Where Is That Verse?... Bible Concordances Will Help You Find It

One of the most basic of all Christian study resources are Bible concordances.  These are simply books that list the reference of every verse in the Bible that contains a particular word.  As you probably know, differing translations of the Bible may translate the same verse of Scripture using different vocabulary -- this means that you will need to choose a Bible concordance based on the particular translation of the Bible that you use for study most often.  Let me describe for you in this article some basic Bible concordances and some of the features that they contain --

If you are someone who uses the classic King James Version of the Bible, then you may have heard about Strong's Exhaustive Concordance -- and recently this famous concordance has been updated.  The particular edition I'm thinking about has been published by Hendrickson publishers.  They have completely typeset the entire concordance in order to make it more readable -- and they have reorganized the main sections and overhauled the small Greek and Hebrew dictionaries that are part of this Bible concordance.  The publisher has also included a CD-ROM with additional Bible study references -- and I have seen the entire package selling for around $30 -- a tremendous value.

Strong's concordance is also available for the New American Standard Bible (NASB) -- published by Zondervan, this Bible concordance is based on the updated edition of the New American Standard Bible translation -- revered by many Bible students as a very precise and literal translation.  If you prefer a more contemporary translation, you can also purchase an edition of the Strongs concordance that is based on the text of the New International Version.  The Strongest NASB Exhaustive Concordance and The Strongest NIV Exhaustive Concordance are both published by Zondervan, and both volumes retail for just under $40.

Another useful Bible concordance -- again, based on the King James version -- is Young's Analytical Concordance.  This concordance is a bit different, as it provides more technical information on the meanings of the Greek and Hebrew words.  For many years Young's Analytical Concordance has been a favorite of Bible students who are interested in doing studies on the meanings of various biblical words.  It is a rather large and imposing hardback volume, which normally retails around $30.

Finally, let me mention that many translations of the Bible have yet to have a Bible concordance published for them.  If you happen to use such a translation, what can you do?  Well, if you have invested in a good Bible study software program, you will be pleased to know that you probably already have a "built-in" Bible concordance.  This is because Bible software programs have the capability of searching the entire text of the Bible in just seconds -- if you want to search, for example, for the name "David," you simply type in the word, hit enter, and let the computer do the work -- it will return a complete list of Bible passages where that word is found.  Check our webpage dealing with Bible study software for our recommendations on some good programs.

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