Verbum Tip 4f: Bible Browser - Biblical People

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Facet: (Biblical) People

Documentation

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Bible Browser

Previous setup for the Bible Browser has selected Abraham as a way to manage the size of the output for illustration purpose. So here we concentrate on multiple people sharing a name, unnamed individuals, and group names.

When one enters “Mary” one gets several types of results:

• The various individuals named “Mary” as one sees in the Factbook selection list when one enters “Mary”: Mary (mother of Jesus), Mary (Magdalene), Mary (mother of James), Mary (of Bethany), Mary (mother of John Mark), Mary (Rom. 16;6), Mary (wife of Clopas)
• The various individuals whose name is disambiguated by “Mary” some of which show in the Factbook selection list: Joseph (husband of Mary), Joseph (son of Mary)
• Unnamed individuals identified by relationship to Mary which appear in the “Show all for nnnn” entry of Factbook but not in the selection list: Woman blessing Mary, Women with Mary

Warning: the treatment of unnamed characters is inconsistent. Take as an example, the story of the two cannibal mothers in 2 Kings 6:24-33. They are simply tagged as “a woman”. From Sean Boisen, Fatihlife:

For me, the difference is that someone who is named has at least one useful piece of information: their name (and related information like pronunciation, etymology, etc.). For someone who is unnamed, however, there's usually really nothing to look up. If they're a relative of someone, the relative is generally named in the same verse or nearby, and that person's name is therefore hyperlinked. Detailing that this person only occurs 1x-5x in the immediate text doesn't seem particularly useful to me either. Typically, all we know about them is in the immediate text[1].

A feature of the datatype search and the Bible Browser that has not be explicitly pointed out is the handling of groups of people. For example, in the Transfiguration pericope, one is speaking of the disciples Peter, James, and John. In this case, if you search for/select the person “Peter”, “disciples” will also be selected because it is coded as referring to Peter, James, and John.

Interactive

There is no interactive that focuses on biblical people although two (Bible People Visual Timelines and Narrative Character Maps) focus on a limited set of major characters. However, the following include people in some facet of their subject:

• Bible Books Explorer
  • Author
  • Key People
• Bible People Visual Timelines
• Biblical Events Navigator
  
  Participants

Commandments of the Law

People


Israelite Feasts and Sacrifices

Offerant


Miracles of the Bible

Agent
Patient
Beneficiary
Audience


Names of God

Names of God
Speaker
Addressee
People


Narrative Character Maps
New Testament Use of the Old Testament

Speaker (NT)
Speaker (Source)
Addressee (NT)
Addressee (Source)
People (NT)
People (Source)


Proverbs Explorer

People


Psalms Explorer

Attribution (author)


Speaking to God

Addressee
Speaker



As we come to facets in the Bible Browser that draw their data from the same selection as the interactive, we will discuss these in more detail. Until then, remember that specific information is available about a Biblical person through the interactives. They are often much quicker than building the search argument.
Context Menu & Information Panel
In the Information Panel one sees how an alternative reference e.g. Abram is handled – it is explicitly stated to refer to the standard “Abraham”. You will find that pronouns, titles, descriptive phrases are handled in the same way.

As for the Context Menu, it is generally familiar:


Note the addition of a link to Factbook.
The Copy reference: Search gives us the expected <Person Abraham>
The datatype search argument is used as expected in the initiated searches
The Look Up option gets carried away in providing options. See Is this intentional or a bug? overkill on lookup

Visual Filter and Factbook
Biblical people is one facet that appears in the Factbook visual filter and therefore requires no user created highlighting palette or visual filter.


The Factbook visual filter (1) is controlled by a toggle icon on the resource task bar. The On state is noted by the shaded border around the icon
When turned on, Factbook entries (person, place, thing) are noted by a light blue underline(2).
On mouse-over, a preview popup (3) is displayed.
On Click, a Factbook entry is opened. It may also be opened through the context menu.


This Factbook page is still a work in progress. It will be discussed in detail at a later date.
Search
In the early tips, we covered the use of the text search argument and the datatype search argument for a Biblical person in detail. I trust you remember.



[1] DATA BUG: wife in 1 Chronicles 4:19 - Faithlife Forums (logos.com) 11/21/2020 5:59 PM