Bible Study - Strong's Concordance

[mjr]

Hello all,

Has anyone mastered the use of Strong's Concordance when doing Bible Study? I also have Vincent's NT and Wilson's OT word studies on my book shelf.

Have no problem finding a word in Strong's (either Hebrew or Greek), but when it goes into the meaning and root words and all I get confused . . . then I don't want my confusion to lead to my interpreting a Scripture passage incorrectly, you know? I'm using the KJV

I used to have a very good book from the 1980's that took you step-by-step how to correctly use Strong's but somehow it got lost in one of my moves (and I forget the title and author). If someone knows of a good on-line resource or book please let me know.

Also is the "inductive study" method of Bible study recommended?

Thanks,

Mary Jo

[robertcolumbia]

While I'm not sure that I would call myself a master, I've used Strong's concordance, and I think it's a good tool. It's not anywhere near a magic bullet, but it is a useful tool that has it's place.

It's a product of many many years of work in the 1800's to produce a word index of the KJV. Basically, it allows you to look up words used in the KJV and match them against the original Greek or Hebrew root that it was translated from. Each Greek or Hebrew root word is assigned a Number. Strong's numbers, which originated in this concordance, are used in many bible study reference works, and are good to understand.

I think it's a useful tool for in-depth word study, in that you can dig into how words are translated and look for specific meanings. It doesn't give you much, if any, insight into idioms or the context of a particular passage, and it doesn't provide you insight into the grammar or proper interpretation of the original languages, so it has it's limits. It's a tool, but is certainly no substitute for a Bible teacher.

[Brother Ben]

I recommend downloading the program e-sword It is free and it is excellent. Once you have downloaded the main program you can download the misc. commentaries and dictionaries that have a ton of helpful information. I especially like the one called, Robertson's Word Pictures. It gives the contextual interpretation of what a word means, and graphically explains it's use.

[mjr]

Thanks for replying, Bro. Robert, with your comments.

I have heard of e-sword, Bro. Ben, but haven't looked into it but will now.

I have noticed that, for example, Christian Book Distributors will sometimes have commentaries and other Bible study resources in their "clearance" section at drastically reduced prices, 'cause I guess everyone is going electronic. I'm old school and can't see myself ever going over to a Kindle to read a book

Mary Jo