Tell me how you use SwordSearcher for these tasks

[Brandon Staggs]

SwordSearcher has been around for 30+ years. Every once in a while I like to step back and make sure I am keeping in touch with how people actually use the software. If you have a few minutes, please consider this:

How do you find related passages and explore concepts in SwordSearcher?

I have written tutorials, the help file, and made videos on doing just these things, but, I'd like to know what your study-flow is.

I'm curious how you approach certain study tasks in SwordSearcher. When you're studying a passage and want to find related verses elsewhere in the Bible, or when you have a concept in mind (like "God's faithfulness" or "warnings against pride") and want to find relevant passages, what's your typical study-flow?

Do you start with the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge commentary, or KJV-TSK Bible tab? Do you browse Nave's Topical Bible or Torrey's, read through a commentary that often points to related texts, or use another approach entirely?

I'd love to hear which specific resources (books and commentaries, or the specific tools from the search menu) you find yourself turning to most often for these kinds of tasks, and why they work well for you.

Are there particular commentaries, dictionaries, or books that you've found especially helpful for understanding how passages and concepts connect across Scripture?

 

[Johnny NL]

The daily reading plan....an awesome feature
UTB, Sgreek, SHebrew, the widgets are lovely helpful, and can't forget the QC.
This is part of my "daily" routine studies, and search.

As for the rest, I use the "ALL" library search for deeper topic.
In the Zoom Bible Believers with friends, we use a lot UTB, simultaneously all lighted Commentaries also.
Since SS9 is part of a daily routine, hard to pick, but I would say; ALL of it is being used in a span of 10days.
Weekend are busy with SS9. Many topics are studied on weekend.

 

[marty]

I use the proximity search to find verses I'm vague about. For instance, my mother's favorite saying was "Pride goeth before a fall," but try to find that in the Bible. It's not a correct quote, so the search won't have it. The proximity search is perfect for finding the main words and bringing up the verse, which is "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)" I have to admit, sometimes after trying a few methods in SwordSearcher, I just go online and do a search. That's usually successful, unless I'm way off in what I thought the verse actually is.

I tend to use Search Bible for looking up nearly everything. I've never had success using the Topic and verse guide, so obviously, I don't know how to use it correctly. I study by topics, like 'the tongue,' 'forgiveness,' etc. Usually I expand on my daily devotional or a verse I've read or a Spurgeon sermon. I create a module entry for each day or write favorite verses in a small journal. I read the small journals aloud to the dogs at bedtime.

 

[HarpazotheRedeemed]

How do you find related passages and explore concepts in SwordSearcher?
For this, I usually have concordances pop up from memory, so I'll do a search for them and follow different pathways from the search. I also use the Chain, and then I use the KJVSL to follow the root word and see where it leads me.

I'm curious how you approach certain study tasks in SwordSearcher. When you're studying a passage and want to find related verses elsewhere in the Bible, or when you have a concept in mind (like "God's faithfulness" or "warnings against pride") and want to find relevant passages, what's your typical study-flow?
I enjoy studying specific topics at a time like this, so I really enjoy creating my own book entries and then starting with verses that I know relating to the topic, and then from there exploring concordances and commentaries that arise from my search. I also have my favorite Go-To's such as Larkin, Sorenson, and Scofield.

Do you start with the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge commentary, or KJV-TSK Bible tab? Do you browse Nave's Topical Bible or Torrey's, read through a commentary that often points to related texts, or use another approach entirely?
I tend to use other approaches such as watching sermons on a specific topic, and then as they go through verses, I take notes. The fact that we can create our own entries is very valuable to me since I like to organize my thoughts in a specific way, and then from there I can add concordances that I find via the search. The Full Library Search is also very helpful.

I'd love to hear which specific resources (books and commentaries, or the specific tools from the search menu) you find yourself turning to most often for these kinds of tasks, and why they work well for you.
I love the Full Library Search because I can start wide and narrow down my search as I please, rather than worry about being too specific and having limited results. This works well for me if I'm studying a broad topic such as "prayer" or "faith". As a new SS user, I still have yet to explore all the studying methods and capabilities of this software. I am still discovering amazing things with it every day.

