Verbum offers incredibly powerful and versatile search capabilities. It goes far beyond simple keyword searches, allowing you to delve deeply into the text, original languages, theological concepts, and much more. Learn how to use the powerful search capabilities in Verbum to find exactly the information you need for your study.
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Note: This feature is available to all users.
Desktop/Web
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The primary way to initiate a search in Verbum is through the Search Tool, which you can open by clicking the Search Tool icon in the main toolbar. From this panel, you can select different types of searches.
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Purpose: This is the broadest search. It searches across your entire library for your query.
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Modes:
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Smart Mode (AI-powered, subscription feature): Allows for natural language queries (e.g., "Where does Jesus talk about the kingdom of God?"). Verbum returns the most relevant results using AI. Learn more about Smart Search here.
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Precise Mode (Standard): Requires more specific syntax (e.g., Jesus AND "kingdom of God"). It searches for exact words and phrases, and can use operators. See this section to learn a little about search operators.
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Scope: Finds results in Bibles, books, Factbook entries, datasets, media, documents, and more.
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Integration with Study Assistant: You can invoke the Study Assistant from the Smart Search Synopsis to explore specific aspects in more detail
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Learn more about All Search here.
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Purpose: Specifically searches the text of your Bibles.
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Modes: Also offers Smart Search for natural language searches and Precise Search for exact word/phrase searches.
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Scope: Primarily the main biblical text. It typically does not search footnotes, introductory material, or headings within the Bible itself (unless specified with advanced syntax).
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Filtering: You can select specific Bible versions to search within, or search your preferred Bible(s).
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Integration with Study Assistant: You can invoke the Study Assistant from the Smart Search Synopsis to explore specific aspects in more detail
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Learn more about Bible Search here.
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Purpose: Searches all non-Bible books in your library (e.g., commentaries, dictionaries, theological works, journals).
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Modes:Smart Search and Precise Search.
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Scope: The content of your scholarly resources.
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Integration with Study Assistant: You can invoke the Study Assistant from the Smart Search Synopsis to explore specific aspects in more detail
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Learn more about Books Search here.
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Purpose: Searches entries within the Factbook Tool, which provides curated information on people, places, events, and topics.
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Learn more about the Factbook here.
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Purpose: Searches your personal documents created within Verbum (Notes, Sermons, Custom Documents, Passage Lists, Word Lists, etc.).
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Learn more about Documents here.
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Purpose: Finds images, videos, audio, and other media elements within your library and from online sources.
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Learn more about the Media Search here.
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Single Words: love
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Phrases: "kingdom of God" (use double quotes)
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Wildcards:
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* (asterisk): Represents zero or more characters (e.g., love* finds love, loved, lover, lovely).
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? (question mark): Represents exactly one character (e.g., gr?ce finds grace).
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Boolean Operators (must be capitalized):
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AND: Finds results containing all terms (e.g., faith AND hope). Implicit if no operator is given between words (e.g., love neighbor is love AND neighbor).
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OR: Finds results containing any of the terms (e.g., grace OR truth).
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NOT: Finds results containing the first term but not the second (e.g., love NOT hate).
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Proximity Operators:
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NEAR: Finds terms close to each other (e.g., law NEAR prophets).
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WITHIN: Finds terms within a certain number of words (or characters) (e.g. love WITHIN 5 WORDS God; love WITHIN 5 CHARS God).
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BEFORE/AFTER: Finds terms in a specific order (e.g., prophets BEFORE law).
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Parentheses (): Group terms to control evaluation order (e.g., love AND (neighbor OR neighbour)).
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Fields/Labels (e.g., speaker:Jesus, topic:Sabbath): Allows you to search for specific data points or metadata associated with text.
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Ranges: You can limit any search to a specific biblical range (e.g., John 3:16-17, Matthew 5, Pauline Epistles).
Learn more about using search operators for Precise Searches here.
These search types require specific Verbum resources (like original language texts with morphological tagging or syntax databases) and allow for highly granular linguistic analysis.
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Purpose: Searches morphologically tagged texts (primarily Greek New Testaments, Hebrew Bibles, Septuagint) for grammatical features of words.
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Capabilities: You can search for specific lemmas (dictionary forms), inflected forms, parts of speech (e.g., verb, noun), specific grammatical cases (e.g., nominative), tenses (e.g., aorist), moods (e.g., imperative), etc.
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Example: Find all instances of a specific Greek verb that is in the aorist, indicative, passive voice.
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Syntax: Often uses @ symbol for morphology (e.g., love@NN for noun, or g:agape@N-NSF for Greek word agape, noun, nominative, singular, feminine).
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Learn more about Morph Search here.
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Purpose: Searches syntax databases that analyze the grammatical relationships between words and phrases in original language texts.
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Capabilities: Allows you to search for complex grammatical constructions, such as a verb with a specific subject, a direct object, or a particular type of clause.
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Example: Find every instance where "God" is the subject of an "action" verb.
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Visual Query Builder: Verbum often provides a visual interface (Query Builder) to construct these complex searches without needing to know all the intricate syntax.
