Making the most of Biblical People Diagrams

Francis
Francis Member Posts: 3,807
edited November 20 in English Forum

I am sure that what I post here will be old news to many, but I thought it may be useful to others.

How to make the best of Biblical Persons Diagrams is not necessarily evident. 

First, the way to access Biblical Persons Diagrams is not evident. The reason for this is that though it looks like a tool (and so one might think to look for it there), but it is in fact a resource. You may instinctively look for it among interactive media (after all, both the graphics and the icon look like those of interactive media) but will not find it there. The way to find it is just like a regular book in the library.

Second, Biblical Persons Diagrams contents are arranged by titles alphabetically, not by references. References are indicated in parentheses after the title, but there is no quick way of finding your passage else than by scrolling through the whole collection.

The turning point is realizing that this is a resource (a book) and thus, you can search it as you would a book. For instance, you can search for <Person name>. It will come up if you search Everything but it is more streamlined if the book is opened first from the library and then you select it in "search in" or you type the title in the search in box directly. You can also search for it under media search but really a basic search works just fine. In fact, I found that a media search only displays small previews whereas as you see in the example below, a basic search produces the charts titles as well. 

I picked an easy example above (Abraham). But it can be a bit more complicated when you are searching for a person who is not the only one by that name. See for instance, Caleb:

Using * as a wildcard does not work. In this case, it is best to let the drop down list populate and choose the correct entry:

The other way of doing something like this is from a diagram, right-click on a person and search "this resource":

The other quite useful entry point is to search by <Bible reference>. [UPDATE: As MJ points out below, you can just do < reference >. This way, you can start from where you may be reading: Genesis, Chronicles, Nehemiah, etc:

Comments

  • JohnB
    JohnB Member Posts: 1,085

    Very useful, Thanks!!

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith Member, MVP Posts: 53,043 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Nice job.

    It appears that a passage search works on them.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Rokas
    Rokas Member Posts: 96

    This is beautiful, thank you, Francis!

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning Member, MVP Posts: 11,125 ✭✭✭

    Francis, thanks for taking time to explain your findings - a very useful discussion.

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

  • Charlene
    Charlene Member Posts: 548 ✭✭

    Thanks, Francis! I didn't realize it was a resource. Just a short time ago, I was trying to find a "family tree" of someone, and it took longer to find it than I expected! This helps!

    Charlene

  • Glenn M. Miller
    Glenn M. Miller Member Posts: 2

    Can someone point me to a source for explaining the symbols (not the 'icons') in the Diagrams?

    I cannot find any explanation of what the 'single-headed arrows" mean in the Family Tree for Zebidah, Hamutal, Jedidah... i have searched under legend, symbols, etc ... in Forums, BLogs, Wiki... to no available... thanks for directing me to some appropriate materials

  • Myke Harbuck
    Myke Harbuck Member Posts: 1,646

    I believe the double line represents a marital relationship, or at least a relationship whereby offspring occurred. 

    The single line is a sibling familial relationship. 

    If I am wrong, I am sure someone will come behind me and correct me. 

    Myke Harbuck
    Lead Pastor, www.ByronCity.Church
    Adjunct Professor, Georgia Military College

  • Glenn M. Miller
    Glenn M. Miller Member Posts: 2

    Thanks for the quick reply, friend. Those basic symbols I understood already, from all the 'normal' family trees. But the one I asked about in the question, was the ARROWED one. 

    This double-line / single arrow connects TWO WOMEN (couldnt have been a maritial relationship between them, in biblical times). Logically, in the case of Hamutal and Zebidah, it would be "co-wives" (i.e. of Josiah), since both of them were wives and produced offspring. It seems to indicate polygamous relations in the Trees of David and Abraham, for example.

    But it shows Hamutal also pointing to Jedidah, which would mean (if it simply means polygamous) that she was a wife/concubine of Amon too (i.e. a wife of Amon and of Amon's son Josiah). I can find no biblical mention of this, nor scholarly discussion of this.

    So, is this simply an 'error' in Logos 6 Factbook, or does the symbol mean something else too? Thanks.

  • Myke Harbuck
    Myke Harbuck Member Posts: 1,646

    Thanks for the quick reply, friend. Those basic symbols I understood already, from all the 'normal' family trees. But the one I asked about in the question, was the ARROWED one. 

    This double-line / single arrow connects TWO WOMEN (couldnt have been a maritial relationship between them, in biblical times). Logically, in the case of Hamutal and Zebidah, it would be "co-wives" (i.e. of Josiah), since both of them were wives and produced offspring. It seems to indicate polygamous relations in the Trees of David and Abraham, for example.

    Forgive me brother. I replied hastily without taking the time to look at your question closely. Great question though. Im sure MJ could answer it. Maybe she'll reply. If not, start a new thread with this question and I'm sure one of the pros will see it and respond. 

    Blessings to you! 

    Myke Harbuck
    Lead Pastor, www.ByronCity.Church
    Adjunct Professor, Georgia Military College

  • PL
    PL Member Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭

    Thanks Francis for your insights. As I use this tool/resource more, I think this is one of the under-used and under-discovered resource in Logos.

    Peter

  • Mark Barnes
    Mark Barnes Member Posts: 15,432 ✭✭✭

    This double-line / single arrow connects TWO WOMEN (couldnt have been a maritial relationship between them, in biblical times). Logically, in the case of Hamutal and Zebidah, it would be "co-wives" (i.e. of Josiah), since both of them were wives and produced offspring. It seems to indicate polygamous relations in the Trees of David and Abraham, for example.

    But it shows Hamutal also pointing to Jedidah, which would mean (if it simply means polygamous) that she was a wife/concubine of Amon too (i.e. a wife of Amon and of Amon's son Josiah). I can find no biblical mention of this, nor scholarly discussion of this.

    My understanding is that:

    • Double lines indicate a marriage relationship
    • Double dotted lines indicate other relationships that bring offspring (concubines and 'surrogates')
    • A red dotted line indicates an illicit relationship
    • A broken double line indicates a previous relationship (usually ended with death)
    • The arrow heads are used to link multiple women to one husband. The arrows indicate that the double lines is going 'through' the first wife to the husband.

    But why Hamutal is also pointing to Jedidah, I have no idea. There is at least one other example of mutliple double lines pointing to/from people in different generations: Ephrath/Hezron and Ephrath/Caleb. In this case there is a possibility that the diagram is correct, and Ephrath married both people (depending on how you read the text).

    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!

  • Myke Harbuck
    Myke Harbuck Member Posts: 1,646

    My understanding is that:

    • Double lines indicate a marriage relationship
    • Double dotted lines indicate other relationships that bring offspring (concubines and 'surrogates')
    • A red dotted line indicates an illicit relationship
    • A broken double line indicates a previous relationship (usually ended with death)
    • The arrow heads are used to link multiple women to one husband. The arrows indicate that the double lines is going 'through' the first wife to the husband.

    But why Hamutal is also pointing to Jedidah, I have no idea. There is at least one other example of mutliple double lines pointing to/from people in different generations: Ephrath/Hezron and Ephrath/Caleb. In this case there is a possibility that the diagram is correct, and Ephrath married both people (depending on how you read the text).

    Thanks Mark. I knew if we called in one of the big guns we'd get to the bottom of this. [Y] [:D] 

    Glen, I tracked Mark down in another thread and asked him to stop by and visit with us a moment on this issue. LOL [:D]

    Myke Harbuck
    Lead Pastor, www.ByronCity.Church
    Adjunct Professor, Georgia Military College