How to Grasp the Flow of Thought in a Passage

There are few things more frustrating than hearing Bible verses taken out of context, especially if you consider yourself a serious student of the Bible. You know what I’m talking about—some well-meaning Christian quotes a verse. He’s uncovered a spiritual truth that perfectly addresses a personal challenge. The only problem? He’s completely ignored the surrounding context! The New Testament wasn’t written in isolated, versified chunks of unrelated texts. Each verse flows from a greater context. When we ignore the logical flow of a biblical passage or book, we risk misinterpretation. Understanding the flow of thought of a biblical passage is essential to good hermeneutics and sound application of biblical principles.

You can use Logos to trace the logical flow of of a biblical author’s thought and expose the underlying structure of a passage or book. Open a biblical text you want to study and choose the Propositional Outline visual filter from the resource toolbar. You’ll see the text transform so you can explore the flow of the passage, see how ideas fit together, and learn how each line relates to the next. Each line is defined with an easy-to-understand label, along with definitions for each one. Here’s how it’s done.

Available in Logos 6 Silver and above

Study the Bible in context

  • Logos Now: You don’t have to wait for the next major Logos release to access new datasets, features, media, and interactives. With a monthly or yearly subscription to Logos Now, you can get our latest tools  as we create them. That includes the Old Testament propositional bible outlines. With this dataset, you can study the logical flow of Old Testament books using the same methods you saw in the video.
  • Greek New Testament Discourse Bundle: To really understand the flow of thought of a biblical passage, you need to dig into the original languages. This bundle of resources from Logos scholar-in-residence Steve Runge answers the question, “How would our understanding of the Greek text change if we read it for what it is—as Greek?”
  • Lexham Discourse Hebrew Bible Bundle: Applying the same approach as it’s New-Testament counterpart, this bundle will help you understand how the unique features of the Hebrew language contribute to proper interpretation.

There’s plenty more where that came from . . .

The Logos Pro Team is here to help you master Logos Bible Software. Our team of experts want to educate and empower you with the best Bible software so that you can do better Bible Study. That’s why we’re creating FREE training videos that teach you how to use Logos tools and resources. We’ve already created loads of videos, and are crafting more every day. Plus, our team carefully selects a real example to help demonstrate the power of Logos in each video. So not only will you learn the software better, you’ll know the Bible better too.

Continue your training now!

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Written by
Todd Bishop
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Written by Todd Bishop
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