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Knox DMin—Study & Preach the Bible as a Whole

  |  Fri, December 7, 2012   |  Misc   0

On the first day of Dr. Haddon Robinson’s DMin in Preaching and Teaching class, the first thing his students expected was a syllabus. What they got was a question. Dr. Robinson opened the Bible and asked, “What’s the big idea?”

Dr. Robinson’s question treats Scripture as one cohesive story, and so does the DMin overall. You’ll learn to see Christ in the Old Testament, even if you’re not expecting to—in the OT’s third-day motifs, for example, which point to the Resurrection. You’ll learn the literary techniques you need to follow the Bible’s patterns as they come together in one grand narrative. You’ll learn to read any given verse not as a stand-alone text but as one instance of a much larger story.

For these three DMin students, the education has been transformative:

Win the $18,000 John Piper Scholarship

If you’ve ever thought about studying the Bible at the highest academic level, you owe it to yourself to check out the DMin’s comprehensive John Piper Scholarship. You’ll get:

  • A world-class biblical education and a terminal degree
  • Logos 5’s enormous, smart Portfolio base package
  • $1,000 in Logos credit for additional books
  • Our academic discount, which multiplies that $1,000’s value

And because you’ll do almost all your studying from home, you won’t have to give up your current priorities as you earn your doctorate—free.

The entry deadline is December 31. Enter to win the John Piper Scholarship now!

7 Biblical Facts about the Angel Gabriel

  |  Fri, December 7, 2012   |  Misc   1

Today’s post continues Logos Talk’s Christmas Bible study. Check back throughout December for more ways to study the birth of Jesus!

The angel Gabriel is one of the prominent characters in the Nativity narrative. He’s remembered as the angel who told Mary she would give birth to the Son of God. But what else can we know about him from the Bible?

A quick check in Logos 5’s Bible Facts tool makes it easy to find out: I just look through the related verses and browse the Bible dictionaries the tool fetches for me.

  1. Gabriel is mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. He’s known for bearing good news of Jesus’ coming birth, but his first biblical appearance is in Daniel 8:16, when he is told to explain a vision to the prophet.
  2. Gabriel stands in the presence of God. This is how he describes himself to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist (Luke 1:19). The Greek word for “stands” is paristánō, which means to wait before a superior. The Septuagint uses this word to describe how Joshua served Moses and how David assisted King Saul.
  3. Gabriel is one of only two angels explicitly named in the Protestant Bible. The other is Michael, a warrior archangel.
  4. The Bible doesn’t call Gabriel the “archangel.” The Book of Tobit (of Catholic and Orthodox canon) identifies the angels who stand in the presence of God as archangels, and so Gabriel has been called an archangel by tradition.
  5. Gabriel looks like a man (but see #6). The name Gabriel means “man of God” or “strength of God.” The second time Daniel encounters Gabriel (Daniel 9:21), he describes Gabriel as a “man [. . .] seen in the vision previously.” We don’t get any more details on Gabriel’s looks. Perhaps that’s because his messages are always so important.
  6. Gabriel scares people. When Daniel meets Gabriel, he is frightened and falls on his face. When Gabriel greets Zacharias, his first words are, “Do not be afraid.” Mary’s greeting is more celebratory, but Gabriel still follows up by telling her not to fear.
  7. Gabriel anticipates Jesus. Gabriel relays a prophecy concerning “Messiah the Prince” to Daniel. He tells Zacharias that John the Baptist will be a forerunner before the Lord. And most famously, he tells Mary that her son will be called “the Son of the Most High.”

All this information and more is only seconds away when I’m using the Bible Facts tool in Logos 5. You can use it to dig up facts on the other people involved in the story of Christ’s birth: Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, the Wise Men, the shepherds, take your pick!

You’ll find all the tools we used today in Logos 5 Starter and higher. If you haven’t already, upgrade to Logos 5 and join us as we continue our Christmas Bible study.

The Logos Christmas Sale Is Here!

  |  Thu, December 6, 2012   |  Misc   0

The 2012 Logos Christmas specials are here! There are many ways to save on Logos resources this season. We’ve picked out some of the best products—now it’s time for you to study what you love at a dramatic discount.

