Best ways to determine most popular themes in Proverbs

Bruce Dunning
Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,143
edited November 2024 in English Forum

I've been studying the book of Proverbs lately and have been playing with various searches as well as the Proverbs Explorer but I have not yet come up with a comprehensive list of the summarized themes within the book.

Can anyone suggest different ways to determine the most popular themes in the book of Proverbs?

Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

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  • Beloved Amodeo
    Beloved Amodeo Member Posts: 4,183 ✭✭✭

    I've been studying the book of Proverbs lately and have been playing with various searches as well as the Proverbs Explorer but I have not yet come up with a comprehensive list of the summarized themes within the book.

    Can anyone suggest different ways to determine the most popular themes in the book of Proverbs?

    A very similar question was posed way back in 2012 see here https://community.logos.com/forums/p/49361/365458.aspx#365458 

    Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.

    International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.

    MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.2 1TB SSD

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,143

    Thanks for the link Beloved. I had not thought of searching the forums.

    What I really would like to do is not get someone's list that they created but rather figure out the best way to do it using Logos so that I could analyze the data myself. Does anyone have any suggestions as to the best way to do this?

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • Beloved Amodeo
    Beloved Amodeo Member Posts: 4,183 ✭✭✭

    What I really would like to do is not get someone's list that they created but rather figure out the best way to do it using Logos so that I could analyze the data myself.

    It was clear to me that this was your intention. Proverbs explorer comes the closest to doing what you you want, however since you can't filter for resource this is less than ideal. I too wish that Proverbs explorer was more robust. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

    Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.

    International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.

    MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.2 1TB SSD

  • Simon’s Brother
    Simon’s Brother Member Posts: 6,820 ✭✭✭

    Bruce some other thoughts:

    1. create a passage guide with just the interesting words section only a run it for whole book of proverbs and maybe also for specific sections of book and see what words come up as prominent both in english and Hebrew 
    2. run sermon starter guide for book of proverbs and see what themes are listed 
    3. create a word list based on proverbs, eliminate the common words and see what are most used and if they point you to some ideas

    On their own not comprehensive ideas but together might help to piece together some ideas.

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,143

    Beloved said:

    It was clear to me that this was your intention. Proverbs explorer comes the closest to doing what you you want, however since you can't filter for resource this is less than ideal. I too wish that Proverbs explorer was more robust. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

    You express my thoughts exactly here. I found the Proverbs Explorer not sufficient for this. Does anyone else have some ideas?

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • Beloved Amodeo
    Beloved Amodeo Member Posts: 4,183 ✭✭✭

    Bruce, Bible Browser appears to be able to filter for the book of Proverbs and additionally filter for Preaching themes which isolates verses regarding individual themes such as "wisdom," "discipline," "wealth," and etc.

    Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.

    International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.

    MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.2 1TB SSD

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,143

    Thanks for your suggestions. I experimented with a few of them and then decided to do it the old fashioned way. Perhaps someone could tell me a better way but here is my plan as it stands now.

    1. Copy and paste the entire book into a Word docunment
    2. Add chapter number to each verse because only the first verse shows the chapter
    3. Read each verse and determine what the primary subject is
    4. Copy that verse with the reference and paste it into another document under the heading that I have determined
    5. Analyze the results

    This will give me a list of all the verses according to the topic I think each verse is primarily addressing. Ideally I thought I could do something similar in Logos but so far have not found a way. Two significant advantages of doing it manually is that I will end up immersing myself in the Scripture and I am able to determine my own categories.

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • Hamilton Ramos
    Hamilton Ramos Member Posts: 1,033

    Hi Bruce:

    Not sure if helpful, but you could try:

    Looking at the Psalms version in the series, and try to see how they went about id key thrusts, then try to apply to Proverbs:

    https://www.logos.com/product/184766/teach-the-text-commentary-series

    Then you can check the resources that arrange Proverbs topically, and see if the author hints at what he / she considers the most important:

    https://www.logos.com/search?query=topical%20proverbs&sortBy=Relevance&limit=60&page=1&ownership=all

    Or you could also check media search to see if something interesting pops up:

    Then you can look at the following and choose the original languages words / phrases that apply and do the search:

    4201.all topics Christianity today pdf.pdf

    Peace and grace.