This is a bit of a rant, so bear with me. I have a suggestion at the end.
The Topics section of the Passage Guide continues to show topics that
are off-topic for the passage. I ran this one on Romans 8:31-34 (on
which I'm preaching tomorrow), and it's just so far off that it's
jarring to me.
Here it is:
Notice the large text "Computers and Biblical Studies" (obviously
that isn't in the text), but "Condemnation," a key element in vv.33-34
is in tiny text. Other topics, though Biblical aren't even in the
passage: Ascension, Birth Pangs, Conformation (in v.29), etc.
I was curious about Birth Pangs and clicked on it and the first
reference was to ISBE (revised), where nothing from Romans 8:31-34 is
mentioned, not even by inclusion in a larger section. Romans 8:22 is,
but the passage I'm looking at doesn't intersect with that passage. It
does intersect with Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, mentioned second,
which cites Romans 8.
Anyway, I'm frustrated with this section. To me it seems to work like
a "Cited By" section for topical references, rather than a Topical
section arising out of the Biblical text. IMHO, it should work like the
latter, and not like the former. If I want to run the Cited By tool,
I'll run it.
Suggestion:
Here's what I'd love to see: take the Biblical text, strip out overly common vocabulary (definite articles, prepositions, copulative verbs, etc.),
then search topical reference head words for each term in the list.
Offer to do this on a verse-by-verse basis, or pericope-by-pericope (to
protect the user from trying to do too much at once - like running a
passage guide on Psalms 1-150). Now that would be a helpful topical section for a Passage Guide.
Okay, off my rant.
