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

About This Training

Dr. John Fallahee walks through how to efficiently use Logos’ dictionaries, encyclopedias, commentaries, and theological resources for Bible study. He shows how to search for terms like "Aaron" using tags and filters, extract related Bible verses, and organize insights with custom tags. The session highlights the importance of peer-reviewed resources over AI summaries and demonstrates practical workflows for connecting textual details to broader theological context.

What You'll Learn

• Dr. John Fallahee demonstrates searching dictionaries and encyclopedias using "type: encyclopedia" to filter relevant books like the Tyndale Bible Dictionary and Who’s Who in the Bible.
• He shows how to select text from a dictionary entry and generate a passage list of Bible verses referencing that term, such as creating a list of all verses about "Aaron."
• The Factbook feature is used to summarize key insights about a term, including quotes, events, and media, with options to narrow results like "quotes of Aaron" or "events Aaron participated in."
• Community tags are applied to commentaries for filtering, such as using "tag:application" to find practical, sermon-focused resources like the Life Application Commentary.
• Custom tags (e.g., "tag: commentary Falihi") are created to organize resources for targeted study, with examples of grouping commentaries by series or depth.
• Advanced search techniques include using "subject:topic" to find commentaries on a theme without it appearing in the title, and narrowing results with sub-topics like "prophecies" after "revelation."
• Commentary categories are explained, including devotional, expositional, exegetical, technical, and application-focused works, with examples like the Handbook of Bible Application for practical insights.
• Theological works are searched using "type:theology" to access systematic and biblical theology resources, with recommendations to use "type:journal" for theological journals like Bibliotheca Sacra.
• Public domain collections are downloaded via the "documents > public" section, including theology guides, historical background resources, and cross-referenced categories.
• The CLEAR study method (Confess, List, Exegete, Analyze, Relate) is introduced as a structured approach to Bible study, integrated with Logos tools like the Passage Guide.
• Advanced search strategies include using manuscript, lemma, and transliteration data (e.g., copying Greek transliteration for "fled" in Revelation 20:11) to refine searches across commentaries.
• Linking features are shown, such as synchronizing a Bible with a commentary for side-by-side navigation and using parallel texts to compare translations.