Base Package Discounts

Throughout December, base packages are on sale for 15% off. What better way to celebrate the birth of Jesus than by spending more time in his Word? With Logos 5, you can explore the story of Christ’s birth with powerful, easy-to-use Bible-study tools. This is a great opportunity for you to start your library or purchase the perfect gift for a family member or friend.

Hand-Selected Bundles

Build your library with hand-selected collections! Our scholars have bundled the “must-haves” for different study topics at a rare discount: up to 75%. With dynamic pricing, you never  have to pay for products you already own. Drop bundles into your cart to see your special price. With over 19 collections to choose from, you’re bound to find the perfect package.

This special offer is available only through December 31—order today to get the best price!

12 Days of Logos

12 Days of Logos has returned with more great savings! Now through December 18, we’ll be posting one new deal each weekday at 12DaysOfLogos.com. These prices won’t last long, so you’ll have to act fast to take advantage of them.

Logos 5 and Surface Tablet Giveaway

We’re giving away five base packages—Starter, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and ­Platinum—and, with Platinum, a brand-new Surface tablet running Windows 8 Pro!  Commentaries, sermon helps, original-language works, your favorite Bibles—you’ll explore a massive networked library on your new Surface. Already have Logos 5? If you win, we’ll refund your purchase in Logos credit.

Spend this season in the Word. For more details on any of these promotions, visit the 2012 Christmas page.

Free Book of the Month: Dr. Ryrie’s Articles

  |  Wed, December 5, 2012   |  Misc   0

Dr. Charles Ryrie, a key figure in dispensational theology, wrote dozens of articles published in academic journals and popular periodicals. December’s Free Book of the Month, Dr. Ryrie’s Articles, compiles a number of these works in one helpful resource. Articles include:

  • “Biblical Teaching on Divorce and Remarriage”
  • “The Significance of Pentecost”
  • “The Pauline Doctrine of the Church”
  • “Calvinistic Emphases in the Geneva and Bishops’ Bibles”
  • “The Doctrine of Capital Punishment”
  • And many more

On top of authoring over 25 books and a number of articles, Charles Ryrie served as professor of systematic theology and dean of doctoral studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and professor at what is now Cairn University.

“Ryrie’s greatest legacy may well be making the Scriptures he reveres more understandable to lay people.”—Larsen T. Bebbington

When you download this month’s free book, you can also enter to win all 31 volumes of Charles Ryrie’s Legacy Collection, which features books like:

  • Ryrie Study Bible, Expanded Edition (3 vols.)
  • The Role of Women in the Church
  • What You Should Know about Social Responsibility
  • What You Should Know about Inerrancy
  • First and Second Thessalonians
  • Ryrie’s Practical Guide to Communicating the Bible
  • And 25 more titles!

Don’t wait. Download Dr. Ryrie’s Articles now, and enter to win the Legacy Collection!

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It’s time to upgrade to Logos 5. See the special pricing our Custom Upgrade Discount Calculator has for you.

2 Steps to Greek & Hebrew Bible Study

  |  Wed, December 5, 2012   |  Misc, Products   2

Today’s post continues Logos Talk’s Christmas Bible study. Check back throughout December for more ways to study the birth of Jesus!

You probably remember the first time someone told you about doing Bible study by looking at Greek and Hebrew, the languages it was originally written in. When I first heard that, I wondered how much Greek or Hebrew I would need to get under my belt.

Well, there’s good news: Logos 5 makes it easy to start exploring Greek and Hebrew words, even if you don’t know these languages. Here’s a fine way to get started.

1. Turn on the Reverse Interlinear.
It sounds technical, but what it does is pretty straightforward: it reverses the English translation back to its original language. It also opens up a few new pathways for exploring the text, but we’ll get to those later. First, we need to turn it on.

Without the reverse interlinear, your Logos 5 Bible will look like this.

But when we hit the Reverse Interlinear button, we get simple word-by-word comparison of the passage.

We’ve just opened up a bunch of new study possibilities, but for now, we’ll focus on the Strong’s numbers in the bottom row.

