Biblical Studies and Technological Tools: Working with Hebrew, Greek, and English in the MT and LXX

In the previous post, I noted how David Lang was writing about "Using the MT-LXX Parallel" in Accordance. Since I am a BibleWorks9 and Logos5 user, I wanted to see how they handle the tasks Lang is describing. That previous post showed what to do in BibleWorks9. This post will deal with the procedures and capabilities in Logos5. Here's what we want to do:

Show how to set up the Hebrew MT and the Greek LXX with English versions so that hovering over a Hebrew or Greek word will highlight the English word. The example used is in Genesis 1.1 of שָּׁמַיִם and οὐρανὸν.
See the connection between the Hebrew and Greek, using Tov's "MT-LXX Parallel" tool. This tool matches up each word in the Hebrew with the word(s) used to translate it (or not!) in the LXX.
"Find every place where the LXX translates the Hebrew word tselem by some form of the word eikon." (This is the word usually translated in Genesis 1.26 with "image.")

Logos 5

The graphic below shows just how easily and excellently Logos shows the relationship between the Hebrew MT, the Greek LXX, and the English translations. All of this works because of Logos' implementation of reverse interlinears. (Note: I'm using the Windows version. I don't know how similarly it works on a Mac. For more info on Logos interlinears, check the Logos Wiki.)

For the Hebrew, use either the Lexham Hebrew Bible, the Lexham Hebrew-English Interlinear Bible, the BHS SESB, BHS Westminster 4.2 Morphology, Hebrew Bible: Andersen-Forbes, or the BHS WIVU.
For the Greek, use either Swete's Greek-Hebrew Reverse Interlinear Septuagint or the Logos LXX. (To see the reverse interlinear at work, click on the Interlinear icon at the top of the tab. It looks like a small box with lines at the bottom. It will open the interlinear data at the bottom of the tab. Now when you click on a Greek word, it will show you the underlying Hebrew.)
For English, you can use KJV, ESV, NASB, NIV, NKJV, Lexham English Bible, or NRSV. (The interlinear display works similarly to the Greek.)

Here's what you do:

Open one of each of those Bible, set them up in columns or rows as desired
Synchronize them (click on the book and choose the same link set for each; I'm using "A" which you can see in my graphic)
If not by default, click on the Visual Filter icon (the intersecting color circles at the top of the tab) and make sure Sympathetic Highlighting is checked
Personally, I also dock the Information window which you can see in the lower left
Left click on any word in any language, and the Info window will show the word's analysis, what it is translating, or how it is translated
Right click on any word in any version, and the word will be shaded 'sympathetically' in the other versions.

Logos does have Tov's Parallel Hebrew-Greek, as you can see below, but frankly, it's not of much use. It's not morphologically tagged, and everything you would want it to do can be better accomplished with the reverse interlinear resources and the Bible Word Studies which I will describe in a moment.

Finally, the last task... Again, here is the question posed: "Find every place where the LXX translates the Hebrew word tselem by some form of the word eikon." There are a few ways to get at this.

1) Bible Word Study:

Go to Genesis 1.26 again, right-click on צלמ, but this time choose to do a Bible Word Study.
If it's not expanded, click on Translation. With the mouse on the Translation line, click on Settings on the right, and choose Logos LXX. (For some reason, LXX Swete does not work.)
Now click on צלמ in the middle of the circle, and it will generate all the LXX texts. Here's what you get:
A couple issues... First, we only have the Hebrew and not the Aramaic results. Second, you will see that Greek forms, not lemmas, are given. (It appears as if this information is being drawn from the non-morph tagged Tov.)
But do note the extra information embedded here. Let the mouse hover any of the colored wheel parts, and, as the graphic below shows, a popup will show all the other Hebrew forms that this Greek form is translating.

2) Simple Word Search

I could start with a search for צלמ but we'll jump right to Genesis 1.26 in the Hebrew where initiated the question.
I could right-click on the Hebrew word, but note that I can also right-click on "image" in the English version as well.
As you can see in the graphic below, I want to choose the correct lemma, and then click on "Search this resource"
If you run that search yourself, you will see a problem that I identified in the previous post. Logos, like BibleWorks, makes a distinction between the Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the OT. Our search only found the Hebrew instances of צלמ . You can see in the graphic below that I actually created an OR search and added the Aramaic form.
- You can also see that I floated the results window (CTRL-F11).
- Click on Verses
- If a second column is not already visible, click on Add a Version and enter "Logos LXX"
Now you can see all the instances of צלמ highlighted and see all the Greek words translating it highlighted as well.
The search works fine, but it will take a little bit of scanning to see where εικων is translating צלמ or not. There is a better way!

