Bible Books Author and Date Written

[Pastor Langley]

Learning to use SwordSearcher for "Bible words and phrases" but can we search for "data" as well "specifically I mean"?
If there is a module with that content, presumably it would find that data. You can find tons of lists online with this data, my question here is specific.
Example: Can one search for "dates and authors of books of Bible", using SwordSearcher?
Maybe the question should be; Is there a module (out there) with all books of Bible listing dates written and authors?
Elementary to some, but part of good ole Bible Study tool teaching a class and printing handouts.
Might be in the SwordSearcher library if someone points me to it?

 

[Brandon Staggs]

Several commentaries in SwordSearcher have that information in their book introductory material that you'd find on the first verse of a book. Take at look at the Gray and Gaebelein commentaries on 1st Timothy, for example. Maybe not in a condensed form but the information is there. The Morrish Bible Dictionary is also a good source for this, in my opinion -- it has entries on most if not all books of the Bible that provide those details. In fact many of the dictionaries do.

 

[Pastor Langley]

Knowing that its there; that's knowledge,
But what if I wanted to search that information and did not know how or where to look?
That's somehting I want as a "search inside SwordSearcher." Evidently it is very dependent upon search text used.
Trying to get an understanding of "search crieteria" needed for these types of searches.

My search results:

Full library search Gaebelein 1 Timothy 1:1
"When Was First Timothy Written?"
Returns zero search results.

Full library search Gaebelein 1 Timothy 1:1
"date of the First Epistle to Timothy"
Showing all 4 matching entries in Gaebelein's Annotated Bible.
Results are not as expected, too much reading and scrolling. Trying to get exact answers.


My desired query for searches such as these:
Who is author of Genesis?
What year Genesis written?

Was actually working on a {book module} as a handout or teaching tool, and thought its probably easily found in my SwordSearcher.
Thus the question on the forum.

 

[Brandon Staggs]

My desired query for searches such as these:
Who is author of Genesis?
What year Genesis written?

SwordSearcher does not do any kind of natural language processing. You cannot ask it a direct question like that. It is very good at finding material for you based on verse, and can easily show you everywhere specific words and word forms and phrases are across its vast library. But there is no language processing like what you are after. It cannot digest and interpret content for you. Therefore, it is helpful to become familiar with the material available to you and how to use it -- such as learning which commentaries are good for what kind of information, etc.

If I could license a language processing model and use it to help give search results to direct questions like that I probably would, as long as it didn't cross the line into "SwordSearcher says Genesis was written in NNNN BC". It would be great if SwordSearcher could give you five or ten results with sentences highlighted that it thinks might answer your question. But it can't do that right now.

 

[Pastor Langley]

SwordSearcher does not do any kind of natural language processing. You cannot ask it a direct question like that. It is very good at finding material for you based on verse, and can easily show you everywhere specific words and word forms and phrases are across its vast library. But there is no language processing like what you are after. It cannot digest and interpret content for you. Therefore, it is helpful to become familiar with the material available to you and how to use it -- such as learning which commentaries are good for what kind of information, etc.

If I could license a language processing model and use it to help give search results to direct questions like that I probably would, as long as it didn't cross the line into "SwordSearcher says Genesis was written in NNNN BC". It would be great if SwordSearcher could give you five or ten results with sentences highlighted that it thinks might answer your question. But it can't do that right now.I am no wsbones or Brandon but I am enjoying my time in SwordSearcher.

 

[Pastor Langley]

Thank you sir! The directions you gave me set me on an idea. Learning the power of SwordSearcher. Using your guidance the searches did help me find information needed. Changing the search results helps get what is needed.