Saturday, May 31, 2008

BibleWorks7: Word List Manager Potential

I think BibleWorks7 users will like this one. Dan on the BW forum asked how to find lexemes that are unique to a particular book (or passage) of the Bible. Such info could be helpful for noting terms that are characteristic of that author. Ben Spackman provided the answer indicating how the Word List Manager could be used with Boolean operators in the verse range to conduct such a search within seconds.

I have done a screen capture video to show you how to follow his steps, but I have extended it with a particular application I think you will appreciate.

  • First, I want to find all the words in the Greek / LXX of Isaiah that show up only in Isaiah and no where else in the LXX.
  • Then I ask the question: How many of these words that are unique to Isaiah show up in the New Testament? I.e., if a word shows up in the New Testament and only in Isaiah in the LXX, is it possible that the NT author had the Isaiah text in mind?
  • Using the Word List Manager, it is very easy to generate this list of words, and it produces some interesting and notable results.
HERE is the 5 minute video (6.6Mb streaming, will open your WMV player) [link fixed]

When I get a chance, I will try to figure out how to do this in Logos. If someone else knows how to accomplish this task, go for it, and I will post or link your directions/video here!

2 comments:

  1. I think there is an error in the video link. It should be

    HERE is the 5 minute video

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Rubén. Link is now fixed.
    BTW, good to see you hanging around here!

    ReplyDelete