Contents
- Introduction
- Basic Search
- Ranges
- Search History
- Search Options
- Search Commands
- Special Types of Searches
- Searching for Strong’s Numbers
- Searching for Morphology
- //www.olivetree.com/help/guides/Search_iPhoneBR5.php#Understanding-the-@-Symbol-for-Complex-Morph-and-Lemma-Searches">Understanding the @ Symbol for Complex Morph and Lemma Searches
- Greek and Hebrew Keyboards
- Navigating Search Results with Gestures in the Main Text
- Clearing Search Result Hits with Gesture
BibleReader’s search capabilities support novice to advanced users. Searching for a word or phrase is easy and fast. BibleReader also supports “search operators”—terms like AND and OR that allow more experienced users to perform more complicated searches. BibleReader also supports searching by Strong’s numbers and performing morphological searches on Hebrew and Greek texts.
We will begin by learning how to run a word search, using the ESV Study Bible as our text.
Tap the magnifying glass icon to display the search dialog.
Tap the search field to display the keyboard.
We will search for covenant.
Start by typing c, then o, and then v. Notice that as you type, the list of indexed words scrolls to display only the words that begin with those three letters—cov. BibleReader uses type-to-search—word-completion—technology to make it easier to run searches.
Tap covenant to make that word the search term. Notice that covenant now appears in the search field, and below that field you can see that there are 1,023 hits for covenant in the ESV Study Bible.
Tap the line that reads “covenant 1023 hits” to display the list of matches, or “hits,” to your search.
Because many of the contributors to the ESV Study Bible teach at Covenant Theological Seminary, the hit list begins with hits to those locations in the ESV Study Bible.
Notice the vertical “scrubber bar” on the right side of this screen. Scrubber bars allow you to scroll lists quickly and easily. Touch and hold the scrubber bar (this causes it to turn gray), and then drag your finger down the screen. Notice how the hits to your search for covenant fly by. In this example, the scrubber bar allows you to scroll from the hits to covenant in the frontmatter of the ESV Study Bible through the hits from Genesis to Revelation by moving your finger down the screen one time.
Scroll down to the first hit in the study Bible notes.
Tap the arrow button to the left of the first hit to display the actions list. Notice that you can go to the location of the note (so you can read it), copy the text of the note, add a note to the location, or cancel. We will discuss each of these actions in turn.
Tap “Go to Location” to display the note.
Notice that the hit—covenant—is highlighted twice in the screen shot. Hits to searches are highlighted in BibleReader. Later in this chapter, we will discuss how to change the highlight color.
To display the beginning of this note, scroll backwards.
Go back to the actions list screen
and tap the Copy Text button, which returns you to the following screen. (Taping the Copy Text button copies the content of current match to your search to the Clipboard.)
Tap the arrow button to the left of the first hit to display the options list, and then tap “Add Note here” to display this screen.
If you wish to change the title for the note, scroll the screen down a bit to display the Edit Title button, tap that button, and enter a new title, e.g., Covenant.
Tap anywhere on the screen to display the keyboard (if it is not already displayed), and then tap the return button in the bottom right corner of the keyboard twice.
Tap the note at the location of the cursor to display the Select, Select All, Paste button bar.
Tap the Paste button to paste the text you copied earlier into this note.
Tap the Done button in the upper right corner of the Note to save it.
Of course, you can type a note form scratch. You do not have to create a note by copying and pasting.
To display your Note, tap the My Stuff suitcase icon to display the My Stuff list.
Tap Notes to display the list of notes you have taken.
Tap Covenant to display the note on covenant.
Search Hits Compacted to 5 Per Book
To make it easy to see an overview of your search results, BibleReader initially only displays five hits per book of the Bible.
For example, we will run a search for the word righteousness, and we will restrict the search to the New Testament to make it easier to illustrate the way in which search results initially are restricted to five per book of the Bible.
Tap the Magnifying Glass (search) icon on BibleReader’s main screen to open the Search dialog.
Tap the Whole Bible search-range button to display the Set Search Range dialog, and select “New Testament” to restrict the search to the New Testament.
Enter the word righteousness as the search term.
Tap the blue Search button to run the search, and scroll down to the hits in Romans.
Notice that only five hits are displayed and that after the fifth hit, the message “Show 25 More Results” alerts you to the fact that there are 25 more hits to righteousness in Romans.
Tap “Show 25 More Results” to display the additional hits to righteousness in Romans.
In the last two screen shots above, notice how the search term (righteousness) is highlighted in the search results.
Tap any of the hits to display the hit in its proper context.
Notice how the highlights are preserved.
Word highlighting Color Setting
BibleReader allows you to change the color in which hits to searches are highlighted.
Tap the Settings icon (the letter A) on the menu bar to display the Settings menu.
Tap the Advanced Settings button to display the Advanced Settings menu.
