First Steps in Logos: Mastering Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Commentaries & Theological Works

First Steps in Logos: Mastering Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Commentaries & Theological Works

Dr. John Fallahee’s webinar, "First Steps in Logos: Mastering Dictionaries/Encyclopedias, Commentaries & Theological Works," offers a practical walkthrough for new and intermediate Logos users. The focus is on how to use Logos’ peer-reviewed scholarly tools—rather than AI-generated summaries—to deepen biblical study with confidence and clarity.

At the heart of the session is a decision tree that helps users match their study needs to the right resource: dictionaries and encyclopedias for background details (like "Who is Aaron?"), commentaries for interpreting passages, theological works for systematic understanding, and lexicons for word definitions. This structured approach makes Logos feel less overwhelming and more purposeful.

Dr. Fallahee emphasizes navigating Logos in "detailed view" to access richer content and using "type colon" searches (e.g., "type colon encyclopedia") to filter resources by category. Dictionaries like the Tyndale Bible Dictionary or Who's Who in the Bible serve as time-savers, offering concise summaries of people, places, and customs with cross-references to Scripture. The Factbook feature is also introduced as a powerful tool for exploring questions like "What was Aaron involved in?" or filtering results by media, sermons, or other lenses.

Commentaries are presented as essential for asking, "What does this passage mean?" and "How do scholars understand difficult phrases?" Logos’ tagging system is demonstrated, showing how to filter commentaries by tags like "application" using the "I" button and Ctrl+A to select multiple resources. Dr. Fallahee advises reading the full article first to avoid information overload, then using tags to organize commentaries—such as creating a custom "Fallahee application" tag to quickly access relevant resources like Life Application Commentary or Leadership Ministries Worldwide.

Throughout, the webinar underscores the value of structured, peer-reviewed materials for deep, contextual study. Users learn how to organize resources via public domain collections (e.g., downloading 07 Theology collections), use guide templates to structure study, and apply the CLEAR method (Confess, List, Exegete, Analyze, Relate) to passages like Revelation 20:11–15. By pairing these tools with commentaries and theological works, users build a disciplined, repeatable process that fosters both understanding and application.

Practical Tips for Getting Started

• Use custom tags to organize your favorite commentaries or series, such as creating a tag for your top 66 commentaries (one per book of the Bible).
• Search by series or subject using commands like series: evangelical exegetical commentaries or subject: revelation to uncover thematic resources.
• Leverage the passage guide to aggregate commentaries, journals, and background insights for specific verses, then sort by priority, author, or era.
• Apply the CLEAR method—begin with confession, list key observations, exegete using word studies, analyze meaning, and relate to life—while using historical background guides for context.
• Download curated collections like 06 Historical Background or 08 Theology to build a strong foundation and avoid information overload.

The session concludes with a reminder that Logos is designed to support disciplined, thoughtful engagement with Scripture—not to replace personal study but to enhance it. By using these tools wisely, users can explore wisdom literature, connect to Proverbs, and grow in their understanding of God’s word.