Strong's Concordance

I use the Strong's Concordance intensively. I love this book. But it was not until today – a few moments ago, as I was composing my article for the church newsletter – that I noticed the Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries in the back. The Greek is of little use to me, but the Hebrew ... My goodness, what a wonderful thing this is!!! I am almost jumping up and down with excitement over it. With the numbers as cross-reference between the main body of the Concordance and the Hebrew Dictionary, one can easily work from the English text, hunt up the Hebrew word behind said text, get a brief definition and etymology, and if desired go from there to Brown-Driver-Briggs for more detail. As Dr. Strong writes in the introduction: “By observing the subjoined directions, in the associated use of the Main Concordance, the reader will have substantially a Concordance-Dictionary of the Authorized Version and the Hebrew Bible.”

Wow!!!!

The Wikipedia article on Strong's cautions the reader that "Strong's Concordance is not a translation of the Bible nor is it intended as a translation tool. The use of Strong's numbers is not a substitute for professional translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into English by those with formal training in ancient languages and the literature of the cultures in which the Bible was written."

In other words, people like me ought to leave it to the pros. But we can't let them have all the fun. Besides, such an attitude represents the increasing specialization of academia. Regular people are not supposed to do anything except amuse themselves on Facebook and YouTube; anything with substance should be left for the people with academic training in the subject. Bah!!!!

I am adding Strong's to my sidebar in the Music Box as a favorite book. And while I am raving over it, I might as well quote the title page in full. I wish I could duplicate the typography; they don't print title pages like this nowadays.

The Exhaustive Concordance of THE BIBLE:
Showing every word of the text of the common English version of the canonical books,
and every occurrence of each word in regular order;
together with a
KEY-WORD COMPARISON
of selected words and phrases
in the KING JAMES VERSION
with five leading contemporary translations
also brief Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the original,
with references to the English words:
by James Strong, S.T.D., LL.D.