Tap “Advanced Color Settings” to display the Color Settings menu.
Scroll to the bottom of the screen to display the “Search Results in Text Color” option.
Tap “Search Results in Text Color” to display the menu for this option, and then tap “Red” to change the color of hits to red.
Return to BibleReader’s main screen to see the hits to your last search displayed in red.
BibleReader allows you to select from among predefined search ranges and to create custom search ranges. A search range consists of one or more books of the Bible. BibleReader’s default search range is the whole Bible—all 66 books.
Using search ranges allows you to restrict your searches to the books you are interested in searching. For example, if you are studying the term righteousness, you might want to study how Paul used this term. BibleReader allows you to restrict you search to Paul’s letters. Or you might want to study the ways in which Paul used righteousness in Romans. BibleReader allows you to restrict your search to that one book.
This section of this chapter explains how to work with search ranges—predefined and custom.
Quickly Changing the Search Range
Tap the Search icon (magnifying glass) to display the Search dialog. BibleReader’ default search range is the whole Bible.
Tap the button that says “Whole Bible” to display BibleReader’s list of predefined search ranges. (This button is known as the Search Range button.) Scroll the list to see all the predefined search ranges.
Tap any option to select it as the new search range, and then tap the Done button.
Future searches will be restricted to the new search range, until you change to another range.
Search Ranges are composed of one or more books of the Bible. BibleReader considers each of the 66 books of the Bible to be a “filter.” Thus there are 66 possible filters. Each filter (book of the Bible) may be selected or deselected to create custom search ranges.
From the location shown in the last graphic above, tap “Pauline Epistles” to display the filters used to define this search range. Since there are 66 books in the Bible, you will have to scroll a bit to see the books / filters selected to define this search range. 
Tap the Create Custom Search Range button in the previous graphic to begin creating a custom search range and to display a screen like this one.
Notice that BibleReader provides a default name for the search range you are creating, and displays a message that informs you that the custom filter has been created.
We will create a search range that consists of the first five books of the Bible, and we will call this search range “Pentateuch.”
Select the first five books of the Bible by tapping the circle to the left of each book’s name.
Tap the title field (in the graphic above, “My Custom Filter 3”) to display the keyboard.
Type Pentateuch in the title field.
Tap the Done button to close the dialog, complete the definition of the new search range, and return to the Search dialog.
BibleReader saves and remembers your new search range so that the next time you display the Search Range dialog, you will see your new search range listed.
Search ranges can be edited in two ways: you can remove or add books to a search range, and you can rename a search range.
From BibleReader’s main screen, tap the Search icon, then tap the Search Range button, and then tap the name of a search range to select it. This example uses the “Pentateuch” search range.
From the screen above, you can rename the search range, you can add books to and remove books from the search range, and you can delete the search range (see next topic).
Deleting a Custom Search Range
Tap the red trash-can icon to delete the search range. A confirmation dialog pops up. To complete the deletion, tap the Delete Filter button. Otherwise, tap the Cancel button to keep the search range.
BibleReader saves your search history—the history of the searches you have run. This allows you to rerun searches with a minimum of effort.
To display history of your searches, first tap the Search icon (magnifying glass) on BibleReader’s main screen to display the Search dialog.
Tap the Search Options button to display the Search Features dialog.
Tap the “Search History” option to display the Search History dialog—a list of your past searches.
Notice that the search history includes the search range for each search
Tap a search history listing to rerun the search.
BibleReader allows you to set two search options:
- Result Preview Detail
- Search Type for Parsed Texts
To display the Search Options dialog, first tap the Search icon (magnifying glass) on BibleReader’s main screen to display the Search dialog.
Tap the Search Options button to display the Search Features dialog.
Tap the “Search Options” selection to display the Search Options dialog.
Under “Result Preview Detail,” select “Show First Line of Preview” to instruct BibleReader to display only the first line of hits.
Tap the Done button to complete your selection and to return to the search dialog. Enter a search term in the Search dialog and run the search.
In graphic on the left below, notice that only the first line of each hit is displayed in the search results. The graphic on the right illustrates the amount of context displayed when the “Show Full Preview” setting is selected in the Search Options dialog.
Setting the “Result Preview Detail” to “Show First Line of Preview” allows you to see more search results per screen but less context for each hit.
The “Search Type for Parsed Texts” option in the Search Options dialog allows you to specify how BibleReader searches parsed original-language texts, for example Greek New Testament (NA27) with Mounce-Koivisto Morphology and UBS Dictionary. This setting only affects original-language texts that are parsed.
- Selecting “Search on Morphology” instructs BibleReader to search on the lexical (dictionary) form of the Hebrew or Greek word in your search.
- Selecting “Search on Plain Text” instructs BibleReader to search on the inflected (exact) form of the Hebrew or Greek word in your search.
