What Do Ellipses Mean in the Reverse Interlinear

woman on computer for a post about linguistic criticism

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 friend and fellow Logos user recently emailed me the following scenario:

I came to John 1:34 in my study of the subject of election. As I looked at the verse in the NASB reverse interlinear, I noticed a dot (bullet) between the words “the” and “son”. What does that mean?

This is an excellent observation and question. First, I’ll set up what he was viewing.

  • Open the NASB to John 1:34 (A)
  • Notice the verse says “. . . this is the Son of God” (B)

morris-proctor-ellipses-in-the-reverse-interlinear-1-jn-1-34

  • Click the Display link on the Bible’s toolbar (C)
  • Select InlineSurface, and Lemma (dictionary form of a word) (D)

morris-proctor-ellipses-in-the-reverse-interlinear-2-display

  • Notice the verse now reads “. . . this is the • Son of God” (E)
  • Look underneath the bullet and you’ll see a Greek lemma (F)

morris-proctor-ellipses-in-the-reverse-interlinear-3-lemma

In the reverse interlinear, this bullet represents an ellipsis.

The bullet may appear on the English line of text, meaning an original Hebrew or Greek word wasn’t translated in the English Bible, or the bullet may be on the lemma line, indicating an English word was inserted for clarification or smooth reading.

Even though the specific lemma wasn’t translated in John 1:34 in the NASB, with the interlinear information displayed, the lemma line is an active line of text.

  • Right click the bullet (G)
  • Select Lemma (H)
  • Select Search this resource (I)

morris-proctor-ellipses-in-the-reverse-interlinear-4-rt-click

Look carefully at the search results, which display every occurrence of this word in the Greek text on which the English Bible is based, whether it’s translated in English or not (J).

morris-proctor-ellipses-in-the-reverse-interlinear-6-search

A situation like this may raise more questions than it answers, but Logos guides and resources can help:

  • Generate an Exegetical Guide (Guides | Exegetical Guide) for John 1:34 and pay close attention to the Apparatuses section, containing resources pointing out differences in the original language texts (K)
  • Generate a Passage Guide (Guides | Passage Guide)  for John 1:34, and in the Commentaries section, locate critical or textual commentaries you may own, which normally explain the variances in the original-language texts (L)

morris-proctor-ellipses-in-the-reverse-interlinear-5-guides

While this scenario certainly isn’t an everyday occurrence in your Bible study, when you do come across an ellipsis, you know there’s some assistance for you in Logos.

If you’re looking for more assistance in navigating reverse interlinears, check out our other training materials.

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Written by
Morris Proctor

Morris Proctor (1961–2023) was a certified trainer for Logos Bible Software and founder of MP Seminars. Morris trained thousands of Logos users at his two-day Camp Logos seminars, and his team continues to provide many training materials.

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Written by Morris Proctor
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