Searching Greek and Hebrew Texts with BibleWorks

(With virtually no knowledge of the languages)

A Basic Introduction----

Roy E. Ciampa, 2003

Here is a key to the BibleWorks user interface (the various types of information available on the BibleWorks screen) as seen in the power user mode.

This is the results window. This is the command line. Your screen should look (pretty much) this.

If your screen looks like this you are in beginner mode. I recommend you go to Search and choose Power user mode.

In the command line, type “display clear nau wtt bgt lxe rsv” and then hit “Enter”. That will clear away all other versions from the display window, leaving just the New American Standard translation, the Greek text (of the LXX and NT), Brenton’s English translation of the LXX and the RSV version (which will provide an English translation of the OT, NT and the books of the Apocrypha.

Now enter “nau” again to make it your primary search version. (The abbreviation of the current search version is always listed beside the command line.)

Let’s start in the Old Testament. Go to the text that has the word you want to study. Let’s study the Hebrew word for “righteousness” found in Genesis 15:6. Enter “Gen 15:6” on the command line to go to that text. Genesis 15:5 will appear in the Results Window on the left of your screen as in the following slide…

Place your cursor over the word “righteousness” in the NAU text. In the “auto information” window you will find the Hebrew word that is translated “righteousness.” That is the “lexical/dictionary form” of the Hebrew word. (If you know the Hebrew alphabet you can look the word up in various theological dictionaries to find out more about it.)

Now hold down the shift key and double-right-click on that Hebrew word in order to search for all the places where it appears in the Old Testament.

In the “Results Verse List” box on the top-right of your screen you will find a list of the verses that contain any form of that Hebrew word. Click on the first of those references and the text will appear on your “Results window.” You can use your “down arrow” key andthen hit “enter” to go to the next reference.

I suggest you select the word in the command line and use “Ctrl-c” to copy it to the clipboard. Want to see if these Hebrew words for“righteousness” and “reckoned” are used together anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible? Put your cursor over “reckoned” in the NAU and double-click on the Hebrew word that appears below.

Your screen should look like this. The “Results Verse List” box now lists all those places where the Hebrew word for “reckoned” appears in the OT. Place your cursor on the command line beside the Hebrewword, enter a space and then hit “Ctrl-v” to paste in the Hebrew word for “righteousness.”

Make sure there is only one period, on the far left (which indicates “and” meaning you want texts with both words), and then just twoHebrew words separated by a space between them, as pictured here. Then hit “enter”

The “Results Verse List” box shows there is one other place in the OT where both words appear together: Psalm 106:31.

Your search version right now is a Hebrew text abbreviated WTM. Enter NAU to change it back to the New American Standard.

Now let’s search for something in Greek. Enter “1jo 1:7” on thecommand line to go to 1 John 1:7

Put your cursor over “cleanses” in the NAU and then note Greek word that appears in the “auto info window”. That is the “lexical/dictionary form” of the Greek word. You can look it up in alphabetical order in various theological dictionaries to find out more about it if you want.

Now double click on that Greek word. (You have to hold “shift” to keep the word from disappearing.)

In your “Results Verse List” box you now have a list of the places where the Greek word appears in the Greek New Testament. You can scroll through the texts. Select and “Ctrl-c” the Greek word on the command line to copy it to the clipboard for future use.

Enter “bgm” to change the search version from one that only looks up words in the Greek New Testament to one that searches both the Septuagint and the Greek New Testament (bgm represents “Biblical Greek Morphologically-tagged”)

Now enter a period and then “Ctrl-v” to past the Greek word back on the command line. Now hit “Enter and it will search both the Septuagint and the Greek New Testament for your word.

Go back to 1 John 1:7 (by entering 1jo 1:7 on the command line) and search for the Greek word translated “sin” in the NAU. Then place a space and enter “Ctrl-v” to paste the word for “cleanses” beside the word for “sin”. It should now look like this screen. Select and copy both words to the clipboard. Hit “enter.” Select and copy both words to the clipboard.

Now you have a list of the places where both Greek words appear in the same verse in the Greek New Testament. Enter “bgm” on the command line to change back to search the Septuagint and the Greek New Testament at the same time.

Enter a period on the command line and then press “Ctrl-v” to copy the two Greek words onto the command line again. Hit “enter”.

Now you have a list of the places where those two Greek words appear in the same verse of either the Septuagint or the Greek New Testament. You can scroll through the results as you have earlier.

If you would like to copy the texts to a word processor “right-click” in the “Results Word List Box” and then choose “Copy List to Clipboard” from the window that appears.

Under “What to Copy” choose “Text of Verses in Verse List” and then choose which versions you want copied to your word processor. Then choose “Copy.”

Open the document into which you wish to insert the texts. Place your cursor where you want the texts inserted and then press “Ctrl-v” (hold the “Ctrl” key and the “v” key at the same time) – “which is the Windows command to “paste” from the clipboard.

The desired texts are now inserted in your document. You may edit them as you please.

To insert texts from BibleWorks directly into a Microsoft Word document, simply make sure BibleWorks is open in the background and while working in Word, and with your cursor at the point where you wish to insert the texts, press “Ctrl-Shift-b” (control, shift and b all at the same time). You will see the “Popup Copy Dialog” box where you can choose the reference or range of verses you want inserted and the versions of those texts to be inserted. Decide and then press “Copy.”

The desired texts are now inserted in your document. You may edit them as you please.

Note: To remove unwanted versions from your results window (on the left), place your cursor over the version abbreviation in that window and right click. Then choose ‘Remove This Version From Display List’. It will disappear.

Here’s a list of helpful Command Line entry shortcuts.

BibleWorks Command Line Examples

BibleWorks Command Line Examples

BibleWorks Command Line Examples

BibleWorks Command Line Examples

BibleWorks Command Line Examples