Logos 5: Proximity Search for the Teachings of Christ

Today’s post is from Morris Proctor, certified and authorized trainer for Logos Bible Software. Morris, who has trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos seminars, provides many training materials.

A logos user recently emailed me the following scenario:

I’m trying to do an in-depth search on the teachings of Christ. Not how he lived, but what he taught. I’ve tried doing a basic “teachings of Christ” phrase search, but that didn’t really turn up what I thought I was going to find. What’s the best way to locate this information?

Excellent question! Here’s how:

The Bible itself isn’t tagged with the metadata label teachings of Christ; it just contains those teachings. Thus, we want to search our books for where the authors list or catalog what Christ taught. If we execute a phrase search, we’re only looking for a specific wording, such as teachings of Christ. If the author uses phrases like Christ’s teachings or teachings of Jesus, we won’t find what we’re looking for. It’s better, therefore, to use a proximity search, as I detail below:

• Click the Search icon.
• Select Basic as the search type (A).
• Select Entire Library or a specific collection from the range dropdown list (B).
• Type this search string in the Find box: (Jesus,Christ) WITHIN 2 words teach (C).

• Click the Search panel menu (D).
• Select Match all word forms (E).

• Press the Enter key, or click the Go arrow to generate the search results (F).

The above search locates all the places in our resources where the words Jesus or Christ occur within two words of teach, teaching, teachings, etc.!

When you’re trying to locate subject matter rather than specific phrases, proximity searches work wonderfully.