Huge encyclopaedia: The Dictionary of Christianity and the Bible
With the help of Wikipedia, I've created the Logos' largest encyclopaedia. It has nearly 18,000 articles and 25 million words, making it three times bigger than even the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. If it was in print form, it would probably fill nineteen 1,000-page volumes.
All the articles in the dictionary come directly from Wikipedia, though don't include tables and images. Crucially, the Dictionary is fully marked-up with links, headwords and a table of contents, which means it functions just like any other Logos resource. The bold links shown above go to other articles in the resource. The links in normal type are online links, normally to Wikipedia itself.
Because of its size, there are 42 .docx files totalling more than 100Mb, which you can download as a .zip file here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zid9v5a520stxzs/Dictionary%20of%20Christianity%20and%20the%20Bible.zip
Make sure you add all the .docx files to the same Personal Book. To do that, you'll first need to unzip the files to a folder of your choice. Then, when you click on 'Add Files', click on first file in that folder, then SHIFT+click on the last file. All the files will be selected:
The book will probably take 30-60 minutes to compile, depending on the speed of your computer. I suggest setting "Type" to "Encyclopedia". There's a cover image included, in the zip file as well. If you want a description, you could use this: This comprehensive dictionary offers the most relevant Wikipedia articles on Christianity, the Bible, theology and Christian history, in one convenient Logos resource. With 25 million words and nearly 18,000 articles it's the most comprehensive encylopaedia of Christian topics available.
I'm interested in your feedback, as always. For obvious reasons I won't be able to make changes to individual articles, but if you notice any systemic problems that a revised algorithm might correct, then please let me know.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
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Comments
- Very many "Article ____ has only 1 characters", where ___ was the only variable
- Very many "Bad character in string 0XFFFD"
- Two "d~bible.19.__ is specified", where __ was either 42 or 90
- Three "Headword is empty."
- One "Unknown data type in use: topic+topics"
- One "Font 'DejaVu Sans' is specified but not installed or embedded. Is this a valid font name?"
- One "Setting font for 'DejaVu Sans' to 'Times New Roman' ".
- Using the Topic Guide
- Personal Books don’t appear in the Topic section of a Topic Guide. To have the dictionary appear in your Topic Guide, you’ll need to complete the following steps:
- Add the dictionary to a collection (if there are other dictionaries missing from your Topic Guide, you could add them too).
- From the Guides menu, Make a new Guide template. Change the Template type to Topic, and then add all sections from the Topic Guide, or customise the sections if you wish.
- Now, add a Collections section, and specify the collection you created in step 1. You may like to place the collections section right under the main Topics section.
- Now, name your Guide My Topic Guide, and close the template. You’ll then be able to choose that new Guide from the Guides menu, whenever you wish.
- Select the collection including DCB (manually added, since I've created a dynamic collection that prefers the phrase "Bible Dictionary").
- Key Passover into My Topic Guide.
- Result: DCB never appears in the hit list (even after completely expanding it), even though I can type in Passover & jump right to the article. DCB is found in the Library (if entire library is viewed) or if PB list is viewed.
- First, you'll have to download the files for this personal book.
- This link should take you to a dropbox page to download them.
- You'll have to download all of the docx files, to download them all at once as a zip file click on the Download button on the top right-hand corner of the browser window.
- Once downloaded you'll have to unzip the zip file. If you're on a Windows or Mac, you can right click on it and select "unzip" or similar.
- Then open Logos, go to the tools menu, and select "Personal Books"
- On the personal books panel, click "Add Book"
- Fill in the information however you'd like. Author, Description, etc. For "type" select "Encylopedia" from the drop down menu.
- Click "Add Files"
- Navigate to the spot on your PC that you unzipped the files to, and select the folder.
- When you're in the folder, hold down the space bar and select the top resource (it should be DCB-00) and then navigate down to the bottom of the folder and select the bottom most resource (DCB-36)
- Select the button that says "Open"
- In the Logos personal book panel, Select the Build Book button.
- When the process is over, the book should automatically open in Logos.
Be warned, it takes a very long time depending on your PC, so be patient. It is a valuable resource though, it's worth the wait.
You can find other information on this page as well.
Hope this works. - First, you'll have to download the files for this personal book.
- This link should take you to a dropbox page to download them.
- You'll have to download all of the docx files, to download them all at once as a zip file click on the Download button on the top right-hand corner of the browser window.
