Where’d My Strong’s Concordance Go?

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Many pastors and Bible students who have grown up using Strong’s numbering system for Hebrew and Greek are slow to switch to something unfamiliar like reverse interlinears. We believe that reverse interlinears are a far better technology and superior to the Strong’s system, but we understand that not everyone is ready to completely abandon Strong’s just yet. That’s why we’ve tried to retain our Strong’s functionality as new versions have come out.

James Strong is best known for his Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible in which every Hebrew and Greek word was given a number, all of the references where each word occurred were listed, and brief definitions were given for each word. Strong’s numbering system made it easy for people who couldn’t read Hebrew or Greek to look up words.

Last month we got a call from a customer who has been wanting to upgrade from version 2 of our software to version 3 for a couple of years now. The only thing holding him back was that he thought he’d lose his Strong’s Concordance. After we explained to him that all of his favorite Strong’s resources and reports would still work in version 3, he was overjoyed and quickly upgraded. This post is for anyone out there who might be in the same boat.

Resources and Reports

Sometimes there can be confusion regarding what is a resource or book that can be found in My Library and what is a report or part of the software’s functionality. So let’s start by setting the record straight.

Resources

There are several Strong’s lexicons or dictionaries:

Other lexicons like the Dictionaries of Biblical Languages w/ Semantic Domains include Strong’s numbers and will work as well.

There are a few Bibles with built-in Strong’s numbering both inline and interlinear.

The ESV and NRSV NT reverse interlinears also have Strong’s numbers.

Reports

Version 2 had an Englishman’s Concordance report that produced results like you’d find in Strong’s Concordance. Version 3 has a similar report under a different name.

  • Version 2: Englishman’s Concordance
  • Version 3: Search Analysis by Strong’s

Clarification: You can actually still run the Englishman’s Concordance report in version 3. See Where’d My Strong’s Concordance Go? Part 2 for the details.

Finding the Strong’s Report in Version 3

So where do you find Strong’s Concordance in version 3? If you’re looking for Strong’s Concordance in My Library, you won’t find it because it’s not a book or resource. It’s a report. Concordances (as resources) don’t make a lot of sense in Bible software because you can generate a concordance on any word or phrase by simply running a search.

To get the Strong’s Concordance report in version 2, you’d use the Englishman’s Concordance. The same basic content is still available in version 3. Here’s one way you access it:

1. Do a Bible Speed Search or a regular Bible Search using the KJV or the NASB (or another Bible with Strong’s numbering) on a word like marriage.

2. In the search results window, click “Search Analysis by Strong’s” in the top right hand column at the bottom of “Other Tools.” You’ll see this report.

This will show you all of the underlying Hebrew or Greek words for the English word you searched on. You can arrange the results by root word or by reference. You can also do the reverse of this. See the follow-up post for details.

For more on Strong’s, see:

For more on reverse interlinears, see:

Accessing Strong’s from Your Bibles

You can still run the old Englishman’s Concordance report from the right-click menu in Strong’s-enabled Bibles. For example, open the KJV to Romans 8, right-click on a word like condemnation, and select “Englishman’s Concordance.”

Doing so will launch this report, which shows you all of the occurrences of that particular Greek word, which happens to be translated all three times as condemnation.

Another way to do this is to right-click on the word and choose “Selected Reference” > “Speed Search This Resource.”

This will generate a search that gives you the same results as the Englishman’s Concordance report, but provides a few additional options under “Other Tools.”

Searching for a Specific Strong’s Number

You’ll notice that when the previous search generates, it uses the standard Bible Speed Search window and populates the search box with GreekStrongs in G2631. What this means is that you can bypass the right-click menu and do a search directly from the Bible Speed Search if you are starting with the Strong’s number you want to find.

For Greek words, you just need to type in something like GreekStrongs in G2631. Simply replace the Strong’s number with the one you’re looking for. For Hebrew words, you would type in HebrewStrongs in H6942. This allows you to instantly generate a report of all of the occurrences of a given Strong’s number.

Searches like these will show you all of the occurrences of a particular Greek or Hebrew word, regardless of how it is translated in English. If you want to narrow the report to show you only the places where a particular Greek or Hebrew word is (or is not) translated with a particular English word, you would simple add to the search equals or notequals followed by your word. For example, GreekStrongs in G1680 gives you all of the places where this Greek word occurs. It is almost always translated hope. If you wanted to limit it to the places where it is not translated hope, you would search for GreekStrongs in G1680 NOTEQUALS hope. Here’s another one to try: GreekStrongs in G26 NOTEQUALS love, will find all of the places where the main Greek word for love is not translated as love in the KJV.

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Written by
Phil Gons

Follower of Jesus, husband of Shanna, father of five, Chief Product Officer at Logos, PhD (ABD) Theology, reader, learner, blogger, technophile.

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