Text size
The sizing of font and images in Contexticon V2.0 keys to the sizing function common to browsers. To find the sizing that is best for you, hold down the "Control" key and press the plus (+) or Minus (-) key in the upper right of your keyboard. ^ back to Contents

Current Term Group selection box
The Current Term Group menu allows you to select a term group to explore in the Contexticon®. By using the buttons directly to the right of the Current Term Group selection box, you can choose to view a list of the terms available for exploration displayed by either the Greek term and its Romanization (by selecting Greek Terms List) or a common English translation (by selecting English Topics List).
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Greek Terms List and English Topics List selection buttons
For those unfamiliar with biblical Greek, the English Topics List provides an alternative way to access Contexticon materials. It is composed of English words commonly used to translate the various Greek terms treated in the Contexticon. By clicking on any of the English terms in the topics list, you bring up its corresponding Greek term in the INTERACTIVE TOURS area – just as if you had selected that term through the Greek Term List.
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Entry Perspective
The Entry Perspective, which loads automatically after you select a term, is a very brief introduction to the Greek term group you’ve selected. It can be accessed at any time by clicking the ENTRY/GROUP tab on the upper right-hand corner of the INTERACTIVE TOURS frame.

Clicking Continue closes the frame. It can be reopened anytime by clicking on Entry/Group at the top right of the “Interactive Tours” banner.
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Term Group
Located at the bottom of the Entry Perspective frame as well as directly above the Interactive Tours frame in the Current Term Group selection box, the Term Group lists the Greek term or phrase that you have selected for exploration. The CURRENT TERM GROUP may consist of a single term, a phrase, or one or more cognates (cognates included in the TERM GROUP not only share the same “root” but also share substantially the same usage categories in the RANGE OF USAGE).
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Bibliography
A comprehensive bibliography listing sources cited in the Broad Context articles for every term treated in the Contexticon can be accessed under Credits & Sources in the bottom navigation.
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Adjust Windows
Clicking on "Adjust Windows" allows you to see the Contexticon in a slightly different view, with the New Testament and Comparative Term Usage panels side-by-side. This is particularly helpful for comparing a term’s usage in the New Testament to its usage in a citation from outside the New Testament. If you wish to restore the original view, simply click on "Adjust Windows" again.
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Range of Usage Overview
The RANGE OF USAGE for each term group presents carefully-organized usage categories designed to give Contexticon users an overview of the various ways Greek terms were used in the ancient world. Initially only the main categories or groupings are visible. Clicking on EXPAND ALL at the top right of the frame will reveal subcategories as well as references to New Testament passages and to works outside the New Testament. The New Testament citations are comprehensive and include all verses in which the selected Greek term appears in the New Testament. These appear in red; references to texts outside the New Testament appear in blue. All citations include the name of the work (usually abbreviated) and numbers indicating where that passage occurs within the cited work. When you click on the underscored citation numbers for any work, the corresponding excerpt appears on the right side of your screen in the New Testament frame (for citations from the New Testament) or the Comparative Term Usage frame (for citations from outside the New Testament).
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FULL RANGE
Sometimes there are too many references to display at one time on most computer monitors; to see the full range of citations at a glance, click on FULL RANGE just above RANGE OF USAGE. Except for a few particularly complex term groups, this enlarged frame makes it possible to view all categories and subcategories at a glance (you may have to select the smaller fonts option).
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RANGE SORT
Clicking on RANGE SORT to the right of FULL RANGE allows you to filter the New Testament citations in various ways. This is a powerful tool for comparing term usage by different New Testament authors. Selecting a book (for example, Paul’s Letter to the Romans) or group of books (all the undisputed letters of Paul) will highlight the appropriate citations while the rest of the citations will appear in gray. Clicking on "Unsort" returns you to the original view of the Range screen.
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EXPAND ALL/ CLOSE ALL
Clicking on EXPAND ALL brings into view all of the subcategories and citations of the Range of Usage for a particular term. To see only the main categories or groupings, click CLOSE ALL.
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Underscoring in Citations
Underscored numbers in citations indicate that the citation is hotlinked. Clicking on the underlined portion of a New Testament citation brings it into view in the New Testament panel to the right, while clicking the underlined portion of a citation from outside the New Testament brings it into view in the Comparative Term Usage panel.
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Asterisked Citations
One of the greatest challenges facing Bible readers and translators is the intriguing fact that some Greek terms may be understood in different ways, even in the same sentence. To alert Contexticon users that a term in a particular verse may be listed in more than one usage category, some citations are followed by an asterisk (*). To quickly locate all occurrences of an asterisked citation, simply click on it. This will temporarily change the font color of every occurrence of this citation to black.
