After reading why it’s important to find out the meanings of the original Greek and Hebrew words from the Bible, you’re probably wondering how to use Strong’s Concordance to Study the Bible deeper.
First, what is Strong’s Concordance?
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible is divided into three parts: An Exhaustive Concordance, a Numerically-arranged Hebrew Dictionary, and a Numerically-arranged Greek Dictionary of Bible words.
Using Strong’s Concordance
The first part is just that, an Exhaustive Concordance. That means, it lists, in alphabetical order, every word that appears in the Bible, and every verse that it appears in. Every word!
That’s what they mean by “exhaustive”.
You may have a smaller concordance in the back of your Bible, which is not “exhaustive”. It only lists the most important words and the most important passages that those words appear in. Or, that the editor of the concordance thought was the most important. :-).
With Strong’s, there is no such editing. Everything is listed.
For example, if I’m going to study the topic of Joy, I would look through the exhaustive concordance, to “j” for “joy”. The word “joy” takes up nearly two pages of listings, and Strong’s tells me some other words I may want to look up as well, which are related.
I now can look up every single verse that contains the word “joy” in the Bible!
What do the Numbers in Strong’s Concordance Mean?
Next to each verse is a number. If the verse is in the Old Testament, the number is written normally. If the verse is in the New Testament, the number is in italics.
The italics tell me to look for it in the Greek dictionary in the back.
The regular number means to look for it in the Hebrew Dictionary.
These numbers let me know not only where to find the word in the back dictionaries, but they also let me see which verses use the same Greek or Hebrew word for this English word. This lets you compare different verses to each other.
As I said before, you can’t always just translate word for word when you translate from another language. Sometimes we may use the same English word for 3 or 4 different Hebrew words (for example, “praise”). Praise is the best word for the task in English, but each Hebrew word emphasizes a slightly different aspect of praise.
The Greek & Hebrew Dictionaries
If you flip to the back of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, you’ll find a Hebrew Dictionary, and then a Greek Dictionary. These are all of the words that appear in the Bible from the Greek and Hebrew Languages.
Because most of us don’t know the Greek or Hebrew alphabets, James Strong numerically organized his Greek and Hebrew dictionaries. This way, we can look up the words in alphabetical order, without knowing the alphabet of that language.
For example, if I wanted to find out what the word translated “joy” meant from 1 Chronicles 29:9, I would grab the number for that word, which was listed as “8057”.
Flipping back to the Hebrew dictionary, I look for number “8057” until I find that entry, which tells me what the Hebrew word is, and what it means. There is also a transliteration, or a writing of the word in Roman letters instead of just in Hebrew letters (which wouldn’t mean anything to most of us!), and a way to pronounce the word.
In the Greek dictionary, things work pretty much the same way.
There are numbers (in italics), the Greek Word, a transliteration, a pronunciation guide, and then the definition.
Where to Find Strong’s Concordance
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible is widely available. You may want to check your church’s bookstore first. They may be able to order it for you. Many Christian bookstores carry Strong’s, too. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible is also available on Amazon.com.
There is a free, online version of Strong’s Concordance, which you can access here, and there are different apps for your smartphone that you can find.
I also like to use the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible through QuickVerse Bible Study software. This allows me to copy and paste information, and streamline my more in depth studying. For example, if I’m studying something in great detail over the course of a few months, this is certainly easier. I’ve actually been a happy QuickVerse customer for nearly 20 years. Our best man bought us our first copy (which we still have) as a wedding present. Their new version has even more goodies on it.