual filters.

Facet: Speaking to God

Speaking to God is built off the Reported Speech dataset in the sense that it includes all entries from Reported Speech in which the Addressee is God. For example, this Reported Speech data of Abraham speaking to God should appear in this dataset.

From the Speaking to God interactive

The difference in how the matches are counted make it impossible to compare results at a glance but comparing them verse by verse they differ only in the reference Ode 10:52–56 which appears in the Speaking to God but not in the NRSV.

Dataset

DB:SD-SPEAKING-TO-GOD: SPEAKING-TO-GOD.lbssd

Documentation

The documentation is within the interactive under the “About” button.

This interactive resource contains a table of information selectable by facet. The available information includes:

• Type: The type of speech
• Monologue: Involving a speaker and a hearer
• Dialogue: Involving speakers in turn
• Soliloquy: Involving only a speaker
• Addressee: A divine person that is part of the Trinity
• Speaker: The person or entity addressing God
• Context: The context of the speech
• Communal: Public expression not categorized as liturgical
• Incarnational: Special subset of theophany for Jesus' time on earth
• Literary: Speech “to” God used as a literary or rhetorical device
• Prophetic: Oracular experiences not categorized as visions
• Ritual: Part of a ritual, cultic, or other religious exercise
• Solitary: Personal prayer or music expressed in private
• Theophanic: A dialog with a manifested presence of God
• Visionary: A visionary or dream dialogue with God
• Other: Not otherwise categorized
• Distance: The physical proximity of the speaker and hearer
• Abstract: Hypothetical speech or soliloquy
• Local: The hearer is present with the speaker
• Remote: The hearer is not present with the speaker
• Mode: The mode of speech
• Address: Spoken monologue to a passive audience
• Conversation: Give and take between multiple dialogue participants
• Meditation: Introspection or reflection
• Music: Sung monologue sometimes involving instruments
• Prayer: A remote spoken dialogue directed to God
• Content: The content of the speech
• Affirmation: Expression of agreement, especially “amen”
• Blessing: Uses the formula “bless/blessed”
• Complaint: Report of a specific grievance
• Confession: Confession of faith; the speech act portion of salvation
• Consecration: A kind of oath where one is set apart for divine service
• Curse: Uses the formula “curse/cursed”
• Imprecation: Request for justice or vengeance to come down on another
• Intercession: Request on behalf of another
• Lament: Expressing negative emotion
• Oath: A promise, vow, covenant, or other swearing
• Petition: Request for a specific consideration for oneself
• Praise: Ascribing glory, adoration, worship, or recounting good deeds
• Query: Request for information or direction
• Repentance: Confession of sin; the speech act portion of repentance
• Response: The rejoinder to a question or call
• Thanksgiving: An expression of gratitude
• Other: Not otherwise categorized
• Places, Things: Places and things implicitly or explicitly associated with passages that record speaking to God
• Theme: Themes or topics associated with passages that record speaking to God
• Literary Type: Literary types associated with occurrences of speaking to God[2]

Bible Browser

The attributes of the Speaking to God are distributed across separate facets:

Speaking to God Interactive Attributes	Speaking to God facet	Reported Speech facet	Literary Types facet	Places facet	Things facet	Preaching Themes facet
Type	Type
Addressee		Addressees
Speaker		Speakers
Context	Context
Distance	Distance
Mode	Mode
Content	Content
Places				Places
Things					Things
Theme						Preaching Theme
Literary Type			Literary Type

 

This has an interest effect on the possible searches. Try to pick up all the instances of Abraham speaking to God. It can’t be done because the generic heading cannot be selected. One must select a subgroup. BUG: Bible browser bug is broader than generally reported.

To use the Bible Browser to find references in which Abraham is asking God a question during a conversation, select the following facets:

• Reported Speech → Speakers → Abraham
• Speaking to God → Mode → Conversation
• Speaking to God → Content → Query

The normal popups are available.

The Context Menu is available on right-click, as expected.

Interactive

The interactive Speaking to God also uses a faceted left side panel. To replicate the results of the Bible Browser for finding references in which Abraham is asking God a question during a conversation, select the following facets:

• Speakers → Abraham
• Mode → Conversation
• Content → Query

Here, the mouse over provides the full coding for the Speaking to God entry.

Context Menu and Information Panel

The Speech (Speaking to God) portion of the Information Panel shows only the attributes that are native to it i.e. content, context, distance, mode, and type.

The other attributes are found associated with their primary facet grouping.

The Context Menu entry is found among the labels, titled “Speech”.

• Speech contains the content, context, distance, mode, and type attributes
• Preaching Theme, Speaker, Addressee, Literary Type, Place, Thing … are under the items that define them
• For Speech, the only actions are copy reference and initiate search. Copy reference search returns {Label Speech WHERE Content ~ "Query" AND Context ~ "Visionary" AND Distance ~ "Local" AND Mode ~ "Conversation" AND Type ~ "Dialogue"}

Search

See Search feature for Speaking to God data | Faithlife Feedback

Speaking to God Interactive Attributes	Search argument
Type	{Label Speech WHERE Type = Dialogue}
Addressee	{Label Speech} INTERSECTS {Addressee <Person Abraham>}
Speaker	{Label Speech} INTERSECTS {Speaker <Person Abraham>}
Context	{Label Speech WHERE Context = Communal}
Distance	{Label Speech WHERE Distance = Remote}
Mode	{Label Speech WHERE Mode = Prayer}
Content	{Label Speech WHERE Content = Blessing}
Places	{Label Speech} INTERSECTS <Place Jerusalem>
Things	{Label Speech} INTERSECTS <Thing altar>
Theme	{Label Speech} INTERSECTS {Section <PreachingTheme theme>}
Literary Type	{Label Speech} INTERSECTS {Section <LiteraryType type>}

 

Executing the Bible Search option provided in the Context Menu generates the single result.

To reproduce the results using the same three search arguments/facets that we used in the browser and interactive the search argument is: {Label Speech WHERE Content ~ "Query" AND Mode ~ "Conversation”} INTERSECTS {Speaker <Person Abraham>}

The Search function for Speaking to God presents a strong case that Faithlife must provide templates for labels and datasets that model all attributes. Even savvy users have to work some of the details out each time they need to use it.

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^[1] Lydia Husser, Reported Speech: Dataset Documentation (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2017).

[2] Evans, Eli, ed. 2016. Speaking to God. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife.