Bible study of a concept/idea

Hi,

I am a lay person, so I can’t read the Bible in the original languages. But I am still interested in doing a thorough Bible study of a given idea/concept. I don't know the right seminary term for what I have in mind.

Let’s say I want to dig into the “mind” mentioned in Romans 12:2, I want to know what God says throughout the whole Bible about the “mind” in the same SENSE in which it is used in Romans 12:2. I don’t want to limit to what just Paul says or what just the New Testament says. Thus, what I would like is to right click an English word, be it in the Old Testament or the New Testament, and then do the following steps:

lemma underlying the English word

This can be seen by opening the Bible Word Study

the various senses for the underlying lemma

I think this is what the SENSE section of the Bible Word Study seems to show, but I’m not sure.

which of the various senses is the correct one given the context of the verse (I think Mortimer Adler says that, ideally, there is just one that’s correct)

Based on the “mind” example, the Sense section gives two senses and Roman 12:2 is found in the section on sense= “mental attitude”. Does that mean that this second sense is the right sense in Romans 12:2? If not, which resource is required to identify the correct sense, and can it be accessed in the Bible Word Study itself?

identify all the Hebrew and Greek Lemmas that are associated with the same sense as well as the exact opposite sense (if it does exist).

The above step is to accommodate the fact that there could be synonyms and antonyms in the original language that have the same sense as the one identified in step (3) and the exact opposite sense.

identify all the Old Testament and New Testament verses with the correct sense identified in step (3) and the exact opposite sense (if it does exist).

Not all the lemmas identified in step (4) will be used in the same sense as the one identified in step (3) in all its occurrences in the Bible; thus, only a subset of the verses associated with all the lemmas in step (3) will be relevant. I want to be able to identify this subset. This is the ultimate end product from which I want to come to a better understanding of this concept of “mind” in Romans 12:2.

First, let me know if this is not the way to go about my study. Second, if I am partially on the right track, please suggest modifications to make it through. Third, please help out if possible with the above steps in my study.

I have a sense that the Bible Sense Lexicon is going to come in handy, but don’t know how to correctly use it.

Thank you all.

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Comments

DMB

Well, your first 'mistake' is 'mind' (english). You're trying to move a greek culture thousands of years ago, into a modern word in your modern culture. And worse, the Sense tool tends to paint a deterministic modern-day correctness. In your profession, you'd know that's definitionally naive.

Added: Take an easy non-theological instance, also in Romans, same writer as your example. Rom 1:28 has 'mind' but what kind of greek mind (sense). Would your lookups inform you, there is word-play in the 'unfit' mind (in greek) and ergo not just 'mind'. Or that early translators move the sense to a negative moral sense (more modern translators, pull back). You'd need to know greek in each usage ... as earlier churchmen did.

Mike Tourangeau

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1187093#Comment_1187093

Hello friend, do you have the "Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains?" If so that is your best bet. You can do it two ways:

1. Look up the LN number when you right click

2. Go to Vol 2 and look it up in the index (English) to find all the associated entries.

Here is what I see for "mind". (cant screenshot on this pc)

mind
26.3–5, 14; 27.48–55; 29.1, 4, 5; 30.21, 25, 75–80; 31.38

Each of these entries will give you a definition within a semantic range.

Mike Tourangeau

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1187094#Comment_1187094

Here is the actual entry for mind in Romans 12:2

30.5 νοῦςb, νοός, νοί̈, νοῦν m; διάνοιαb, ας f; ἔννοιαa, ας f: a particular manner or way of thinking—‘way of thinking, disposition, manner of thought, attitude.’
νοῦςb: εἰκῇ φυσιούμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ νοὸς τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ ‘(such a person is) puffed up, for no reason at all, by his human way of thinking’ Col 2:18.
διάνοιαb: ὑμᾶς ποτε ὄντας ἀπηλλοτριωμένους καὶ ἐχθροὺς τῇ διανοίᾳ ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις τοῖς πονηροῖς ‘at that time you were strangers and enemies because of the manner in which you thought and the evil things you did’ Col 1:21.
ἔννοιαa: ὑμεῖς τὴν αὐτὴν ἔννοιαν ὁπλίσασθε ‘you too must strengthen yourselves with the same way of thinking’ 1 Pe 4:1.
In a number of languages it may be necessary to render ‘way of thinking’ by a clause, for example, ‘how people think.’ In the case of 1 Pe 4:1, it may be necessary to translate ‘you too must strengthen yourselves by thinking just like Christ thought.’

Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 349.

Dave Hooton

In Bible Word Study:

which of the various senses is the correct one given the context of the verse (I think Mortimer Adler says that, ideally, there is just one that’s correct) Step 3

Based on the “mind” example, the Sense section gives two senses and Roman 12:2 is found in the section on sense= “mental attitude”. Does that mean that this second sense is the right sense in Romans 12:2?

The second sense is "right" because it lists Ro 12:2 (see below)

identify all the Hebrew and Greek Lemmas that are associated with the same sense (Step 4)

identify all the Old Testament and New Testament verses with the correct sense (Step 5)

These are accomplished by a Search:-

Click the 'ring' to see that it contains Ro 12:2
click the hyperlink to open Bible Sense Lexicon
click the Search link to find all words having that sense (it will also identify the verse)

you can identify the lemmas by clicking on the words in the bible

.. there could be synonyms and antonyms in the original language that have the same sense as the one identified in step (3) and the exact opposite sense.

The Search will give you the different lemmas that are used in that Sense (but they are not strictly synonyms). The same lemma may be associated with different Senses e.g. search for

<Lemma ~ lbs/el/νοῦς> NOT INTERSECTS <Sense mental attitude> --> the lemma from Ro 12:2

Antonyms having the opposite Sense are not easy to identify i.e. what is the opposite/contrasted Sense to mental attitude, and does it exist in the Bible Sense Lexicon? If it does, search as in Step 3 in my screen shot.