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Appearance of “a” and “b” Following New Testament Citations
Sometimes the same Greek term occurs more than once in the same verse. In such cases, the first appearance of the term is indicated with an “a” after the citation number, the second citation is indicated with a “b,” and so on. For example, in 1Corinthians 12:13, there are two occurrences of the Greek word PNEUMA (here translated “Spirit” in the NRSV). Both occurrences are found in Category 4, but note that the first occurrence is asterisked, indicating that this occurrence appears in another category as well (in this example, it appears also in Category 4c; for more information see FAQ on asterisks).
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Terms in Parentheses Following Citations
These indicate the specific cognates that occur in the citations provided for a category.
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Researcher Credit Lines
A credit line is found at the end of every Range Screen, listing the last names of researchers participating in production of the term entry. First is the Lead Researcher, commissioned to supervise overall research for the term entry, selected for his or her published work in related fields of research. The second name designates the scholar contributing most to basic research and drafting. There may follow the names of additional scholars who contributed substantially. Full names of all contributing scholars may be found in Credits & Sources (bottom navigation bar), Editorial/Research tab. 
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Broad Context Overview
The Broad Context (which comes into view when you click on the vertical bar at the right of the INTERACTIVE TOURS frame) provides a narrative tour of the Greek term usage of the selected term.
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Citations
Just as in the Range of Usage, the page and verse numbers of texts cited in the Broad Context are underlined, and clicking on them will bring these texts  into the New Testament frame (for New Testament citations) or the Comparative Term Usage frame (for citations outside the New Testament).
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Spotlights
For many terms, the text of the Broad Context includes “Spotlight” articles. These are indicated by a tan bar with a short title and the word OPEN at the right-hand side. Clicking on any of these bars brings a Spotlight into view in a new panel. Spotlight articles provide additional perspectives of interest related to the selected term.

Citations within the text of Spotlight articles are hotlinked, just as citations in Range of Usage and Broad Context are. Clicking on a citation that appears in a Spotlight will bring the text of that citation into a panel on the left side of the Spotlight frame.
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Images
Broad Context images are intended to draw the Contexticon user into the ancient world with photos of anything from ancient mosaics to grave reliefs to landscapes of cities and places mentioned in the New Testament. Rolling your cursor over any image will bring up a caption explaining what the image depicts. Clicking Expand View will bring up a larger version of the image with a caption. Full credits for all images can be found through the Credits & Sources tab at the bottom of the Contexticon screen. Although space for captions is limited, they include as much information as possible about the subject of the image, usually in the following order: title or description of work (titles in caps); date of creation; creator; location of work (typically a museum or historical site). Museum and site names are often abbreviated in captions, but full titles can be found through the Credits & Sources tab at the bottom of the Contexticon screen. These credits are sometimes accompanied by more detailed information about artifacts and artworks.
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Researcher Credit Lines
A credit line is located at the end of each Broad Context tour (and of each associated Spotlight) listing the last names of participating researchers. First is the Lead Researcher, a senior scholar commissioned to supervise overall research for the term entry, selected for his or her published work in related fields of research. The second name designates the scholar contributing most to basic research and drafting. There may follow the names of additional scholars who contributed substantially. Full names of all contributing scholars may be found in Credits & Sources (bottom navigation bar), Editorial/Research tab. 
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New Testament Frame Overview
The New Testament frame is used for viewing the text of any selected New Testament passage. If you choose to enter the Contexticon through a selected passage, this passage will appear in the New Testament frame upon entrance. If you choose to enter the Contexticon through a selected term, the New Testament panel will be empty until you select a New Testament citation from Range of Usage or Broad Context. Then the entire chapter in which the citation occurs will appear in the New Testament frame, with the selected verse at the top.
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CHANGE BOOK
If at any point during your exploration of a term or passage you wish to view a different New Testament passage, you may do so by clicking on the CHANGE BOOK function, selecting the desired book, chapter, and verse, and clicking SUBMIT. This will bring the selected passage into view in the New Testament frame.
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CHANGE TEXT
The Contexticon currently provides two translations of the New Testament: The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is a relatively contemporary translation, widely recognized as a standard in NT scholarship. The King James Version (KJV) offers a traditional translation long influential for Christianity in English-speaking countries. Future releases of the Contexticon will include other translations. You may also choose to view the New Testament in its original language, Greek. Any of these options can be accessed by clicking on the CHANGE TEXT function, selecting the desired version, and clicking SUBMIT.
