Advice: Prioritising Commentaries

Hello everyone and thank you for your advice.

I don't have a big library and have according to type:commentary 635 commentaries. Some are series on OT, NT, Prophets, Paul's letters, Paul's prison letters and then individual commentaries on specific Bible Books,

Question: Surely it is not necessary to Prioritise every single commentary. This will most probably takes forever and a total waste of time. The same goes for Lexicons and Dictionaries.

This is my answer on my own question: Commentaries: Prioritise 3-5; same for dictionaries and lexicons. But, I am not sure about commentaries on a single book? I know Matthew Henry's commentary is a must list for Matthew. In other words: Have you also Prioritised your commentaries on a single Bible Book only? What will Logos do if I don't Prioritise them and only Prioritise my series?

If you advise to also prioritise single commentaries on a specific book, mst it be:
type:commentary title:Matthew and so on?

(I trust my question makes sense.)

Regards, Deon.

Find more posts tagged with

Desktop App

Comments

Dave Hooton

Question: Surely it is not necessary to Prioritise every single commentary. This will most probably takes forever and a total waste of time. The same goes for Lexicons and Dictionaries.

Correct, especially for Commentaries.

This is my answer on my own question: Commentaries: Prioritise 3-5; same for dictionaries and lexicons.

You should Prioritise more than 3-5 Commentary series if you use multiple Collections in Passage Guide i.e. using multiple Commentaries sections. Prioritise 3-5 commentaries from each collection so they will display in the order you want.

But, I am not sure about commentaries on a single book? I know Matthew Henry's commentary is a must list for Matthew. In other words: Have you also Prioritised your commentaries on a single Bible Book only? What will Logos do if I don't Prioritise them and only Prioritise my series?

Logos will use the highest Prioritised series with the book of Matthew, so you will not be satisfied if the MH single volume commentary has a low priority. You can compromise with the series you have prioritized e.g.

BKC (single volume commentary)
NAC series
Matthew (MH single volume commentary)
....
EBC series
Osborne NT series

Here, you accept that BKC Matthew and NAC Matthew will be preferred over MH Matthew. But it shouldn't matter if it appears third in a list of commentaries in PG, and you prefer the first and second for other books.

If you definitely want favorite bible books to be prioritised:

Matthew (MH single volume commentary)
Luke (Osborne NT volume) ----> prioritize this above the Osborne NT series
Mark (EBC volume on Matt, Mark, Luke)
John 1-11 (NAC volume)
John 12-21 (NAC volume)
...
...
BKC
NAC series
....
EBC series
Osborne NT series

This gets more complicated as it means:

MH is #1 for all bible books
The EBC Mark volume has to be prioritised below Osborne Luke because it also contains Matthew & Luke!
You have to prioritize both John volumes in NAC

I don't prioritize single Bible books as a whole, but I do it for Revelation and Romans without too much compromise.

Dave Hooton

If you advise to also prioritise single commentaries on a specific book, mst it be:
type:commentary title:Matthew and so on?

If you select commentary volumes this way:

you will omit single volume commentaries like MH
you will omit volumes that do not contain 'Matthew' in the title
you will select volumes that contain other books e.g. the EBC volume on Matthew, Mark and Luke

type:commentary subject:Matthew is better, but it only solves issue #2. So be aware of your single volume commentaries and NT commentaries, and what other bible books are in the volume.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

Have you also Prioritised your commentaries on a single Bible Book only?

Thread => Creating a New Series of Commentaries discussion includes my custom Top 2 Series that are primarily single Bible Book commentary resources. My Library prioritization has my favorite commentary series first => UBS Handbook Series Old & New Testament Collection (55 vols.) followed by my custom Top 2 series, which has individual volumes from a variety of sets. My "Top 2 Commentaries" series ranges from 2 volumes for Ezra to 8 volumes for Micah with most Bible Books having 3 or 4 volumes (Top Two variety: Technical, Pastoral, Devotional, Special, Jewish). Currently have 108 Library Prioritizations of Commentaries (mostly series). If find a really good commentary volume, then can add it to my custom "Top 2 Commentaries" for future use. Also if not like a "Top 2" resource, can remove it from my custom series (deleting custom value allows default value to be restored). Part of my commentary title convention includes series abbreviation, which allows me to find all volumes in a set (those in Top 2 and those in original series). For example, Word Biblical Commentary (WBC) has 61 volumes with 23 of them in my "Top 2 Commentaries" series.

Keep Smiling [:)]

Deon Holtzhausen

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1096275#Comment_1096275

Thank you very much for all your replies with good advice.

Last question on this topic: Is there a way I can tell my library to list series only? I know it should be: type:commentary but I am not sure what parameter next.

Thanks. Deon

Reuben Helmuth

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1096286#Comment_1096286

Is there a way I can tell my library to list series only? I know it should be: type:commentary but I am not sure what parameter next.

You'll want to use "type:bible-commentary series:*" if you're wanting to filter your library via the find box. Are you aware of the library's sidebar faceted filtering? Also note: "type:commentary" will only find your commentaries on non-canonical texts.

Reuben Helmuth

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1096294#Comment_1096294

I should add that if you filter to your bible commentaries then sort the details view by the series column, you can quickly see a list of all the series.

Each approach has its strengths. You'll notice that the series are listed alphabetically in the main pane while in the sidebar they're listed by number of resource (present in your library).

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1096294#Comment_1096294

Also note: "type:commentary" will only find your commentaries on non-canonical texts.

type:commentary will include commentaries on non-canonical texts. So it is acceptable, but not as accurate as type:bible-commentary.

Reuben Helmuth

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1096326#Comment_1096326

You're right, Dave, and that exposes a discrepancy between the find box filters and the sidebar filters.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1096413#Comment_1096413

You're right, Dave, and that exposes a discrepancy between the find box filters and the sidebar filters.

Library filter of Type:Com -Type:B shows only Commentary under Type sidebar facets.

FYI: appears library filters use SQL LIKE with % added on both sides of filter value: e.g. LIKE '%Com%'

Keep Smiling [:)]

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1096425#Comment_1096425

You're right, Dave, and that exposes a discrepancy between the find box filters and the sidebar filters.

Library filter of Type:Com -Type:B shows only Commentary under Type sidebar facets.

FYI: appears library filters use SQL LIKE with % added on both sides of filter value: e.g. LIKE '%Com%'

The Sidebar filters are more precise than the Library filters, usually because they use {fieldname ...} extensions. Whilst Type: doesn't have a (user) extension, the sidebar acts as if it did.