L/V 10+ Tip of the Day #117 Search for word - lemma or root

MJ. Smith

Another tip of the day (TOTD) series for Logos/Verbum 10. They will be short and often drawn from forum posts. Feel free to ask questions and/or suggest forum posts you'd like to see included. Adding comments about the behavior on mobile and web apps would be appreciated by your fellow forumites. A search for "L/V 10+ Tip of the Day site:community.logos.com" on Google should bring the tips up as should this Reading List within the application.

This tip is inspired by the forum post: First Mention of a word - Logos Forums

If by word, you mean lemma:

1. Select the word in a Bible and right click to open the Context Menu.
2. Select the lemma tab on the left of the Context Menu.
3. Select Search Bible as the action on the right of the Context Menu
4. Note the search argument and the results in canonical order in the Search Panel.  Do not confuse canonical order with chronological date of writing.

If by word, you mean root:

1. Select the word in a Bible and right click to open the Context Menu.
2. Select the root tab on the left of the Context Menu.
3. Select Search Bible as the action on the right of the Context Menu
4. Note the search argument and the results in canonical order in the Search Panel.  Do not confuse canonical order with chronological date of writing.

An etymological dictionary is usually the best source for when a word was first used in a language but in this case Beekes, Robert. Etymological Dictionary of Greek, edited by Alexander Lubotsky. Vol. 1 & 2. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2010. lacks dates so I don't know of an appropriate resource.

The steps given above also work for other languages with morphological tagging. Modern languages are not coded for lemma or root but rather rely on stemming routines to approximate the lemma.

As for the original post, another forumite provided me some background:

Brandon might be referring to “the law of first mention.” It is a popular hermeneutical method in some circles. R. T. Kendall describes the principle in this way: “the way a word is first used in the Bible will be the way this word is largely understood thereafter” (Understanding Theology, Volume Two, 179).