Tip of the Month: Non-Versified Commentaries
Book of the Month: Reverse Interlinear
Product of the Month: Libronix for Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Quick Card
Camp Logos: National Camp Logos in Bellingham, WA
Camp Logos: Schedule

Tip of the Month: Non-Versified Commentaries

Logos recently reposted one of my blogs about "non-versified commentaries" (NVC) that generated numerous e-mails and questions. So I want to devote more time to this important subject.

A versified book is one that is organized according to Bible chapter and verse. You can type a Bible verse in its reference box and jump to that location. Bibles and commentaries are the two primary types of versified books. Versified commentaries will appear on the Passage Guide as well as open when you scroll through parallel resources with the left and right arrow keys.

Some resources (books) contain "commentary like information", but they are not versified. The Training of the Twelve by A.B. Bruce is an excellent example. This book is in essence a "commentary" on the gospels, but it is not versified. It will never appear in the commentary section of the Passage Guide or open with the left and right arrow keys as you scroll through commentaries. Numerous others book fall into this same category of NVC.

To discover is a book is versified click the Active Index icon on its toolbar. If it lists Bible as an index, then it is versified.

I suggest, therefore, to define a collection (Tools menu) of NVC's and then search the collection with the Reference Browser. For example, after creating the collection:

Open the Reference Browser (Ctrl + R)
Set the In box to the NVC collection
Set the Type box to Bible
Type Jn 15 in the Find box
Click Search

The Reference Browser then lists every place that Bible reference appears in the NVC collection.

To help you get started with this special collection, I have created a collection of some of my favorite NVC's that you can download for free at our website.

Book of the Month: Reverse Interlinear

I have received several e-mails recently asking about the "ellipsis" (green dot or bullet) in the ESV Reverse Interlinear. I decided to pass along to you the "official answer" from John Schwandt, the editor of the resource.

It is not uncommon (especially in Greek) to leave out a word that is redundant or made clear by context. The grammatical term for this is "ellipsis." For example, we can leave out the second verb in the sentence: "he blessed me, and I him." In this interlinear, when ellipsis occurs in one of the language lines and not in the other, there is a word left without an explicit match. In these cases we linked the word to a bullet, which we call a "redundancy bullet." Use of this bullet should not imply that something is missing or added to the English, since a wooden, word for word translation in these areas would not change the meaning. This can be seen in the example just given. The word "blessed" can be added or removed without changing the meaning in the second clause: He blessed, and I [blessed] him."

Example of ellipsis in the Greek is in Matthew 1:17:

An example of it in the English is in Matthew 4:15:

In this second example, the Greek literally says, "Answering Jesus said to him." Although the ESV translation is not woodenly word for word, no meaning is lost and the English is more readable.

The result of this principle of avoiding linking words to spaces (especially in the English) is that this text is as descriptive as possible. Since all of the words are accounted for, the reader is never left wondering if something went wrong with the translation. Instead, this text always provides evidence for every word of the translation.

And if the text is used as a Greek resource, it demonstrates how the translators handled each Greek word.

Product of the Month: Libronix for Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Quick Card

This keyboard shortcut card is a fast way to dive into your Libronix for Mac software. Both sides of the card contain the common Libronix keyboard shortcuts for the Mac, as well as a symbol guide for the common Mac keyboard symbols.

All of our Shortcut Quick Cards are printed in full color on 8.5" x 5.5" cardstock and then are laminated with a thick laminate.

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Coming in May: The Libronix for Mac Training Manual!!!

National Camp Logos: Bellingham, WA

It's time again for our annual National Camp Logos in Bellingham, Washington. Our two days of practical, thorough, and hands-on training for your Logos Bible Software are slated for June 11-12.

We present regional seminars all over the country, but once a year we invite Logos users to the Logos headquarters for this yearly event.

>>Click for more info

Camp Logos Schedule

Here is a list of upcoming Camp Logos. Please periodically check our website www.mpseminars.com as we continuously add new dates. For your convenience you may register online.