BibleReader includes a rich set of “search commands,” also known as “logical operators.” These search commands empower advanced users to create sophisticated search constructions in order to locate information in texts that otherwise would be difficult to find.
To display the list of search commands, open the Search Features dialog
and then tap “Add Search Command.”
You may enter a search command into a search construction by typing the command or by tapping. If you type the command, use all upper-case letters, for example, “Abraham OR Sarah” (without the quotation marks). Entering search commands by typing may be faster—involve fewer steps—for most users.
To enter a search command by tapping, begin your search.
Tap the Search Options button to display the Search Features dialog.
Tap the “Add Search Command” option, and then tap on a search command to add it to your search construction.
Tap the search-construction field to bring up the keyboard.
Finish entering your search construction.
Tap the Search button to return to the Search dialog.
Tap the Search button again to run the search.
Notice the exclamation mark in a circle to the right of each search command. Tapping an exclamation-mark icon displays information about the selected search command.
In the presentation below of the eleven search commands, we will let the help screens do the talking!
Just as BibleReader auto completes search terms, it also auto completes search commands.
Open the Search dialog, enter a search term (we will use abraham), and then type the letter a.
Notice that the search command AND is displayed in the list below the search-construction field.
Tap the word AND to cause BibleReader to auto complete the operation—to place AND in the search-construction field.
Auto completion reduces typing, eliminates typing mistakes, and speeds up formulating your search construction.
Searching for Strong’s Numbers
Olive Tree offers many resources that include Strong’ numbers. (Click here to see a partial listing.) For an explanation of Strong’s numbers and how to to use BibleReader’s “look up” feature with them, click here.
This section explains how to search for Strong’s numbers, using the ESV with Strong’s Numbers as a representative resource.
Tap and hold on a word—for example, access in Romans 5:2—until the pop-up menu bar appears.
Tap the Select Text button to select the word access and to display the associated options on the pop-up menu bar.
Tap the More button to display the More dialog.
Tap “Search” to display the Search For menu.
Tap g4318 to run a search for that Strong’s number—the number of the Greek word translated access in the ESV. The left graphic below shows the results when Search Options are set to “Show First Line of Preview.” The right graphic below shows the results when Search Options are set to “Show Full Preview.”
This search reveals that g4318 only occurs three times in the New Testament and only in Paul’s writings. More interestingly, the three occurrences are found in Paul’s most theologically oriented letters: Romans and Ephesians. This alerts us to the fact that the Greek word represented by g4318—προσαγωγη—is an important theological term for Paul.
Olive Tree offers many parsed-text Bibles. (Click here to see a listing.) For an explanation of parsed-text Bibles and how to to use BibleReader’s “look up” feature with them, click here.
A parsed-text Bible is an original-language text—Hebrew Old Testament or Greek New Testament—that includes morphological parsing for each word. Olive Tree also offers a parsed Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament).
This section explains how to search a parsed-text Bible, using the GNT-Parsed (Mounce-Koivisto) text as a representative resource.
As with all BibleReader searches, you can initiate a parsed-text search by selecting a term in the current text or by typing the search term into BibleReader’s Search dialog, using the Greek or Hebrew keyboards. For instructions on using these keyboards, click here.
Note:
- The following example shows how to initiate a parsed-text search by selecting a term in the current text.
- The explanation here shows how to enter a parsed-text search by using the Greek keyboard.
Tap and hold on the word προσαγωγην in Romans 5:2—until the pop-up menu bar appears.
Tap the Select Text button to select the word προσαγωγην and to display the associated options on the pop-up menu bar.
Tap the More button to display the More dialog.
Tap “Search” to display the Search For menu.
If Search Options is set to “Search on Morphology,” tap προσαγωγη to run a lexical search—a search on the root word (προσαγωγη) that underlies the inflected form (προσαγωγην) in Romans 5:2.
For information about Search Options, click here.
If Search Options is set to “Search on Plain Text,” tap προσαγωγην to run an inflected search—a search on the exact form of the word (προσαγωγην) in Romans 5:2.
For information about Search Options, click here.
Both searches reveal that προσαγωγη only occurs three times in the New Testament and only in Paul’s writings. More interestingly, the three occurrences are found in Paul’s most theologically oriented letters: Romans and Ephesians. This alerts us to the fact that προσαγωγη is an important theological term for Paul.
Understanding-the-@-Symbol-for-Complex-Morph-and-Lemma-Searches">Understanding the @ Symbol for Complex Morph and Lemma Searches
Morphological and lemma searches also are known, respectively, as inflected and lexical searches.
- A lexical, or lemma, search looks for all instances of all the various inflections of the lexical (dictionary) form.
- An inflected, or morphological, search looks for all instances of one specific inflection.
Inflected and lexical searches also are referred to, collectively, as parsed-text searches because you are searching a morphologically parsed text.