- Once downloaded you'll have to unzip the zip file. If you're on a Windows or Mac, you can right click on it and select "unzip" or similar.
- Then open Logos, go to the tools menu, and select "Personal Books"
- On the personal books panel, click "Add Book"
- Fill in the information however you'd like. Author, Description, etc. For "type" select "Encylopedia" from the drop down menu.
- Click "Add Files"
- Navigate to the spot on your PC that you unzipped the files to, and select the folder.
- When you're in the folder, hold down the space bar and select the top resource (it should be DCB-00) and then navigate down to the bottom of the folder and select the bottom most resource (DCB-36)
- Select the button that says "Open"
- In the Logos personal book panel, Select the Build Book button.
- When the process is over, the book should automatically open in Logos.
Be warned, it takes a very long time depending on your PC, so be patient. It is a valuable resource though, it's worth the wait.
You can find other information on this page as well.
Hope this works.
Thank you very much Mark for this and everything else you do to help us.[:)]
With much thanks.
EDIT: Alternative cover, I HAD not compiled it and found the actual GREAT cover you included...
-Dan
Mark,
Thank you very much for this file!
Logos is indexing now, it will take a lot of time....
Looking forward to browsing this new encyclopedia.
Hans
MacOS Sierra / Logos 7 Collector's Edition & All Base Packages / Logos Now
Wow, Dan. Did you make that? It's awesome! Or was there already an ancient book by that title? This looks like a well-worn cover. I couldn't find it in a Google search, though.
Mark did include a jpg file for a cover image in the zip file, BTW.
Found the cover and added the text...and yes I did see that after the download finished... I just got excited and started right away on a cover.
-Dan
Verbum 5.2 SR6 Unable to compile, is any other Mac Verbum user experiencing this? Attached are my log file for the error (tried twice both 86 errors and failed to compile).
-dan
EDIT: Alternative cover, I HAD not compiled it and found the actual GREAT cover you included...
I like it! I've included it as an alternative in the .zip file.
I see it's from a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which makes sense of the figures below Jesus.
IMPORTANT: If you've already compiled the Dictionary, don't recompile it to add this image, or for any other reason. Although the Dictionary only takes about 30 minutes to compile the first time, a bug in Logos means it will take many days to recompile. This will be fixed in 5.2a, but in the meantime you'll have to delete the old PB and re-add it if you want to re-compile it.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
EDIT: Alternative cover, I HAD not compiled it and found the actual GREAT cover you included...I like it! I've included it as an alternative in the .zip file.
I see it's from a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which makes sense of the figures below Jesus.
IMPORTANT: If you've already compiled the Dictionary, don't recompile it to add this image, or for any other reason. Although the Dictionary only takes about 30 minutes to compile the first time, a bug in Logos means it will take many days to re-compile. This will be fixed in 5.2a, but in the meantime you'll have to delete the old PB and re-add it if you want to re-compile it.
Hi Mark; The plane has already taken off. I have personally been introduced to the bug. Good to know that there is a contingency plan. [:)]
Thanks.
Hi Mark; The plane has already taken off. I have personally been introduced to the bug. Good to know that there is a contingency plan.
Thankfully you can cancel the rebuild. Last weekend I went away for 36 hours, and when I came back it was still only about 10% through!
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
Thank you, Mark, for this personal book resource! [:)][Y]
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Wow.... No pressure, Mark; but I wait impatiently for your PB releases like this sweet resource. Would it be imposing if we were to ask you for weekly PB publications? [;)]
"I read dead people..."
With the help of Wikipedia, I've created the Logos' largest encyclopaedia. It has nearly 18,000 articles and 25 million words, making it three times bigger than even the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. If it was in print form, it would probably fill nineteen 1,000-page volumes.
Wow: thank you, Mark.
It will be invaluable having this on the laptop when traveling overseas: no 'roaming' fees.
Your work with this (as with all things Logos) is very much appreciated.
Edit: Whew: took 1 hr 45 min to compile, on a Haswell i7 processor. Enormous! :-)
thanks
Thank for posting this Mark. I haven't got it to compile yet (on Verbum), but looking at the source makes me think it must be very useful.
Would you be willing to go into a little detail about how you complied it? How did you choose which headwords to include?
I ask because I'm considering doing something similar for Greek and Roman materials (especially since neither this nor this appear as though they'll ever make it into production), so any suggestions or shortcuts you might have would be very helpful! In any case, thanks again for all your work!
