I decided to write this for two reasons:
(1) This is discussed in a recent video on BDAG but if someone does not watch the video to the end, they may miss this (happened to me).
(2) It has come up in the course of other threads but in a less focused way.
It is the new "link to open panels". What it does is that when you have a resource that is organized according to references, if you open another resource that mention this reference, it will be highlighted so as to make it easier to spot. For instance, in the case of BDAG, if you had Romans 3:24 opened in your Bible and looked up "redemption" then selected "Emphasize active references" (EAR) in BDAG, you would see highlighted in the lexical entry the place where your passage is discussed. Of course, if your passage is not specifically listed, nothing will be highlighted.
I think it only works from primary sources such as Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, church fathers, etc, and commentaries that are indexed according to these datatypes. For instance, if I have a commentary opened at Zechariah 9:9 and open a journal that mentions it and have EAR on, the reference in the journal will be highlighted. However, an entry in Nave's that has Zech 9:9 will not cause highlighting in the journal article, because -- I think -- Nave's is not organized by reference, but by headwords.
So, there you have it. Feel free to add material I have missed or correct anything not quite so in what I wrote. But for those who did not know, now you understand the importance of being all ears when you study in Logos!
