[sword-devel] search idea

Wed, 29 Dec 1999 09:30:14 -0500

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&gt;Even translations and commentaries are divisive. 
 
Nothing wrong in that, in fact it is mandated in the word of God. 
The word of God is divisive.&nbsp; The Almighty Lord Jesus Christ, the
living word of God is divisive.&nbsp; Divisive is a divine good.&nbsp;
Divide as best you can, the sheep from the goats, the tares from the
wheat, and keep on rightly dividing and yet never give up unity, one
Lord, one that-which-is-believed-soul resident-faith, one identification
(in-Christ), one body of members on earth, one-right-interpretation for
each verse of the word of God, etc.. (many divisive right
applications). 
 
The word of God is only infallible in the original languages.&nbsp; We
still have divisive understanding on what constitute the original
languages, which fragments, versions, etc.,.&nbsp; Every translation
should refer directly back to the original languages as much as is in our
power to do so.&nbsp; Any thesaurus reference should display both the
reader's language translation of choice(s) and perhaps even fragments of
his own translation (notes) and never apart from the original language
displayed at the same time in an above or below window.&nbsp; If Strongs'
is the means for a while that will be good.&nbsp; A search ought to
search what we refer to as the original language texts, (and some may
say,&nbsp; include the Septuagint in order that a Greek only search be
done).&nbsp; Thus as much as possible for us errant fallible weak minded
creatures we refer to the perfect, leaving out as many human
interpretations/translations as possible, (thinking the less the number
of fallen natured creatures (even redeemed reborn-in-Christ ones)
involved the better). 
 
A student might one day want to find all usages by Paul of the verb
xxxxxxxxxx where preceded by a participle within the same context.&nbsp;
Since he might be thinking of applying the principle that the aorist
passive participle always precedes the action of the main verb, etc.,
etc., so he want to see the other usages of participial forms associated
with this one particular main verb.&nbsp; The next search he might want
all uses all authors.&nbsp; These mark up languages are going to be
wonderful for that. 
 
When one of you said a search on mood, (even if unintended),&nbsp; (or it
could be voice, tense, etc.,) that's not a bad concept.&nbsp; When we
search in the original, much of that gets taken care of by the language
itself.&nbsp; At times we may want to search on the exact construct of a
Greek word, at other times, the other constructs. 
 
Many of these things are the mechanical substitute for what will as
necessary become possible for the student of the word of God who has
decades (in-Christ) of spiritual growth beyond maturity, and has the
necessary spiritual gift(s) plus the training, and the years or decades
logged in prior studies.&nbsp; Without the use of the computer many
&quot;Pastor-and-Teachers&quot; have already over hundreds, now thousands
of years, searched the scriptures and found the necessary answers.&nbsp;
While we haven't all the tools yet to search out all we want, so long as
we have available to us one (one at a time period in our lives)
one-individual with the skills, gifts, training and ability, and the
Christian maturity, and the power and authority transferred from the
Almighty trinity dwelling within us, and so long as we consistently
relate well to one at a time, of those individuals we will have all the
commands, orders, mandates, principles, viewpoints etc., needed to
fulfill our responsibilities and our purpose for being left here a while
longer. 
 
So, in summary,&nbsp; continue to improve the tools, adhere to the
original languages in everything,&nbsp; we don't have all we want of
the word of God, but we do have all we need.&nbsp; Find the single best
qualified and able Pastor-and-Teacher (writer, speaker, whatever) able to
teach you daily, by local assembly, or by whatever media possible,
consistently, and place daily faith and trust, and confidence in what you
pick up from him.&nbsp; If you don't trust him, find another you do
trust, but depend upon one who has gone before you, who likewise depended
on one before him, and thus,&nbsp; avoid impulses, subjectivity,
misinterpretations, misunderstandings, trends and influences of current
events, groups, and traditions.&nbsp; Thus remain orthodox in
interpretation, in unity, among those who in-Christ, as members of His
body of members on earth, who already since the day of Pentecost, fought
the good fight and kept the faith,&nbsp; that-which-is-believed, in every
generation, communicated to us by and through and for Christ. 
 
Double blessings are upon the one who rightly divides the word of truth
and no doubt double divine discipline and cursing even is upon the one
who misinterprets it and worse yet, spreads it about. 
 
Patrick 
 
 
&gt;&gt; adding a synonym feature to searches. 
&gt;&gt;A thesaurus feature&nbsp; So instead of saying 
&gt;&gt; 
&gt;&gt;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; FIND sardius* or topaz* or carbuncle* or
emerald* or sapphire* or 
&gt;&gt;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; diamond* or jacinth* or agate* or amethyst* or
beryl* or onyx* or 
&gt;&gt;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; jasper* or carnelian* or chryso* 
&gt;&gt;I could have said 
&gt;&gt;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; FIND NT(jewel) 
 
&gt;&gt;An automated solution might be possible if every Bible text was
marked up 
&gt;&gt;with Strong's numbers. 
&gt; 
&gt;With indexes of the Greek and Hebrew texts, one could do a combined
Greek, 
&gt;Hebrew and English (or whatever) thesaurus. 
 
&gt;&gt;&gt; Some other indexes that would be great to have are indexes
of mood, 
&gt;&gt;&gt; setting, topic, and action. 
&gt;&gt; 
&gt;&gt;Interesting idea. However, when the topic of mood etc comes up on
the Bible 
&gt;&gt;Greek and Bible Hebrew (academic) lists the conversation goes on
for weeks 
&gt;&gt;without any real resolution as to the mood of specific
verses. 
&gt; 
&gt;Mood may have been a bad choice of words. I was thinking of something
like 
&gt;disposition. Mood in the literary sense. Not mood in the grammatical
sense 
&gt;which I would guess those academics mean. And yes, some things would
be 
&gt;very subjective. But to me that can be better than nothing at all. No
one 
&gt;would be forced to use it. With the developments in markup, like
ThML, we 
&gt;may end up with a lot of markups we can index too. (Paul, are you
there? 
&gt;Can you think of any ThML markups you would like indexed?) 
&gt; 
&gt;&gt;A &quot;better&quot; solution might be to provide hooks for
private thesaurus files so 
&gt;&gt;that individuals and groups could create their own classification
schemes. 
&gt; 
&gt;Yes. An open specification. 
&gt; 
&gt;&gt;I'll work on the inclusion of a thesaurus feature as part of the
draft 
&gt;&gt;specification. 
 
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