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The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible,[n 1] generally known asStrong's Concordance, is aBible concordance, an index of every word in theKing James Version (KJV), constructed under the direction of American theologianJames Strong. Strong first published hisConcordance in 1890, while professor ofexegeticaltheology atDrew Theological Seminary.
Strong's Concordance provides anindex to the Bible. This allows the reader to find words where they appear in the Bible. It also lets the reader directly compare how the same word may be used elsewhere in the Bible.
Each original-language word (Hebrew or Greek) 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 theKJV 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:
Although the Greek words inStrong'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 theroot words. For example,αγαπησεις is assigned the same number asαγαπατε – both are listed asGreek word #25 inStrong's Concordance (αγαπαω).
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[2] is a translation of the English concordance fromThompson Chain-Reference Bible.[3] 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.
In the 1890 version, Strong added a "Hebrew andChaldee 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 mentionsGesenius andFürst as examples of the lexicons thatStrong'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.
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