Would you be willing to go into a little detail about how you complied it? How did you choose which headwords to include?
If you look at the introductory file (dcb-00.docx), there's an explanation there about how it was put together.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
Thank you Mark!
This is an outstanding resource.
Rob
Hi Mark, I sent you a PM via Faithlife about this.
Hi Mark,
I'm running 5.2a SR-1 (5.2.1.0081).
Compiled with no errors & about 90 warnings, which I'm assuming don't account for the difficulty I'll ask about (but I'm reporting them just in case). The warnings were:
I also followed your instructions near the forward of the resulting PB:
Here's where I'm having difficulty. I've opened My Topic Guide (thank you for that!).
What did I do wrong?
Thanks in advance...
Grace & Peace,
Bill
MSI GF63 8RD, I-7 8850H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX 1050Max
iPhone 12 Pro Max 512Gb
iPad 9th Gen iOS 15.6, 256GB
What did I do wrong?
Sorry for the delay, Bill. I've been on holiday.
The reason Passover doesn't appear is because the article in DCB is entitled "Passover (Christian Holiday)", rather than just "Passover". Logos doesn't know that the two are equivalent. It's frequently a problem, I'm afraid (e.g. "Atonement" is "Atonement in Christianity").
It doesn't always occur, because Logos does know a number of topics are equivalent (that's what the LCV is for), so a Topic Guide for "Lord's Supper" will return the DCB article on "Eucharist". But Logos doesn't know about both examples above, so the right article isn't found.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
Thanks for the response, Mark.
Is the DCB supposed to show up in the topic section? Or only the collections section of the topic guide? Using various search inputs, I get results from DCB in the collections section, but not the topic section. Still OK?
Grace & Peace,
Bill
MSI GF63 8RD, I-7 8850H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX 1050Max
iPhone 12 Pro Max 512Gb
iPad 9th Gen iOS 15.6, 256GB
Is the DCB supposed to show up in the topic section? Or only the collections section of the topic guide? Using various search inputs, I get results from DCB in the collections section, but not the topic section. Still OK?
Yes, that's correct. PB's won't show up in the topic section, which is why I suggested creating the Collections section for DCB and any other encyclopedia PBs you have.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
Just wanted to say "Thanks!" This is a very welcome resource!
Dear Mark,
It seems the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zid9v5a520stxzs/Dictionary%20of%20Christianity%20and%20the%20Bible.zip not available now.
could you please re-post the link again so the we can donwload it.
thank you for your great job!
BR / David.
Dear Mark,
It seems the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zid9v5a520stxzs/Dictionary%20of%20Christianity%20and%20the%20Bible.zip not available now.
could you please re-post the link again so the we can donwload it.
thank you for your great job!
BR / David.
I just tested this; the link is still active and I was able to download the resource. I don't know what could be causing it to not work for you, though.
Thank you, Mark! I just built my very first PB.
Do you have other PB's available somewhere? Is there a source page for PB's?
John
You might want to look through this forum - https://community.logos.com/forums/66.aspx
Mark,
i have completed compiling the book and followed the instructions for adding it to topic guide.
i would like to upload this book, but the button is greyed out. Has Logos 6 already done this automatically, or is the book to large to be uploaded?
is the book to large to be uploaded?yes, several times the current maximum size.
Have joy in the Lord! 
You might want to look through this forum - https://community.logos.com/forums/66.aspx
Thank you!
Thanks!!
I downloaded the files correctly and was able to convert the dictionary when I was using Logos 5, but do to an issue I had to re-download the dictionary in Logos 6 and convert it again. But this time the conversion never finishes. It seems stuck at around 25% or so. Anyone else have this problem with personal book builder in Logos 6? Suggestions?
Thanks.
I downloaded the files correctly and was able to convert the dictionary when I was using Logos 5, but do to an issue I had to re-download the dictionary in Logos 6 and convert it again. But this time the conversion never finishes. It seems stuck at around 25% or so. Anyone else have this problem with personal book builder in Logos 6? Suggestions?
Thanks.
How long have you left it? It's a big resource. From memory, it took nearly an hour to compile for me and the percentage got confused, but in the end it finished.
Mark:
Are there any plans to update this entry over time as new entries are added to Wikipedia or old entries are updated? How many changes would there be in a five year period? Enough to warrant an update? Or does the new connection to Wikipedia built into LOGOS somehow make this book redundant?