2. Look up the Strong’s number.

Matthew kicks off his gospel with the genealogy of “Jesus the Messiah.” What is a Messiah? With the Reverse Interlinear, it’s easy to find out.

Just hover over the Strong’s number, and Logos looks up that word in your preferred Bible dictionary. I enjoy The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament because it explains Greek words in ways that a non-Greek scholar (like me) can understand. Whatever your preferred dictionary is, Logos pulls its definition for the word instantly—so long as you have that dictionary in your library.

 

I learn that both “the Messiah” and “the Christ” refer to “the Anointed One.” I also see that it’s used in conjunction with “King of Israel” and “Savior of the world.”

So, without leaving my Bible, I’ve already learned a few things:

  • The first time Matthew references Jesus, it’s as the Messiah, or Anointed One. That gives me an idea of how Jesus will be portrayed in the rest of the book.
  • It tells me why the following 17 verses of genealogy are important: it’s how the long-awaited Messiah came to us.

And I’m already hungry for more. Not only do I have a better understanding of what the Bible says, but I also have some more questions for further study:

  • Why is this word translated “Messiah” instead of “Christ” (which is far more common in the NT)?
  • What was Jesus anointed specifically for? Priesthood? Kingship? Both?

That’s one thing I love about studying Greek and Hebrew words—you learn what you need to know, and you know what else you need to learn. And it only takes a few seconds when you’re doing word studies with Logos 5.

Do you have any friends new to Bible study? Share this article with them!

You’ll find the full Reverse Interlinear in Logos 5. If you haven’t already, upgrade to Logos 5 and subscribe to the Logos blog as we continue our Christmas Bible study.

Pick Our Photo Champion Winner!

  |  Tue, December 4, 2012   |  Misc   0

Our Facebook page crossed the 50,000-fan threshold in September. We celebrated by announcing our 50,000 Fans Photo Contest, which offered $250 in Logos credit, a Nexus 7, or a Kindle Fire HD.

The finalists have been chosen—now it’s time to vote!

We asked you to post photos using #BetterBibleStudy on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, and Instagram. Then we selected 15 finalists, taking into account creativity, location, quality, and originality, as well as RTs and shares. Now it’s time for you to pick the winner!

Voting is simple. Here’s how to weigh in:

  1. Go here.
  2. Like your favorite(s).
  3. Share the page, and ask your friends to vote.

Go vote for your favorite(s) right now!

BONUS

Have a cool photo of you using Logos in a unique situation—somewhere unusual, with someone famous, or with an artistic twist? Tag us in it. We reshare our favorites!

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It’s time to upgrade to Logos 5. See the special pricing our Custom Upgrade Discount Calculator has for you.

Bible Study on the Birth of Jesus Begins Today!

  |  Tue, December 4, 2012   |  Misc   14

Christmas is coming, and we’re all excited to celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ’s coming to dwell among us. But how many of our ideas about Christ’s birth come from the Bible, and how many from Christmas carols, TV specials, nativity scenes, and the like?

The biggest holiday on the Western calendar recognizes the birth of Jesus—let’s do a Bible study to see how it really happened.

Now through Christmas, we’ll  be posting new ideas for studying the birth of Christ. Some of the Logos bloggers and I will walk through the Gospel accounts of the Nativity using the powerful Bible-study tools in Logos 5.

Let’s get started!

So, if we’re doing a Bible study on the birth of Jesus, where do we start? The new Topic Guide is the easiest way to get started, even if you’ve never read the biblical account of the Nativity. Let’s open the Topic Guide and see what’s in store.

I start typing in “Christmas,” and the guide suggests both Christmas and the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. That’s helpful, because I’m really interested in the second option in this Bible study. I select it, and the Topic Guide brings me places to start my study! I get a definition of the topic and links to my Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias. I also get a list of related verses and topics.

This gives me plenty of Scriptures to read and examine, and other topics to explore. So using the Topic Guide, I get:

  • A suggestion for the topic I really wanted (even though I typed something else)
  • The definition of the topic
  • A list of passages for future Bible study
  • Ideas for more topics to explore

It took me only nine seconds to get to all this information from the Home Page. It doesn’t matter if I’ve memorized the New Testament or if I’ve never opened the Bible before—either way, I’m ready to start learning more about the birth of my Savior. Logos 5 makes Bible study more approachable than ever, and I can’t wait to study the birth of Christ further.

