How do I...?

[Abram K-J]

Two unrelated questions I'm wondering about, that I'm pretty sure I can explore via Accordance, but not totally sure how.

 

1. I'm curious to see how LXX Isaiah writes about female persons. Is there an easy way to find at once all his uses of "woman," "daughter," feminine verbs when the subjects are human, etc.? I can easily envision just doing a couple separate searches, but is there another way to go here?

 

2. I want to look more at verses like, "We love because he first loved us" and "You did not choose me, but I chose you." The theme is something like God's loving/choosing/selecting/etc. us first, before we do anything. Is there any power using trick that can at least get me in the ballpark of lining up some of these verses in once place?

 

These questions may be unreasonable things to ask of any Bible software--if so, that's fine. But as I'm continuing to learn more about search capabilities, I am curious what Accordance (and other Bible softwares, for that matter) can do here.

[Anon]

These sort of questions are exactly what Bible Software should aim to facilitate. Scholarship is partially a judgment of the data, and quickly amassing such a database is what Accordance does best.

 

For your first question, there isn't a quick and easy way to do this. There is one essential issue, namely, semantics. Your question is geared to a level of tagging that currently is not in Accordance, namely, a semantically tagged text. So the only power trick I can imagine is basically good ol' research—nothing wrong with that from time to time. But I concede the point, and I have publicly voiced my desire to have a genre tagged Bible and a semantically tagged bible several times. For the time being, you could perhaps create a semantic domain search by means of a parenthesis group (which I would place in a text expander snippet) for continued search. You might start with Nida's semantic research, but also don't forget about the ability to search on glosses in the Lexicons (BDAG, LSJ, Middle-Liddell, etc.).

 

The second question sounds like a prime example of the Infer command, no? Bear in mind that the Infer command must have its target language and donor language in agreement. So in English, you would search for a particular verse, chapter, or book (in linguistic terms, you want to establish a comparative corpora) for the base. Then open a new tab, and run another search for [iNFER 6 <tabname>]. You can get more specific with your infer searches, but that should get you going.

Edited December 22, 2012 by James Tucker

[JonathanHuber]

Regarding your second question, I suggest that the infer command would not be the best option here. While it might find some other verses, it will probably miss many also because they share themes, but not necessarily vocabulary. There is not a single word in common in in your two examples. The best option for something like that is probably an old-fashioned approach: amplify one of the verses to a topical bible, themes dictionary, or cross-references module, and follow the trail from there.

[Abram K-J]

Thanks to both of you for your replies. I certainly don't mind doing old-fashioned research--I often do!

[Anon]

Regarding your second question, I suggest that the infer command would not be the best option here. While it might find some other verses, it will probably miss many also because they share themes, but not necessarily vocabulary. There is not a single word in common in in your two examples. The best option for something like that is probably an old-fashioned approach: amplify one of the verses to a topical bible, themes dictionary, or cross-references module, and follow the trail from there.

 

It all depends on how you interpret the "and" between the two strings AbramJK supplied. If he is looking for potentially inter-related phrases, not dependent on each string he quoted, then infer would be a possible search. The 'and' in this instance is a list item. If on the other hand the 'and' is functioning dependently, then you would be better off building a list of particular words—but this is less ideal from a linguistic perspective in light of the query.

Edited December 23, 2012 by James Tucker

[JonathanHuber]

My point was simply that an infer search based on one of those phrases would not have found the other, even though these are two classic verses on the subject. Do the infer search - they're powerful and easy to do in Accordance and they may find some important verses - but there's a good chance that such a search will still miss many relevant passages that a themes dictionary or cross-references tool would point out.

[Anon]

My point was simply that an infer search based on one of those phrases would not have found the other, even though these are two classic verses on the subject.

 

Agreed. Which is why I pointed out the ambiguity of how "and" is functioning.

 

Do the infer search - they're powerful and easy to do in Accordance and they may find some important verses - but there's a good chance that such a search will still miss many relevant passages that a themes dictionary or cross-references tool would point out.

 

Yes, but I would also add that any cross-reference list is not devoid of interpretive choices and methods. Which raises the point of why I first mentioned the INFER. By mentioning the INFER, I was not suggesting it would find a comprehensive list of data. It's only part of the process in researching. I concur that consulting other's list is a helpful leg in coming to decisions, but I first like to start from the text. It's a great opportunity to showcase Accordance's search features of the text of Scripture.

Edited December 23, 2012 by James Tucker