New Feature: Bible Browser
The Bible Browser presents Logos curated data in a new, easy to find manner. Whereas creating complicated search queries to answer specific questions is a huge advantage of Logos' search engine, some people either just don't know where to start or have difficulties constructing the appropriate search syntax.
The Bible Browser looks to solve this problem by providing users with an easy, faceted browsing experience for all the people, places, and things within the Old and New Testaments (you can also select the book of the Bible or standard pre set groupings of texts to limit your search).
To use the Bible Browser, navigate to the tools menu and select Bible Browser.
Please be aware that, because of the massive amount of data required to make this feature work, it is an online only feature.
Once the browser has opened, you will see two panes. The pane on the left loads with the faceting search options. The pane on the right loads with the search results.
With each selection in the left panel, the remaining faceting options are restricted. For example, once you choose “Abinadab (son of Saul)” from the person facet, “sheep” (and a whole host of other things) are no longer listed underneath the Things facet, because no sheep appear in any verses or pericopes where Abinadab also appears.
If you want to know where Jesus and water occur in the same verse but don't know the search syntax <Person Jesus> AND <Thing Water>, simply select the filters and get the results you're looking for.
Some other important things to note about functionality are below:
- Type a word into the Find box at the top of the facet sidebar to filter the facets down to just those values that match what you typed. Note that the same word may appear under multiple facets, and will have different meaning depending on where it appears. For example, if you type “Judah” into the box, you’ll see a long list of people (including “Judah (patriarch)”, a long list of places (including “Judah (kingdom)”), and a short list of things (such as “Judah’s staff”).
- Choose a different Bible version from the drop-down in the toolbar. This list is based on the versions that have thus far been imported into the database on the server, which may be a subset of the versions that you actually own. For now, we’re targeting reverse interlinear Bibles in order of popularity as best we can tell.
- Navigate to a Bible reference from the toolbar. (You can also link this panel to another resource or tool panel to scroll them synchronously.)
- Apply a visual filter by clicking on the “three circles” button on the toolbar. This is the same as the visual filter menu for the corresponding resource because the main content view is a real resource view.
- Choose “Pericope” or “Verse” as the level of result to use to search and show results.
Comments
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Great feature! This is a much better way to start a search if you don't know how to parse together the search syntax.
However, the "Send these results" button doesn't do anything when trying to send the results to the search window. Having that functional would help users like me learn how to do more complex searches.
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Brian Crawford said:
the "Send these results" button doesn't do anything
Send to search should send the passages to the search panel where one can then perform a search on that collection of passages. For instance, you might use Bible Browser to narrow down your bible to pericopes in Genesis that refer to Oxen and then you want to do a search on those 22 passages as shown here:
While Bible Browser does operate in some situations where a user might have previously done a search, it is not a tool to generate a search query. I hope that helps if it was unclear before.
If you are seeing something different than I describe, please provide more details and I will investigate it as a potential bug.
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Brian Crawford said:
However, the "Send these results" button doesn't do anything when trying to send the results to the search window. Having that functional would help users like me learn how to do more complex searches.
Hi, Brian. What "Send these results" does is sends over the set of passages that matched to the Search panel as the reference range to search through. So rather than sending your query to a Search panel, it sends the resulting passages over. Then you can search for anything else within those results. So it's more like a "Search within these results" feature than "transform this facet set into a search query" feature.
The reason we don't just send the query over to Search is that there isn't a 1:1 correspondence between the progressive filters you can create with the Bible Browser by selecting facets and queries you can run in Search. (They're very close, and may be exactly the same in some cases, but not in all cases). The Bible Brower can (or will be able to) do things that Search won't. For example, you can't search for a key participant in a biblical event in Search, but that is one of the available facets in Bible Browser.
I can see how the wording on the menu is misleading. We'll look into that.
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Alan Palmer (Faithlife) said:
Send to search should send the passages to the search panel where one can then perform a search on that collection of passages.
Ok, I see that now. I didn't see it limiting my search range - I was looking for the search syntax.
Yes, Eli, a change in the wording would help! Thanks guys.
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I was looking forward to this feature. But, it has display issues. It truncates words in the middle, then displays the chapter verse grouping header and then displays the rest of the word in the next line.
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Bill Cook said:
But, it has display issues. It truncates words in the middle, then displays the chapter verse grouping header and then displays the rest of the word in the next line.
I'm not sure I've seen anything like this happen; can you provide a screenshot?
