''The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible'', generally known as ''Strong's Concordance'', is a

Bible concordance A Bible concordance is a concordance, or verbal index, to the Bible. A simple form lists Biblical words alphabetically, with indications to enable the inquirer to find the passages of the Bible where the words occur. Concordances may be for the o ...

, an index of every word in the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

(KJV), constructed under the direction of James Strong. Strong first published his ''Concordance'' in 1890, while professor of

exegetical Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretation ...

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Drew Theological Seminary Drew University is a private university in Madison, New Jersey. Drew has been nicknamed the "University in the Forest" because of its wooded campus. As of fall 2020, more than 2,200 students were pursuing degrees at the university's three scho ...

Purpose

The purpose of ''Strong's Concordance'' is not to provide content or commentary about the Bible, but to provide an

index Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...

to the Bible. This allows the reader to find words where they appear in the Bible. This index allows a student of the Bible to re-find a phrase or passage previously studied. It also lets the reader directly compare how the same word may be used elsewhere in the Bible.

Strong's numbers

Each original-language word is given an entry number in the dictionary of those original language words listed in the back of the concordance. These have become known as the "Strong's numbers". The main concordance lists each word that appears in the KJV Bible in alphabetical order with each verse in which it appears listed in order of its appearance in the Bible, with a snippet of the surrounding text (including the word in italics). Appearing to the right of the scripture reference is the Strong's number. This allows the user of the concordance to look up the meaning of the original language word in the associated dictionary in the back, thereby showing how the original language word was translated into the English word in the KJV Bible. ''Strong's Concordance'' includes: * The 8,674

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

root words used in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

. (Example: ') * The 5,624

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

root words used in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

. (Example: ') New editions of ''Strong's'' may exclude the comparative section (1611 KJV to 1614) and the asterisks that denote differential definitions of the same Hebrew or Greek words; due perhaps to denominational considerations, definitions may also be altered. Although the Greek words in ''Strong's Concordance'' are numbered 1–5624, the numbers 2717 and 3203–3302 are unassigned due to "changes in the enumeration while in progress". Not every distinct word is assigned a number, but rather only the root words. For example, αγαπησεις is assigned the same number as αγαπατε – both are listed as in ''Strong's Concordance'' (αγαπαω). Other authors have used Strong's numbers in concordances of other Bible translations, such as the ''

New International Version The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The ''NIV'' was created as a modern translation, by Bible scholars using the earliest an ...

'' and ''

American Standard Version The American Standard Version (ASV), officially Revised Version, Standard American Edition, is a Bible translation into English that was completed in 1901 with the publication of the revision of the Old Testament. The revised New Testament had b ...

''. Due to Strong's numbers it became possible to translate concordances from one language into another. Thus, the Russian concordance of 30,000 words from the Russian Thompson Study Bible ("Новая учебная Библия Томпсона", La Buona Novella Inc, 2010, edition made by the Christian society "The Bible for everyone" in St.Petersburg, Russia) is a translation of the English concordance from

Thompson Chain-Reference Bible The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible is a Christian study Bible originally published by the Kirkbride Bible Company and now published by Zondervan. History The Thompson Chain-Reference system was devised by its namesake, Dr. Frank Charles Thompson, ...

(''The New Thompson Study Bible,'' La Buona Novella Inc. & B.B. Kirkbride Bible Company, Inc., 2006). In the process of compiling the Russian concordance, the Hebrew/Greek word corresponding to the English concordance word was found, and then its Russian equivalent in the Russian Synodal translation of the Bible was added to the resulting Russian concordance text. New editions of ''Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible'' remain in print .

Strong's Dictionaries

In the 1890 version, Strong added a "Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary" and a "Greek Dictionary of the New Testament" to his concordance. In the preface to both dictionaries, Strong explains that these are "brief and simple" dictionaries, not meant to replace reference to "a more copious and elaborate Lexicon." He mentions Gesenius and

Fürst ' (, female form ', plural '; from Old High German ', "the first", a translation of the Latin ') is a German word for a ruler and is also a princely title. ' were, since the Middle Ages, members of the highest nobility who ruled over states of ...

as examples of the lexicons that ''Strong's'' is drawn from. His dictionaries were meant to give students a quick and simple way to look up words and have a general idea of their meaning. Strong reportedly based his lexicons on the work of contemporary scholars such as Gesenius, Fürst,

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Thayer Thayer may refer to: Places ;United States * Thayer, Illinois * Thayer, Indiana * Thayer, Iowa * Thayer, Kansas * Thayer, Michigan * Thayer, Missouri * Thayer, Nebraska *Thayer, West Virginia * Thayer County, Nebraska * Thayer Street, Providence, ...

, and Brown, Driver, and Briggs. According to the preface, he and his team also made "numerous original suggestions, relations, and distinctions... especially in the affinities of roots and the classification of meanings." The work is intended to represent the best of 19th century scholarship, and both a simplification of it and an improvement on it. An important feature of Strong's dictionaries is the listing of every translation of a source word in the AV (King James) after the definition itself. It is important to note Strong's association with the committee working on the

American Revised Version The American Standard Version (ASV), officially Revised Version, Standard American Edition, is a Bible translation into English that was completed in 1901 with the publication of the revision of the Old Testament. The revised New Testament had ...

of the Bible. His work does not tend to support the authority of the King James Version. He was part of the effort to update and replace it with what the translators believed would be a better version. As a result, he contributed deeper and more thorough study of Biblical languages, especially etymology, but also an inherently suspicious attitude toward the

Textus Receptus ''Textus Receptus'' (Latin: "received text") refers to all printed editions of the Greek New Testament from Erasmus's ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) to the 1633 Elzevir edition. It was the most commonly used text type for Protestant denomi ...

, the King James, and toward traditional, less "secular" definitions of original words. The translation committee was associated with the higher critical movement and with the

Westcott-Hort ''The New Testament in the Original Greek'' is a Greek-language version of the New Testament published in 1881. It is also known as the Westcott and Hort text, after its editors Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828 ...

version of the Greek text. Strong, a Methodist layman and college professor, was acceptable to the committee, but one cannot assume he shared all of its views."Strong Delusion: James Strong's ''Dangerous'' Definitions in the Back of His ''Strong’s Concordance''
This is a hostile source but it cites original sources.

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

General and cited bibliography

* .

External links

Preface to ''Strong's Concordance''

* ttp://www.biblestudytools.net/Lexicons/OldTestamentHebrew/ Look up Hebrew words in ''Strong's Concordance''
Look up Greek words in ''Strong's Concordance''

* ttp://christsassembly.info/online_strongs_concordance.htm ''Strong's Concordance'' Online Searchable
''Strong's Concordance'' online

Look up Greek words in ''Strong's Greek Dictionary''

Download ''Strong's Greek Dictionary'' in XML form

''Strong's Concordance'' Database(xls)

{{Hebrew language 1890 books Bible concordances Christian terminology Greek language Hebrew language King James Version