How to Explore Lemmas with the Same Root

how to use the septuagint

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 presented this question to me:

I’ve noticed Logos includes the root words for Greek lemmas in English Bibles with the reverse interlinear. How might these root words be used in actual Bible study?

Excellent question! While this blog post will certainly not exhaust all that could be said, hopefully a few insights may get you started using this tool.

First, let’s begin with a few definitions

  • The manuscript form of a word refers to the actual word the biblical author used.
  • The lemma or lexical form of a word refers to how the word is “looked up” or referenced in a traditional dictionary of lexicon.
  • The root is the word from which the lemma is derived.

In very simple terms, manuscript forms are derived from lemmas, which are derived from roots.

Let’s explore this more with a specific biblical example found in Galatians 6:1, in which Paul instructs: 

. . . if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness . . .

  • Open the ESV to Galatians 6:1 (A)
  • Right click the word restore (B)
  • Select Root | Search this resource (C)

morris-proctor-exploring-lemmas-with-the-same-root-1-rt-cl

  • Click Aligned in the search panel (D) to see in a center column the various ways different lemmas with the same root are translated in English (E)

morris-proctor-exploring-lemmas-with-the-same-root-2-aligned

  • Click Analysis to display a spreadsheet of the results (F)
  • Right click on a column header (G)
  • Select at least these categories: Reference, Lemma (Greek), Result, and Sense (please note that Sense does not appear in all Logos base packages) (H)

morris-proctor-exploring-lemmas-with-the-same-root-3-analysis

  • Drag one at a time Lemma (Greek) and Sense to the top of the spreadsheet (I) in order to group the results according to these categories (J)

morris-proctor-exploring-lemmas-with-the-same-root-4-group

Here’s what you’re viewing in the spreadsheet:

  • The various NT Greek lemmas derived from the same root (K)
  • The various ways the lemmas are translated in the ESV (L)
  • The sense or contextual meaning of each lemma (M)
  • Different senses or meanings for the same lemma (N)

morris-proctor-exploring-lemmas-with-the-same-root-5-what-viewing

As you work with these results please keep these cautions in mind:

  • Don’t automatically assume a lemma has the exact same meaning as its root
  • Don’t automatically assume lemmas derived from the same root share the same meaning
  • Don’t automatically assume a lemma has the exact same meaning in every place it occurs in Scripture

With these cautions firmly in mind, it’s interesting to observe that running throughout the related lemmas are the ideas of repaircorrectprepareequip, and mature. Perhaps these lemmas and meanings provide further insights into the concept of restoring in Galatians 6:1.

By combining a search for the root and the Analysis view of the results, you can explore in detail the various facets of a word!

If this was helpful to you, check out our other training materials to help you master your Logos software.

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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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