You’ll find all the tools and books we used today in Logos 5. If you haven’t already, upgrade to Logos 5 and join us as we continue our Christmas Bible study.

It’s Not Too Late to Save on Black Friday Deals!

  |  Thu, November 29, 2012   |  Misc   0


If you haven’t taken advantage of our Black Friday deals yet, there’s still time! Logos’ Black Friday sale is packed with limited-time deals on our most Liked products. But you need to hurry—these discounts are available for only five more days.

Save now on items like:

Learn to Use Biblical Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software

Regularly: $499.95

Get it for only $249.95 with coupon code BFRIDAY19

Take your understanding of biblical Greek and Hebrew to the next level with this instructional resource from Logos. Learn to interpret Scripture in a simple, straightforward manner at your own pace, or refresh the Greek and Hebrew you learned in seminary or Bible college.

Learn to Use Biblical Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software places the payoff of biblical language knowledge up front. There’s no rote memorization of vocabulary or grammatical forms. That’s because Learn to Use Biblical Greek and Hebrew with Logos Bible Software is designed to show you how to properly use the tools used by advanced seminarians.

Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament

Regularly: $59.99

With coupon code BFRIDAY5, it’s only $39.99

Readers of the New Testament often encounter quotes or allusions to the Old Testament that may be unfamiliar or obscure. In this volume, G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson bring together a distinguished team of scholars to isolate, catalog, and comment on both the obvious Old Testament quotations and the more subtle allusions found in the New Testament. The result is a comprehensive commentary on the Old Testament references that appear from Matthew through Revelation. It’s a vital resource for the reference library of every student of the New Testament.

International Critical Commentary (53 vols.)

Regularly: $1,750

Just $1,350 with coupon code BFRIDAY11

The International Critical Commentary, published by T&T Clark International, has long held a special place among biblical works. It brings together all the relevant aids to exegesis: linguistic and textual, archaeological, historical, literary, and theological, with a comprehensiveness and quality of scholarship unmatched by any other series. If you were to purchase all 53 volumes in print at suggested retail price, you’d pay over $2,800.

You’ll find a lot more discounted items during our Black Friday Sale.

Visit Logos.com/BlackFriday by December 3 to see the complete list of deals available, including discounts on resources like:

  • IVP Dictionary of the Old Testament Bundle
  • Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament
  • John MacArthur Bundle
  • Christian Theology 2nd ed. by Millard j. Erickson

Don’t forget, this holiday season is a perfect time to upgrade! Check out the custom upgrade discount calculator to see your special price to move to Logos 5.

 

How to Study a Word’s Root: Thanksgiving

  |  Thu, November 22, 2012   |  Misc, Training   4

When it comes to studying the Bible, I always want to go deeper. My problem: I’m no Greek or Hebrew scholar. That’s one of the reasons I get so excited every time I open Logos 5. So much original language research is done for me, I can instantly understand more.

I’ve been studying biblical thanksgiving lately. One place this study take me is Psalm 136, where the psalmist pens 26 lines of gratitude to the Lord, “For his lovingkindness is everlasting.”

I look it up in my favorite Bible. Since I’m doing a little original language digging, I’ll go ahead and turn on my reverse interlinear—it’s the table at the bottom of this image.

This entire psalm is encouraging the reader to give thanks to the Lord, who has shown lovingkindness to Israel through creation, delivering them from Egypt, bringing them to the Promised Land, and sustaining them. The psalmist closes by echoing the beginning: “Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his lovingkindness is everlasting.”

If it’s so important that I “give thanks,” I need to know what it means!

This is where the Bible Word Study tool comes in. I right-click “thanks” and pull up more information about the Hebrew lemma. Then I run a Bible Word Study.

The Bible Word Study guide fetches the word’s definitions from my lexicons and dictionaries, and shows me how this word, ydh, is translated across my Bible.

