Logos provides powerful search capabilities to allow you to quickly find words, phrases, and more within the Bibles in your Logos library. If you have a Logos subscription, the Bible search supports two search modes:
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Smart mode - where you can use natural language queries and Logos will return the most relevant results
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Precise mode - where you can use more precise syntax to search for specific terms, including making use of detailed Logos tagging
Desktop/Web
For both modes, you start by opening a Search window, and selecting the Bible tab:
Then select the search mode you want from the toggle.
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Note: Even with Smart mode selected, a precise search will be used if you enclose the search string in quotation marks, use advanced search terms or if the search query is all Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic.
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To execute a smart Bible search, enter a natural language query in the search box and Logos will return a synopsis followed by the most relevant verses - with the most relevant first.
To see these results displayed in different Bibles, click the Add versions button and select the additional Bible(s) you want from the dropdown menu.
While you can't select a passage range in this mode, you can restrict the search to a particular range by including a constraint in your search term.
Open the More Actions Menu to print, export, or save your search results as a Passage List.
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With a Bible Search open, set to precise mode, you can choose the translation(s) you want to search (by default, Logos will search your Top Bible).
Logos provides several tools to help you formulate your search query, and to help you find exactly what you are looking for.
Search Helps (1) provide basic guidance about how to construct your search while search templates (2) allow you to build a more complex search without having to use search syntax. To use a template, select the kind of search you want to run, then enter your search terms in the dialog box that appears. These search Templates appear in the sidebar, which can be toggled on/off using the Sidebar icon .
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Note: Search templates are not available on the web app.
As you start typing a search query, Logos will populate a list of suggestions (3) to help you refine your search. You can select one of these for your search, alternatively finish typing your search query and press Enter which will execute the search.
Once you have run the search, you can choose to display the results in different ways:
This view displays the verses containing your search results.
To view two or more versions side-by-side, click the Add Versions button on the right of the panel. You will see a numbers of sections representing different groupings of Bibles or, at the bottom, a list of all available Bibles in prioritized order. Select the one(s) you want and it will be added to the results pane.
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Note: This view is not available on the web app.
This view displays the verses containing your search results and aligns them by your search terms.
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Note: This view is not available on the web app.
This view displays a visual grid showing where your search results. This is particularly useful when you want to see where the search term appears in a range of Bibles such as your Top 5 Bibles.
This view displays your search results and provides detailed contextual and original-language information.
This view draws from dozens of translations and Logos' extensive data tagging to give you the best match to your search query. It can be particularly helpful when searching for a phrase that you can't quite remember - although, assuming you have a subscription, using a smart Bible search can produce some really helpful results.
There are a range of options available to refine your search:
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You can limit your search to one or more fields by clicking All Bible Text to open the search field drop-down menu and then selecting one of more options from the dropdown.
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You can choose whether you want search results to be constrained to verse or chapter boundaries
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You can limit your search to specific sections of the Bible, or to a Passage List, by clicking All Passages to open the reference range drop-down menuand typing a reference or making a selection.
The examples above used English words but if you search for an original language lemma you can include morphology information as well.
If, for example, you wanted to search for the Greek term translated as Go in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) you could use lemma.g:πορεύομαι which would give the results shown.
As shown in the Information Tool in the screenshot above, the verb, in Matthew 28:19, the verb is a plural, aorist participle. You can specify this morphology in the Search Panel to produce a refined set of results.
In addition to search limiting options discussed above, you can refine your search results using search operators. You can use search operators to create more advanced searches. For example, if you'd like to find a phrase containing two words, but you don't know the exact phrase, try typing word WITHIN 5 WORDS word. Your search results will display every occurrence where the two words you entered are mentioned within five words of each other.
Note: Bible searches for multiple terms are constrained by either verse or chapter boundaries depending on the option you selected. They will only return results in which all of the terms appear within either the same verse or chapter.
For more details on using Search Operators, please see this article.
Mobile
For both modes, you start by tapping the Study tab , expanding Find Answers, and selecting Bible Search to open a search panel.
Then, tap the currently selected Search Mode - in this case Smart - to switch between Smart and Precise.
Note
Note: Even with Smart mode selected, a precise search will be used if you enclose the search string in quotation marks, use advanced search terms or if the search query is all Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic.
Skip ahead to:
To execute a smart Bible search, enter a natural language query in the search box - such as Where does Jesus speak about being the light of the world? - and Logos will return a synopsis followed by the most relevant verses - with the most relevant first.
While you can't select a passage range in this mode, you can restrict the search to a particular range by including a constraint in your search term - such as Where is resurrection referred to in the wisdom literature?
Skip ahead to:
With a Bible Search open set to precise mode, you can choose the translation(s) you want to search by tapping the currently selected Bible - in this case Top Bible - and choosing from the options shown. You can also restrict the search to a particular passage range by tapping the currently selected range - in this case All Passages - and choosing from the options shown.
As you start typing a search query, Logos will populate a list of suggestions to help you refine your search. You can select one of these for your search, or finish typing your search query and tap the Search Icon to execute the search.
Once you have run the search, you can choose to display the results in different ways.
The Passages view displays the verses containing your search results, while the Aligned view displays the same verses but aligns them by your search terms.
The Fuzzy view (requires an Internet connection) draws from dozens of translations and Logos' extensive data tagging to give you the best match to your search query. It can be particularly helpful when searching for a phrase that you can't quite remember - although, assuming you have a subscription, using a smart Bible search can produce some really helpful results.
In addition to the search options discussed above, you can refine your search results using search operators to create more advanced searches. For example, if you'd like to find a phrase containing two words, but you don't know the exact phrase, try typing word WITHIN 5 WORDS word. Your search results will display every occurrence where the two words you entered are mentioned within five words of each other.
Note: Bible searches will only return results in which all of the terms appear within the same verse.
For more details on using Search Operators, please see this article.