EDIT: I'm seeing this problem in the NRSV and have reported it to the team.
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The Bible Browser looks like it will be a very useful. However, the King James Bible is not currently included in this feature. Given the importance of the King James Bible (it really is the only Bible in English that has any authority for many Bible believing Christians [:)]) would it be fair to assume that its intended to include it in future? Keep well Paul
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Hi Bradley,
I have the problem of word and verse truncation and misalignment of highlights using Bible Browser with NASB.
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Paul said:
would it be fair to assume that its intended to include it in future? Keep well Paul
Yes. We are working on adding it right now and hope it to be ready this week. I'll reply here when it's available.
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Tim Hensler said:
I have the problem of word and verse truncation and misalignment of highlights using Bible Browser with NASB.
Thanks for reporting this bug. It appears to be the result of different versions of the resource being used. Can you provide the support info for the Bible you're seeing it on?
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If I have a selection of verses up based on selecting a bible book, person, etc., and then I switch Bible translations, the right hand panel blanks and it looks as if it was going to refresh with the new translation, but it stays blank - and the choices I have made after "Start" are still there. It seems it should refresh with the new bible translation, or at a minimum reset back to start if it can't refresh - it has left things in an intermediate step. Does my explanation make sense?
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Alan Palmer (Faithlife) said:
Thanks for reporting this bug. It appears to be the result of different versions of the resource being used. Can you provide the support info for the Bible you're seeing it on?
I have the same problem with the NASB95.
LLS:1.0.71
2016-08-02T14:47:42Z
NASB95.logos4RVI:NASBNT
2016-08-02T14:36:08Z
NASBNT.lbsrviRVI:NASBOT
2016-08-02T14:36:08Z
NASBOT.lbsrviThis 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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Alan Palmer (Faithlife) said:
Can you provide the support info for the Bible you're seeing it on?
Hi Alan.
My support info for NASB is the same as Grahams. Thank you.
LLS:1.0.71
2016-08-02T14:47:42Z
NASB95.logos4
RVI:NASBNT
2016-08-02T14:36:08Z
NASBNT.lbsrvi
RVI:NASBOT
2016-08-02T14:36:08Z
NASBOT.lbsrvi0 -
While looking for Verse level results in LEB, I tried the filter: Old Testament: Esther, People: Vashti, Participants: Esther in LEB (see LEB support info below)
I was surprised to see Mordecai as a filter option - I don't see him in this verse. I added him to the filter and the highlight results in the text did not change. (see image of results below).
I also don't see Susa or Hegai in this verse, but they too are filter options. When I add them to the filter they don't make a difference in the highlight results either.
HOWEVER, when I change to Pericope level view, they (Mordecai, Susa and Hegai) are all in the results. Apparently the Pericope results are included in the Verse filter options.
I can see some value in this approach, but it was confusing and my confidence in the tool diminished. My expectation was that while in verse level view the filter options and results should be related to the verse level, not the pericope level. If I change to pericopes, then the filter options and results should change accordingly.
Should filter options be related to the Pericope/Verse selector?
LEB Support Info:
LLS:LEB
2015-12-03T19:02:42Z
LEB.logos4
RVI:LEBNT
2015-12-03T18:36:40Z
LEBNT.lbsrvi
RVI:LEBOT
2015-12-03T18:36:40Z
LEBOT.lbsrvi0 -
A question regarding this feature... Is the reference box, to the right of the Bible selection dropdown, supposed to provide any interactive functionality for the feature? Or is it merely to display the currently-displayed reference range? I ask because I tried entering a reference range into that field, and I expected the available facets on the left to shrink to just those which applied to the range I had entered. However, nothing changed with the facets at all, nor did anything appear to happen as a result of me entering the range. And as soon as I clicked something in the list of facets, the range I had entered was replaced with the result of what I had clicked.
I didn't try the feature out much further because I couldn't understand that behavior. But based on the description I see in this thread, it seems like that reference field is effectively for display purposes only. If that is the case, it might be helpful if you disabled the ability to type something into it.
Thanks,
Donnie
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Tim Hensler said:
HOWEVER, when I change to Pericope level view, they (Mordecai, Susa and Hegai) are all in the results. Apparently the Pericope results are included in the Verse filter options.
Thank you for reporting this. I've created a case and will be looking into what's going on.
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Thanks Alan - This is much appreciated and I look forward to this. Keep well Paul
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Tim Hensler said:
I also don't see Susa or Hegai in this verse, but they too are filter options. When I add them to the filter they don't make a difference in the highlight results either.