So I learn that giving thanks to the Lord is more than saying “thank you” to God. It’s also an acknowledgement of who he is and what he has done. In the case of Psalm 136, it makes sense: acknowledge that the Lord has done incredible things for his people, and thank him, for his lovingkindness is everlasting.

But I want to go deeper. I want to find examples of this kind of thanksgiving.

With Logos 5, I’m able to take a look at other biblical words that share this root.

I see that there are 32 uses of the similar toda(h), which is a sacrifice, song of thanksgiving, etc. That’s interesting. I click the Hebrew word, and Logos 5 runs another Bible Word Study!

I can explore the definitions to see that this thankful song of praise to God was an act of worship that proclaimed his mighty works. Also, the word is used for songs like Psalm 100.

. . . which gives me a fine place to keep exploring as I study biblical thanksgiving this November!

And with the new root data in Logos 5, you can do deeper word studies like this, too!

It’s time to upgrade to Logos 5. Check out your special pricing options with the Custom Upgrade Discount Calculator.

What Is Exegesis—and Why Should I Care?

  |  Wed, November 21, 2012   |  Misc, Products   14

“Exegesis” sounds like a technical and abstract idea, but at its core, it’s quite simple.

Exegesis is drawing meaning from what the Scripture says.

Exegesis is going to the Bible to understand what it meant when it was written, and letting the author’s intent govern the way the Bible is interpreted. Exegesis can involve highly technical language analysis, but it doesn’t have to. In fact, you can do it right now.

What Is Exegesis? Watch How It Works!

Let’s try out some exegesis on Luke 17:11–19, where we see Jesus cleansing ten lepers, but only one thanks him. We start by looking the passage up in Logos 5.

A big part of exegesis is answering the question, “What did the author want to get across?” We see in Luke 1:1–4 and Acts 1:1–2 that this book is intended to be an exact account of Jesus’ acts and teachings, so we need to see what Jesus says and does in this passage:

  • Jesus cleanses ten lepers.
  • Only one comes back to glorify God and give thanks.
  • Jesus commends the thankful one.

Now that we’ve covered the elementary stuff, we can start doing exegesis, right? Well, actually, we’ve already started. We determined some of what the text means by letting it speak for itself—that’s what exegesis is.

Now Let’s Try the Exegetical Guide

We can exegete this text as deeply as we want with the Exegetical Guide. First, I right-click “giving thanks” in verse 16 and select “Exegetical Guide.”

This fetches all my grammars, apparatuses, and visualizations, plus a word-by-word breakdown of verse 16. I just want to see what “giving thanks” means, so I’ll find it in the breakdown:

We can see that “giving thanks” refers to being thankful, or feeling obligated to thank. Thankfulness via obligation? That doesn’t sound so good to me at first.

But when I open BDAG (a lexicon, or cross-language dictionary), I see that the word εὐχαριστέω was a diplomatic term: the party on the receiving end of a favor would assure the other party of their goodwill. In the New Testament, this word is almost exclusively used for giving thanks to God (exception: Romans 16:4).

And with Logos 5, I can also look up any New Testament word’s syntactic force, or how syntax determines its function. This is kind of nuts-and-boltsy, but sometimes we can learn what the text is saying by looking at both what a word means and how it’s used.

Great—it’s a participle showing manner. But what does that mean? Well, I get the definition on hover.

By looking at the syntactic force, I see that the leper’s actions took on a tone of returning goodwill to the Lord who just healed him.

When I see something like this, I ask myself these questions:

  • Has Jesus done me any favors? I can think of at least one.
  • What’s my attitude of thankfulness? Do I just carry on, happy to be blessed, or do I turn it into an opportunity to glorify God?
  • Do I even feel obligated to thank him?

Exegesis may sound purely academic, but it can lead you to ask life-changing questions.

What Is Exegesis? It’s Something You Can Do!

The Exegetical Guide is certainly one of my favorite tools in Logos 5, and it may be yours, too. You can get all the Exegetical Guide functions when you get Logos 5 Bronze, but the BDAG lexicon comes in base packages Platinum and above.

So start doing exegesis on your own! Check out your special Logos 5 pricing options with the Custom Upgrade Discount Calculator.

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