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ANCHORED PASSAGES
If you enter the Contexticon by selecting a passage, this passage will be automatically "anchored" for the duration of your exploration. This means that if you navigate to any other New Testament passage you will be able to return to that anchored passage by clicking on "PASSAGE ANCHORED" at the bottom of the New Testament panel.
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CITATIONS
If you have entered the Contexticon through a New Testament passage, every term occurring in that passage that is treated in the Contexticon appears in orange. Click on any of these terms to bring up the corresponding treatment in the INTERACTIVE TOURS panel. If you entered the Contexticon through a New Testament term, clicking on any New Testament citation in that term treatment brings up the text of the New Testament in the panel at the right. The term you have selected appears in orange, while other terms occurring in that passage that are treated in the Contexticon appear in gray.
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Comparative Term Usage Frame Overview
Texts of citations from outside the New Testament are displayed in the Comparative Term Usage frame. The information in bold at the top left of the panel lists the author (if known), the full title of the work, and a number that refers to where the passage occurs within the work. The century during which the work was written appears directly below this information. The Contexticon focuses mainly on works from around the second century BCE (or BC) to the second century CE (or AD) in order to examine texts with a linguistic context similar to the texts of the New Testament.
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VIEW SCROLL
Clicking on VIEW SCROLL brings into view in the Comparative Term Usage panel a comprehensive, alphabetized list of all the passages from outside the New Testament that are cited in the current term treatment (that is, in the Range, Broad Context, or Spotlights).
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SHOW GREEK/HIDE GREEK
This toggle function allows you to set the Comparative Term Usage screen to either show the Greek text along with the English translation of the selected passage from outside the New Testament, or to show only the English.
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Highlighted Term(s)
The Greek term, if Greek is showing, and the English translation of the selected term in the Current Term Group appear in blue in the Comparative Term Usage panel.
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Context Lines
Many Comparative Term Usage passages include a Context Line, which appears before the English translation in italics within a set of brackets. Context Lines are designed to help readers more quickly and fully understand the provided text.
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Definitions & Topics
The following sketches provide brief definitions for terms frequently cited or brief explanations for central concepts employed in the Contexticon. Topics treated include historical documents, places or social phenomena. Certain entries marked with an asterisk (*) provide more extensive treatments of phenomena in the Roman world. Such extended treatments include the Roman imperial cult, the change of calendar in Asia, and the periodization of history. As in the Broad Context of regular term treatments, these entries feature accompanying ENTs in the left frame and spotlights which consider other aspects of the term in more depth.
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Selected Rulers
Selected Rulers alphabetically presents the biographies of a range of figures who wielded significant influence in the shaping of the cultural milieu within which the works the Contexticon addresses were authored. All Roman rulers of the first two hundred years of the Roman Empire, as well as very influential non-Roman rulers, are treated, indicating the dates of their reign as well as pertinent biographical information. Figures like Alexander the Great and Constantine, who fall outside of this central time period yet who proved extraordinarily important, are likewise treated.
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Abbreviations
This section explains many of the abbreviations or acronyms employed across the range of presentations in the Contexticon. Some abbreviations are historical (such as "CE" or "NT"), others grammatical (e.g. "adv.", indicating the type of term cognate), still others editorial (e.g. "Alt." or "Ed. note"). For abbreviations of literature and translations, please see "Sources of Comparative Texts & English Translations."
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Timelines & Maps
This section is the resource for visual representations of the geographical and temporal domains addressed by the Contexticon. Maps feature views of the pre-Roman Mediterranean ancient world, the Mediterranean during the ascendancy of the Roman Empire, and a first century reconstruction of the larger world according to the geographer Strabo. A timeline of extremely influential or often-cited authors and works, aids an understanding of which authors were working within parallel times, traditions and locations.
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Authors & Thinkers
The following sketches provide a brief introduction to frequently-mentioned authors and thinkers. Individuals who either authored their own works or those who established schools of thought or especially influential modes of living/thinking. Where information is available from the ancient sources, sketches include geographical information about the place of birth, death, and locations visited, designated “b,” “d,” and “v,” respectively. For more detailed biographical and historical information, see The Oxford Classical Dictionary or The Oxford Companion to the Bible. The designation “CE” is used for dates within the Common Era, while “BCE” is used to designate dates before the Common Era.
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Literature Briefs
The following background sketches of writings from antiquity identify some of the main contributions for which these works are known. The dates associated with works translated into Greek indicate the estimated period of translation, not the date of composition. This is by no means comprehensive, but considers the most represented works in the Contexticon.
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