Searches on Greek original language texts in BibleWorks can be conducted in a number of ways. (Unfortunately, no similar procedures exist for Hebrew texts.)

1. In the Browse Window, one can right-click on an original language word and then choose Search on Form from the pop-up menu to find all occurrences of a word in the form as it appears in the text.

2. Another option, Search on Lemma found on the same pop-up menu (mentioned above) searches for all occurrences of the lexical form, called the 'lemma,' on which the word is based. With this search, all occurrences of a given noun, verb, or other part of speech will appear. For example, if the lemma is a verb, then all forms of that verb will be found and listed.

Some have asked whether BibleWorks can perform a search on roots of words. If by 'root' one means simply the lexical form (that is, the lemma), then means provided for such a search are described in the preceding paragraphs. The terms 'root' and 'lemma' are often used interchangeably.

If, on the other hand, one means by 'root' the basic elements of the word that lie at the foundation of several related words, BibleWorks does not yet have a 'one-button click' option for searching out the selected word and other related words. This is because it would require costly tagging of each word in the text with its root.

Approximation of this task, however, can be realized as follows

1. Use the Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains to determine related words. For example, one could open the Louw-Nida Lexicon in the lexicons browser, then type a word like 'ginomai' in the word entry field (upper, right-hand field in the window) and a list of related words will appear in the lower, right-hand panel. These words can then be used to perform searches on a Greek New Testament from the Command Line. One can also perform searches in the Graphical Search Engine using the Louw-Nida Semantic Domains. (See the discussion Finding Themes by Searching Semantic Domains under the Study Guide Preparing a Topical Study. Though this actually addresses words that are semantically related, instead of being etymologically related, the results can often be quite useful in this study.)

2. Use a wildcard search. This search would be conducted in a morphological version. In the lemma part of the entry, one may use wildcards to enable inclusion of prefixes or suffixes. For example, if the asterisk wildcard is prefixed to the verb 'ginomai' the results will include, besides occurrences of various forms of 'ginomai,' the words 'apoginomai,' 'diaginomai,' 'epiginomai,' 'paraginomai,' 'proginomai,' and 'sumparaginomai.'

Last Update: RRG/June 30, 2008