You need to look carefully at the filter. Susa and Hegai are in the Events section, not the People or Places sections. That means Susa is the setting for the event being referenced, and Hegai is a participant in that event. Both those things are true. If you want to restrict it to verses/pericopes that directly reference those people/places, you shouldn't filter by Settings or Participants, but by Places or People.
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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Donnie Hale said:
A question regarding this feature... Is the reference box, to the right of the Bible selection dropdown, supposed to provide any interactive functionality for the feature? Or is it merely to display the currently-displayed reference range? I ask because I tried entering a reference range into that field, and I expected the available facets on the left to shrink to just those which applied to the range I had entered. However, nothing changed with the facets at all, nor did anything appear to happen as a result of me entering the range. And as soon as I clicked something in the list of facets, the range I had entered was replaced with the result of what I had clicked.
The reference box allows you to jump to another part of the Bible, just as it does in a normal Bible resource. So if I had Elijah as my filter, I could type in Mark 9, and the Bible Browser would scroll to the verses/pericopes in Mark 9 that mention Elijah.
If you want to restrict your search to just a certain part of the Bible, you need to use the Bible Books filter instead.
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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Mark Barnes said:
So if I had Elijah as my filter, I could type in Mark 9, and the Bible Browser would scroll to the verses/pericopes in Mark 9 that mention Elijah.
In this example, what's the behavior if the reference you enter contains no "mentions" of the filter?
Thanks,
Donnie
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I think that this feature is going to be very, very popular. [:)]
“The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.” St. Peter of Alcántara
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Donnie Hale said:
In this example, what's the behavior if the reference you enter contains no "mentions" of the filter?
It does the best it can, and scrolls to the nearest place.
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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Mark Barnes said:
You need to look carefully at the filter. Susa and Hegai are in the Events section, not the People or Places sections. That means Susa is the setting for the event being referenced, and Hegai is a participant in that event. Both those things are true. If you want to restrict it to verses/pericopes that directly reference those people/places, you shouldn't filter by Settings or Participants, but by Places or People.
Hi Mark,
Yes, thank you for your information. I caught on to that as I played with the verse/pericope views and various filters. When I work in the verse view, I'm trying to find something specific, so I expect filter options to support only those objects in the verse. When I need context (the options in the filter selector that aren't highlighted in the verse view) I use the pericope view.
I do like that I am alerted to the context by this behavior, but it (or I) wasn't intuitive enough to see the value before getting confused/disappointed with the tool.
I love this tool now and am already using it to prepare this week's Bible lesson.
Thank you Faithlife for the Bible Browser.
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Don Awalt said:
If I have a selection of verses up based on selecting a bible book, person, etc., and then I switch Bible translations, the right hand panel blanks and it looks as if it was going to refresh with the new translation, but it stays blank - and the choices I have made after "Start" are still there. It seems it should refresh with the new bible translation, or at a minimum reset back to start if it can't refresh - it has left things in an intermediate step. Does my explanation make sense?
I was able to reproduce your problem and created a case for it to be fixed. Thank you.
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Tim Hensler said:
While looking for Verse level results in LEB, I tried the filter: Old Testament: Esther, People: Vashti, Participants: Esther in LEB (see LEB support info below)
I was surprised to see Mordecai as a filter option - I don't see him in this verse. I added him to the filter and the highlight results in the text did not change. (see image of results below).
I also don't see Susa or Hegai in this verse, but they too are filter options. When I add them to the filter they don't make a difference in the highlight results either.
I can see the potential for confusion. This is because the verse is part of a larger event in which these people are participating in. For specific references to people use the People facet.
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I am thankful to hear this... As I just noticed that the KJV was missing when I went to try this feature... Please keep us posted, and keep up the good work, this product seems quite polished!
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KJV has just been imported into the data set. It should be available. You may need to close and reopen the Bible Browser panel to have it regenerate its list of available resources.
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Bill Cook said:
I was looking forward to this feature. But, it has display issues. It truncates words in the middle, then displays the chapter verse grouping header and then displays the rest of the word in the next line.
The display issues should be improved in 7.0 SR-1.
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I know other Bibles are going to be added, but I see some screenshots from people where their Bible is the ESV or LEB, yet I don't see those as choices in my list. Are those two supposed to be available yet?
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This has been answered in other threads. New versions of these Bible were released to the users. They will not appear in the Bible Browser until the database is updated.
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."
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