I know that older dictionaries are still valued - maybe no changes are planned. But given the fluid nature of Wikipedia, the question does make sense.
Thanks for any details you can provide on your plans.
Blessings,
Floyd
Pastor-Patrick.blogspot.com
Are there any plans to update this entry over time as new entries are added to Wikipedia or old entries are updated? How many changes would there be in a five year period? Enough to warrant an update? Or does the new connection to Wikipedia built into LOGOS somehow make this book redundant?
The wikipedia tools certainly makes the resource less necessary, but I think it's still useful to have a fully searchable Wikipedia in this format.
I will update it from time to time. It really doesn't seem like 9 months since it was first built. I'll try and do an update before it's anniversary! It's not a huge hassle to rebuild it, but it does take several days to download and format all the articles.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
I will update it from time to time. It really doesn't seem like 9 months since it was first built. I'll try and do an update before it's anniversary! It's not a huge hassle to rebuild it, but it does take several days to download and format all the articles.
Thanks for the details.
Floyd
Blessings,
Floyd
Pastor-Patrick.blogspot.com
I will update it from time to time. It really doesn't seem like 9 months since it was first built. I'll try and do an update before it's anniversary! It's not a huge hassle to rebuild it, but it does take several days to download and format all the articles.
In going through my PB's, I found this classic. Has there been an update from the March 2014 files I compiled way back when?
The Gospel is not ... a "new law," on the contrary, ... a "new life." - William Julius Mann
L8 Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox Silver, Reformed Starter, Academic Essentials
L7 Lutheran Gold, Anglican Bronze
Thanks for this masterpiece!
Oh Mark Barnes, thank you for your tremendous work, everything worked out.
When you have more work out there, some resources for research pass me a copy, this is my Email jdetranreis@gmail.com, thank you for everything.
Thank you, Mark.
Thanks Mark!
Todah rabbah!
Hi Mark
took 90 min with 6.7.
Dit it look right? with all these Errors?
Sascha
Still a great resource. Thanks Mark.
This is a real find, thanks! One question - I built it with the files going in dcb-01 showing at the top and progressing down, yet it looks like the table of contents is backwards. Is there a way to fix this, or is this just how the resource was built?
This is a real find, thanks! One question - I built it with the files going in dcb-01 showing at the top and progressing down, yet it looks like the table of contents is backwards. Is there a way to fix this, or is this just how the resource was built?
For me it was dcb-00 at the top - down through dcb-36 (you seem to be missing something towards the end, too) and the ToC is sorted right. Note I built it last 2014 with the files someplace else, so I can't check if the current PB tool has a bug.
Have joy in the Lord!
Yeah I have the order messed up. I can fix that, thanks...
Time to Compile: 5 hours 35 minutes [And I thought that my machine was fast but no ssd drive] Left it running over night.
File size: 383,071 KB
Log file size: 1,045 KB
Warnings: Head Words may not contain colons [things like John 3:16]
What is the file type ending '.mstidx' ??
So who is going to capture all the items added since that set of files were made?
Thanks Mark for all of your work putting this together and for sharing it with us!
Any thoughts why I get stuck with the following: 
Sorry, it turns out that I was just impatient ... ran it overnight and it was ready to go. Though it had 64 errors, I don't think that impacted the compile as it seems to all be there ... loving it!
To have wiki in the midst of my searches is brilliant! Thanks for this!!
Okay for me in few hours. Thanks !
Hello, could someone help me? I can't download the module
Hello Diego, welcome to the Logos forums!Hello, could someone help me? I can't download the module
Could you please explain at what part of the process you're running into problems?
Hello Diego, welcome to the Logos forums!Hello, could someone help me? I can't download the module
Could you please explain at what part of the process you're running into problems?
Awesome!
A transfer to a new OS meant I'd lost this resource.
The above instructions worked well, with some warnings and a few Hebrew related errors, notwithstanding.
Build time: 60 minutes
System: M1 Max
Thank you very much for sharing this, Mark. This is really exciting!
Do we have to format this resource as "dictionary", "encyclopedia", or "monograph"?
"Encylopedia" is best. I've added that into the post.
This is my personal Faithlife account. On 1 March 2022, I started working for Faithlife, and have a new 'official' user account. Posts on this account shouldn't be taken as official Faithlife views!
Thanks!
This is a huge "labour of love". Thanks Mark!
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