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Learn more about Syntax Search here (Greek) or here (Hebrew).
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Purpose: A more advanced linguistic search that allows you to search for terms acting in specific grammatical or semantic roles within sentences or clauses. Requires higher-tier Verbum subscriptions and libraries.
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Learn more about Clause Search here.
These methods initiate searches based on what you're currently viewing or by guiding you through a structured research process.
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Purpose: Quick, ad-hoc searching.
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How it works: Right-click any word or selection in a book. A context menu appears with various search options.
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Benefits: Extremely fast for exploring words or concepts on the fly.
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Learn more about the Context Menu here.
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Purpose: Similar to the context menu, a small pop-up menu appears when you select a word or phrase, offering quick actions including various search types.
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Learn more about the Selection Menu here.
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Purpose: These tools conduct complex, pre-defined searches across your library and organize the results into a comprehensive report based on a specific passage, topic, or word.
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How it works: You enter a passage (e.g., John 3:16) or a topic (e.g., "grace") or a word (e.g., "love") into the Guide, and Verbum automatically searches for related commentaries, cross-references, biblical people/places/events, sermons, media, and more.
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Benefits: Automates complex research, providing a structured overview of relevant books.
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Learn more about Guides here.
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Purpose: To search within the currently open book only.
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How it works: Select the Search tab in a book's Dynamic Toolbar. For finding a specific line of text, pressing the standard find shortcut (Ctrl+F in Windows or Cmd+F in MacOS) opens a small search bar within the book.
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Benefits: Great for quickly finding text within a long commentary or a specific Bible chapter.
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Learn more about Inline Search here.
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Mobile
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The primary way to initiate a search in Verbum is through the Bible and Book Search tools.
Open the Study tab and expand the Find Answers section to access these tools.
With the tool open, you can adjust the search parameters.
Tap Search to adjust the search scope. Here you can change your search type (All, Bible, Books, or Factbook) and narrow your search to things like your Top Bible(s), your Open Bible, or a Collection.
Tap Search Mode to toggle between Smart Search (uses AI to find passages on any topic or question) and Precise Search (searches for exact words and phrases).
Tap Range (in a Bible Search) to choose a particular portion of the Bible to search, such as the Old or New Testaments, Poetic Books, Major or Minor Prophets, Pauline epistles, and more.
You can also browse and reopen your recent searches.
You can run a search on a word in a text you are reading using the search option in the Insights panel.
To open the Insights Panel, tap and hold a specific word or tap and drag over a phrase. Then tap Search to open the search tool preloaded with the term or phrase you’ve selected, or tap Search Inline
to see where else that word or phrase shows up in this specific book.
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Note: If you are searching for a biblical word, using the Search Tool from the Insights Panel will show results that correspond to the English word used, not the original language.
Open the Study tab and expand the Study section to view available guides.
These tools conduct complex, pre-defined searches across your library and organize the results into a comprehensive report based on a specific passage, topic, or word.
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How it works: You enter a passage (e.g., John 3:16) or a topic (e.g., "grace") or a word (e.g., "love") into the Guide, and Verbum automatically searches for related commentaries, cross-references, biblical people/places/events, sermons, media, and more.
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Benefits: Automates complex research, providing a structured overview of relevant books.
Learn more about Guides here.
You can also access search functionality by tapping the Search icon at the top of an open book. Here you can search for any topic, term, or passage.
Once you enter a search term, you will see a number of search options including:
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Inline Search and Inline Smart Search
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All Search
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Search Tool
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Related Factbook articles
When using Precise Mode, it is helpful to be familiar with optimal search syntax and operators to ensure that Verbum returns the answers you're looking for.
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Single Words: love
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Phrases: "kingdom of God" (use double quotes)
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Wildcards:
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* (asterisk): Represents zero or more characters (e.g., love* finds love, loved, lover, lovely).
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? (question mark): Represents exactly one character (e.g., gr?ce finds grace).
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Boolean Operators (must be capitalized):
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AND: Finds results containing all terms (e.g., faith AND hope). Implicit if no operator is given between words (e.g., love neighbor is love AND neighbor).
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OR: Finds results containing any of the terms (e.g., grace OR truth).
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NOT: Finds results containing the first term but not the second (e.g., love NOT hate).
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Proximity Operators:
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NEAR: Finds terms close to each other (e.g., law NEAR prophets).
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WITHIN: Finds terms within a certain number of words (or characters) (e.g. love WITHIN 5 WORDS God; love WITHIN 5 CHARS God).
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BEFORE/AFTER: Finds terms in a specific order (e.g., prophets BEFORE law).
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Parentheses (): Group terms to control evaluation order (e.g., love AND (neighbor OR neighbour)).
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Fields/Labels (e.g., speaker:Jesus, topic:Sabbath): Allows you to search for specific data points or metadata associated with text.
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Ranges: You can limit any search to a specific biblical range (e.g., John 3:16-17, Matthew 5, Pauline Epistles).
Learn more about using search operators for Precise Searches here.