Searching by pronouns?

Manuel Mena said:

What I'm trying to do is to search the NT for references of demons/Satan in regards to or near prayer, fasting, or warfare but my searches always leave out the text that they are referred to by a pronoun.

This is the sort of search that takes a bit of trial and error. But rather than just give you a string to copy, let me talk you through how I would go about constructing the search. First, let me briefly explain how the data works.

All people, places and things in the Biblical text are tagged with their name (including pronouns). But each thing only has one name. Satan, for example, will be tagged as 'Satan', but not as 'demon'. And demons that aren't specifically identified in the text as demons won't be tagged as demons. The 'demon' in Mark 9:29, for example, is tagged as a 'mute spirit', whereas the same 'demon' in the parallel passage in Matthew 17:18 is tagged as 'an evil supernatural being'. So if you want to ensure you're searching for all demons, you're going to have to have a fairly lengthy search string to ensure you have them all. (You can find out what the tagging is in a particular verse by right-clicking on the word.)

So the first thing you need to do is to compile a list of all the 'demons' that are in the tagging system. The easiest way of doing that is:

1. Open the concordance tool, and generate a concordance on a Bible for which you own a reverse-interlinear.
2. In the second dropdown, make sure 'Biblical Entity' is selected, and limit the concordance to the NT.
3. In the lefthand column, find the Kind section, and click on Person. Then Sub-kind click on Evil supernatural being.

You now have a list of six 'people' to search for. Leave that concordance open, and bring up a search pane. You could use a clause search, but it's probably easier in a Bible search:

1. Type <Person XXXX> where XXX is the name of the first 'person' you want to search for (e.g. Satan). You need to use the exact capitalisation from the Concordance tool. (As you start to type, you can use the autocomplete menu to select the right person.)
2. Add a comma, then start typing the next 'person'.
3. Repeat, until you have all your persons. The string should be this: <Person Satan>, <Person An Evil Supernatural Being>, <Person Legion>, <Person Mute Spirit>, <Person Evil Spirit in Capernaum>, <Person Spirit mastering the Sons of Sceva>

Now, you've got the 'people' you need, you then need to add the second part of your search — prayer, fasting or warfare. So put parentheses around your search string:

(<Person Satan>, <Person An Evil Supernatural Being>, <Person Legion>, <Person Mute Spirit>, <Person Evil Spirit in Capernaum>, <Person Spirit mastering the Sons of Sceva>)

Now, in parentheses, add what else you're looking for. You're actually searching for fairly vague concepts, rather than concrete 'people'. So, for this side of the search string, you need to be looking at Cultural Concepts. To do that:

1. Open up another Bible search panel, and also Factbook.
2. In the Factbook, go to the entry on prayer.
3. Look in the Cultural Concepts section, for appropriate concepts. There's only one, Prayer.
4. At the bottom of that section, click on Search All Resources for "Prayer". When the new search panel comes up, copy the Search string, close the search panel (we don't really want to search all resources), and paste the string into the new Bible search panel you just added. (It should be {Section <Culture = Prayer>}).
   
5. Add a comma after this search term, and then repeat steps 2-4 for the other concepts, slowly building your search string. The warfare concept doesn't really apply, and Spiritual Warfare doesn't have any Cultural Concepts But looking at See Also in Spiritual Warfare gives you some other possibilities, such as exorcism. You should end up with {Section <Culture = Prayer>}, {Section <Culture = Fasting>}, {Section <Culture = Exorcism>}
6. Run this search to make sure it works.

Now all you need to do is to put these two searches together:

1. Put parentheses around your Cultural Concepts search, and copy it to the clipboard.
2. Go to your first search (the 'people' one), and type the keyword WITHIN, and then paste your Culture search. (You use the WITHIN keyword for sections. For other types of searches - perhaps a sense search - you'd use AND or NEAR).
3. The completed search should look like this:

(<Person Satan>, <Person An Evil Supernatural Being>, <Person Legion>, <Person Mute Spirit>, <Person Evil Spirit in Capernaum>, <Person Spirit mastering the Sons of Sceva>) WITHIN ({Section <Culture = Prayer>}, {Section <Culture = Fasting>}, {Section <Culture = Exorcism>})

If you're search is too broad, remove the Exorcism section.

You'll probably find you search isn't exactly right. That's because "prayer, fasting or warfare" aren't exactly precise concepts. You might need to experiment a little further. This might help: Video Tutorial: How to create complex search criteria