3) Sophisticated Word Search

Using the results of the word search you just did, instead of looking for All Bible Text in All Passages in Lexham Hebrew Bible, click on that last term, and change it to Logos LXX = Septuagint with Logos Morphology. Yes, it seems odd to be looking for Hebrew and Aramaic roots in the Greek LXX, but the reverse interlinear coding can handle it.
When the results come up, click on Analysis.
Now, as it says, "Drag a column here to group by that column" - So, choose Lemma (Greek) and drag it there. Here's what you get:
Note that this is the info we want! (If you right-click on the little down arrow next to the Greek lemma, you can choose to expand/collapse the levels as I've done to make the graphic smaller.)
You still may need to do a little sorting. (E.g., the 3 instances of "--" are actually coding issues and are included properly in the other hits.

But, there is yet a BEST way
4) More Sophisticated Word Search

Don't want to sort through results? Do you exactly and only want to answer the posed question: "Find every place where the LXX translates the Hebrew word tselem by some form of the word eikon." Here's what you do.
Using our results of the previous search, and still using All Bible Text in All Passages in Septuagint with Logos Morphology, use this in the search command line:
(<Lemma = lbs/he/צֶ֫לֶם:1>,<Lemma = lbs/arc/צְלֵם>) ANDEQUALS <Lemma = lbs/el/εἰκών> (If you see &lt and &gt here, those are supposed to open and close angle brackets.)
Note that I've grouped the Hebrew and Aramaic terms in parentheses, but also note that you cannot use an OR to link them. Use the comma instead.
The ANDEQUALS now is functioning to look at all instances of צלם in either the Hebrew and Aramaic when they are translated in the LXX with εικων.
I can drag away the Lemma (Greek) organizer, and here's the result
Perfect!

Comments:

Most of your searches like this won't be so tricky if you're not worried about getting both Hebrew and Aramaic.
Note that you can also work this somewhat in reverse. I.e., you can search for a Greek lemma in the LXX and then use the Analysis to organize your results by the Hebrew (or Aramaic) lemma.
The tricky part in all of this when using Logos is that you need to get the right Hebrew lemmas and the Greek requires proper diacriticals. My solution is to do a search on a word I want by right-clicking on the word and then copy/paste the search coding to reuse it. Also, always be sure to select the options that Logos offers rather than trying to type the whole thing yourself. (This applies to Greek/Hebrew as well as to resources.) You'll still find that sometimes you can type using g:... or h:... to start getting Greek or Hebrew results. Sometimes you will need to switch your keyboard to Greek or Hebrew.
My biggest complaint? What if I want to save the list of verses generated by my search? Logos offers no way to generate a condensed listing. (See the list I was able to generate with BibleWorks in the previous post.) Logos does have Print/Export options. It also can generate a "Passage List," but even in its "compact" form, it still gives each verse as its own separate entry/line and doesn't condense them. I.e., I want this: Gen 1:26, 27; 5:3; 9:6; 2Ki 11:18; Psa 39:7; 73:20; Eze 7:20; 16:17; 23:14; Dan 2:31, 31, 34, 35; 3:1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 15, 18. But the best Logos can do is give me this:

Logos 5 Overall

CONS:
- You have to keep track of which resources are capable of which search possibilities
- Entering the proper Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic can be tricky
- Logos cannot generate condensed verse lists
PROS:
- Logos is extremely powerful and flexible in the tools it offers, all in an attractive and (mostly) intuitive package
- Logos has done a great job of implementing their reverse interlinears
- The Sympathetic Highlighting which can connect Hebrew, Greek, and English is wonderful!
- The Bible Word Study offers helpful perspectives on the connections between the Hebrew and Greek
- It's possible to construct sophisticated searches that provide good visual results as well as offering further analytical and organizational possibilities

If I've missed something with Logos, be sure to let me know! David Lang has promised further work in this field, so I'll try to keep tabs on what he's doing with Accordance.