Are there particular commentaries, dictionaries, or books that you've found especially helpful for understanding how passages and concepts connect across Scripture?
I'm still in the stage of discovering my favorites but so far, Scofield, Sorenson and Larkin are my favorite commentators, and for the dictionaries I use the Greek, Hebrew and Websters 1828. For the books, I enjoy choosing books at random and exploring something new each time I do a study. I find the maps and images very helpful since I'm a visual learner.

Being new to this software, I haven't honed in a specific style yet, I'm still kind of all over the map, so I hope this was somewhat helpful . Johnny NL has also been guiding me in the use of the tools and helping me explore studying methods with this amazing software. There's still so much for me to explore
Thank you,
Amalia

 

[Brandon Staggs]

I use the proximity search to find verses I'm vague about.

I am working on a helper tool specifically for this. Thank you so much for sharing this.

 

[wsbones]

1. How do you find related passages and explore concepts in SwordSearcher?

• I start with a word or phrase search. This often happens when I am just reading through a Bible Plan.
• Bible Text Search, Quick Concordance, and Word Tree are very helpful. Sometimes a Full Library Search provides good leads. A word tree gives the context and may narrow or expand a search.

2. Do you start with the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge commentary, or KJV-TSK Bible tab?
This is not usually my starting point.

3. Are there particular commentaries, dictionaries, or books that you've found especially helpful for understanding how passages and concepts connect across Scripture?

• Nave's and Torrey's are helpful
• My notes and personal user-made commentaries and books
• The Topic & Verse Guide
• Word Clouds and Webster's 1913
• I mark key words in my Bible notes. I use the word cat:(i.e. cat:salvation). I have a list of 220 searchable category links.
  • A better marker would be good, but cat: is OK
    • because there are no cats in Bible
• Web searches and AI -> maybe make a book or topic from some of these results
• There are books of lists and books of themes that are available to purchase.

 

[Brandon Staggs]

1. How do you find related passages and explore concepts in SwordSearcher?

• I start with a word or phrase search. This often happens when I am just reading through a Bible Plan.
• Bible Text Search, Quick Concordance, and Word Tree are very helpful. Sometimes a Full Library Search provides good leads. A word tree gives the context and may narrow or expand a search.

2. Do you start with the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge commentary, or KJV-TSK Bible tab?
This is not usually my starting point.

3. Are there particular commentaries, dictionaries, or books that you've found especially helpful for understanding how passages and concepts connect across Scripture?

• Nave's and Torrey's are helpful
• My notes and personal user-made commentaries and books
• The Topic & Verse Guide
• Word Clouds and Webster's 1913
• I mark key words in my Bible notes. I use the word cat:(i.e. cat:salvation). I have a list of 220 searchable category links.
  • A better marker would be good, but cat: is OK
    • because there are no cats in Bible
• Web searches and AI -> maybe make a book or topic from some of these results
• There are books of lists and books of themes that are available to purchase.

This is super-helpful to me! Thank you!

 

[Eric]

In SwordSearcher, I usually search based on words linked to the Strong's codes. I.e., I'll search for all instances of a Greek or Hebrew word. But since that limits one to either the NT or the OT, and the topic I'm studying is in both, I try to use my own memory to find a verse in the other testament that would have a word that I could use to drill down to the Strong's code for Greek or Hebrew. And I go from there. I don't use the Topic and Verse Guide - never worked that into my work flow. I do use the TSK-Enhanced a lot when looking for similar ideas / phrases in other passages. I use a lot of the commentaries that come with SwordSearcher, and I have UTB and WOLE.

Sometimes a topic is one that is not easily studied by words alone or there may be lots of words involved, etc., etc. In some of those cases, I might go online and ask AI / ChatGPT for something. A sample prompt might be

"Conservative evangelical / Baptist / Protestant theology. Please provide biblical quotations from the KJV. Please provide biblical support for the eternal generation of the Son of God / God the Son."

(I realize use of AI is controversial, and I certainly think it can be misused.) By the way, my use of "Protestant" in the AI prompt above does not mean I believe biblical Baptists are Protestants (I don't). I'm simply trying to query the datasets that include theological info from those sources. But I diverge [Edit: oops! I meant "digress"]… (head down a rabbit trail)

 

[Brandon Staggs]

(I realize use of AI is controversial, and I certainly think it can be misused.) By the way, my use of "Protestant" in the AI prompt above does not mean I believe biblical Baptists are Protestants (I don't). I'm simply trying to query the datasets that include theological info from those sources. But I diverge… (head down a rabbit trail)

Good insight.