In an inflected search, the “@” symbol is used to separate the lexical form of the search term from its inflected form—the exact form you are searching for. For example, in a search for αγαπαω@v%aai%3s, the “@” symbol separates the lexical form of αγαπαω from the specific inflection—v%aai%3s—the search is designed to find. In inflected searches, the “%” symbol is used to separate the parsing code (v%aai%3s) into logical sections. The parsing code specifies which inflection of the lexical form you are searching for.
In this example,
- αγαπαω is the lexical form.
- The “@” symbol separates the lexical form (on the left) from the parsing code (on the right) that specifies the inflected form this search will look for.
- The parsing code is v%aai%3s.
- The “v” before the first “%” indicates that the search term is a verb.
- The “aai” specifies the tense, voice, and mood—aorist, active, indicative.
- The “3s” specifies the person and number—third person, singular.
The formats for the most common parts of speech are
- Verb: v%tense,voice,mood%person,number.
- Participle: v%tense,voice,p%case,gender,number.
- Noun: sn%case,gender,number (example: sn%nms = substantive, noun % nominative, masculine, singular).
- Adjective: sa%case,gender,number.
- Preposition: p%case (case is the case the preposition takes as its object).
Here is an example of running a lexical search on the GNT-Parsed (Mounce-Koivisto) text using the Greek keyboard.
Make sure “Search Options” is set to “Search on Morphology.” This was discussed here.
Open the parsed GNT and tap the Search icon (magnifying glass) to open the Search dialog.
;nbsp;
Tap the search-construction (text-entry) field to bring up the keyboard.
Tap the international symbol immediately to the left of the Space Bar to display the Greek keyboard.
Enter the lexical form αγαπαω.
BibleReader informs you that αγαπαω occurs, in various inflections, 110 times in the GNT.
Tap the Search button to display the search results.
Here is an example of running an inflected search on the GNT-Parsed (Mounce-Koivisto) text using the Greek keyboard.
Make sure “Search Options” is set to “Search on Morphology.” This was discussed here.
Open the parsed GNT and tap the Search icon (magnifying glass) to open the Search dialog.
;nbsp;
Tap the search-construction (text-entry) field to bring up the keyboard.
Tap the international symbol immediately to the left of the Space Bar to display the Greek keyboard.
Enter the lexical form αγαπαω, and then tap the international symbol until the English keyboard is displayed (the second step is only necessary if you plan to complete the search construction by typing in the parsing code).
Notice two things:
- BibleReader informs you that αγαπαω occurs, in various inflections, 110 times in the GNT.
- BibleReader provides a scrolling list of all inflected forms of αγαπαω.
Scroll the list of inflected forms until you locate αγαπαω (v%aai%3s)—the first line of the second graphic below.
At this point in constructing the search, you have two options:
- Continue entering the search using the keyboard.
- Complete the search construction by tapping αγαπαω (v%aai%3s) in the scrolling list to place it in the search-construction field. This is the easiest solution, and it eliminates the possibility of mistyping.
Either way, the result looks like this.
BibleReader informs you there are 12 hits to your search.
Tap the Search button to display the search results.
BibleReader works with the iPhone’s Greek and Hebrew keyboards. Using these keyboards allows you to type search constructions in Greek and Hebrew.
To install your iPhone’s Greek and Hebrew keyboards, tap the iPhone’s Settings icon to display the Settings menu.
Tap the General button to display the General settings menu.
Scroll down until you see the Keyboard option.
Tap “Keyboard” to display the Keyboard menu.
Tap the “International Keyboards” option to display the Keyboards menu.
Tap “Add New Keyboard” to display the Add New Keyboard menu.
Scroll down until you see “Greek.” Select that option.
This returns you to the Keyboards menu.
Repeat the last three steps to install the Hebrew keyboard.
This example illustrates how to enter a search construction in Greek by using the Greek keyboard.
Open the GNT-Parsed (Mounce-Koivisto) text and tap the Search icon (magnifying glass) on BibleReader’s main screen to display the Search dialog. Tap in the search-construction field to display the keyboard.
Tap the International Keyboard icon immediately to the left of the Space Bar to switch to the Greek keyboard.
Tapping the icon again switches to the Hebrew keyboard. Tapping the icon a third time switches to the English keyboard. The iPhone cycles through installed keyboards in the order in which they were installed.
Enter a search term, using the Greek keyboard.
Tap the blue Search button to run the search.
Navigating Search Results with Gestures in the Main Text
BibleReader allows you to navigate search results using two-finger gestures.
| • Finger swipe left | History Forward | |
| • Finger swipe right | History Back | |
| • Finger swipe up | Previous Search | |
| • Finger swipe down | Next Search |
For information about using gestures, click here.
Clearing Search Result Hits with Gesture
Click here to learn how to customize BibleReader’s gestures so that you can clear search results with a gesture.
