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Can I use Analysis to find themes?


Paul Daunno

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Is it possible to use the Analysis feature to find themes? For example, the book of Philippians is known for joy. What I'm wondering is if I can look at word frequencies and such to help determining the theme of a book or passage. If it is possible I would appreciate an example to follow.

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Good question. I am interested too to hear ways to do it.

 

I am no expert on Accordance or Bible study, but let see if I am learning. This is what I would do based on what I have learned so far:

 

Limit the range of the search to the specific book and I would search for * . Then look at Analysis alphabetically by number sorting by count down to see how many hits by words in Phil. The only thing is that will give you a lot of useless data and I see no way to determine the theme just by looking at numbers. I think that the determination of a book theme goes beyond mere numbers of hits.

 

Also, it gives me:

 

joy = 5

life = 5

love = 5

So which one is more important to decide which one is the theme?

I am sure some will show us the right way to do use Accordance to get what you are looking for.

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The problem is that it is not just the number of hits but where the hit occurs (i.e. its significance). Also what about other words that indicate joy (e.g. delight, rejoice etc.)

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You can set the Analysis to sort by Importance (which is defined in the help). This more or less will give most weight (higher number) to the words that are relatively rare in the entire text but more frequent in this book. However, there is no way to group related words, so that will be up to the user to decide.

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While not exactly what you are asking about a resource offering similar themes is

NIV THEMATIC REFERENCE BIBLE NOTES

 

Currently you have to purchase it on an older CDROM, when i first thought of mentioning it I thought it had been one of the items rereleased for individual sale.

 

-Dan

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Thanks everyone. I have that module Dan but haven't used it much so perhaps I should take another look at it. I thought perhaps using the Analysis in this way might be possible but of course all the caveats mentioned here do come into play.

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While not exactly what you are asking about a resource offering similar themes is

NIV THEMATIC REFERENCE BIBLE NOTES

 

Currently you have to purchase it on an older CDROM, when i first thought of mentioning it I thought it had been one of the items rereleased for individual sale.

 

-Dan

 

This resource was re-released as the Dictionary of Bible Themes, ed. Martin Manser. We now include it in the Bible Study, Essential, Advanced, and Ultimate Collections.

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Good to know, i had thought itt was rereleased... just didn't know the name had changed...

 

-Dan

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