Big Idea: A Bible Concordance is valuable to find the location of a specific verse, trace Bible characters , do a topical study or a word study.

How Can a Bible Concordance Help Me?

“Where’s that verse that says ‘Turn the other cheek?’”

When it comes to the Bible, fortunately, we can easily look this up. The best tool for that is a concordance. Think of it like a Bible contact list.

Four things a Bible Concordance can do

1. Locate where a specific verse is found in the Bible.

When you want to look up the “Turn the other cheek” verse, look it up by one word, rather than the phrase. But it gets you there. See from the photo below that it is found in Matthew 5:39.

2. Trace people in the Bible.

You might already know Moses was a key figure from Exodus to Deuteronomy. But he is also mentioned a number of times in the New Testament. You can search for the name Moses in the New Testament. Or Moses in the Psalms. That will tell you how others talked about him.

Or you might want to do a character study of a woman of the Bible such as Rahab You can look up all the verses using her name. It will get you to the important passages.

3. Start a topical study. 

If you want to see what Jesus said about peace, looking at a concordance is a good way to begin. You would search first for every verse that contains the word peace in the gospels (Matthew- John) and then look up each of those verses to identify those Jesus said.

4. Do a word study. 

As you will see under types of concordances, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance allows you to find which Hebrew or Greek word used in a specific verse.

You can then observe other places the same original word is used. Then you can go to the dictionary at the back and see the root word, basic use, basic grammar, and so on. It starts to shed a lot more light on a Biblical word.

Scripture Spy has a previous blogpost on how to do a word study.   

Three kinds of concordances

• The one at the back of your Study Bible
• An exhaustive concordance 
• An electronic or online Bible or tool

1. The one at the back of your Study Bible

This concordance is not meant to have every verse in the Bible or your Bible would be twice as heavy. It is designed to help you find some key verses. It generally follows key words like faith, salvation, peace, joy and so on.

2. An exhaustive concordance

Concordances follow a specific Bible Version. For the exhaustive type you will find mostly the King James Version, especially when you find the older reference books at a thrift shop,  yard sale or in your Grandpa's study. 

The pattern has been followed for some other versions as well (ESV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NKJV).

In 1890 James Strong, an exegetical theology professor at Drew Theological Seminary, published the first Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.

It takes every single word in the Bible and categorizes it; even every existence of the word, ‘the.’ Yes, really. It is hard to imagine how Dr. Strong compiled all this information before the electronic age. 

Another advantage of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance is because it identifies the Greek or Hebrew word corresponding with a verse.

The number in the back coincides with either the Hebrew or Greek Dictionary with more information about the word. For the pastor or serious student of the Bible wishing to do word studies, this is extremely valuable. 

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Amazon is currently at $26 for a new book.  Used ones are available for less.  CBD  Currently $14.99 for the same book on sale. 

Electronically it is available as a free app on Apple and Google Play. Look up Strong’s Concordance.

Also Blue Letter Bible uses Strong’s as their basis. Just put a word in the search.

 
Scripture Spy has a previous blog on how to use Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.

There are a couple kinds of concordances that are less voluminous than Strong’s, but they are also helpful.

3. An electronic or online Bible or tool

Most online Bibles have a search feature. You can type a word there and it will show you the instances where that word occurs.  YouVersion at Bible.com   Biblegateway.com  

1. The verses show up on a list with the entire verses written out and the key word in bold.

2. Clicking on the verse usually takes you to the passage where it is located.

3. It may tell you how many times it occurs in each book of the Bible. You can then see where that topic may be more widely covered, or not talked about at all.

4. You can usually search it in several versions, which can be helpful. More times than one realizes a phrase or verse is quoted from the King James Version and it is the easiest place to find it first.

Example from YouVersion on the phone

Example from BibleGateway.com

The Word of God always comes first!

There are many great Bible tools around! Just be sure studying them does not replace the primary importance of the Bible! The Word of God always comes first!

This series is about Bible study tools. There are many types of Bibles and helpful resources like a concordance or Bible dictionary. Information about their book and their electronic version are included. Cost and “how to use” will be addressed.

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Reflect:

1. Go to the Blue Letter Bible and look up the word Peace. Note that the verses are listed on the left.  Also see that you can look the word up in various translations from the pull down menu or on the right. See that on the right you can also see how many times it occurs in each book of the Bible and you can click on that. 

Explore and see what might touch your heart.