How to use a Concordance
A concordance allows the researcher to find all occurrences for the same word (such as "blood") or subject (such as "atonement") throughout scripture. But because all English words are a translation of Hebrew (for the Old Testament) and Greek (for the New Testament), a concordance also helps researchers to understand the base word that translators relied upon for the English translation.
Why to use a concordance
It is important to understand the base word because one English word can translate into multiple Greek or Hebrew words. The ability to track these Greek and Hebrew words and to see which scripture passage uses which base word is one of the main benefits of a concordance.
The following passages from John's account of the Gospel illustrate how this applies (NIV):
John 12:26 -- "Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be."
John 15:15 -- "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I leaned from my Father I have made known to you."
Both passages use the English word "servant." However, each passage translates a different Greek word. John 12:26 translates servant from the Greek diakonos, meaning "minister servant." But John 15:15 translates servant from the Greek doulos, meaning "slave servant."
Working with a concordance
The Trinity Library maintains several different concordances; each uses a distinct, although intuitive, arrangement system. The library's computers also have a versatile application called "LOGOS," which incorporates a concordance, and there are freely available concordances on the web, such as the one from Blue Letter Bible.
This guide is keyed to Young's Analytical Concordance.
How to locate a word
- Identify a word from scripture that you would like to analyze, and be sure to note its scripture reference. For example, you may wish to locate the word "love" from John 13:35 ("By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.")
- Scan the A-Z portion of the concordance to locate the word love.
- Once you locate the word, scan down the list of scripture references that follow the word until you locate your scripture reference. This is an important step because there are different forms of the word love. For example, scanning reveals that the word love from John 13:35 was translated from the Greek agape (see figure 1) but it was not translated from the Greek phileo (see figure 2).
- Once you have located your scripture reference in the list then all of the accompanying passages translate the same Greek or Hebrew word.
**Figure 1** |
**Figure 2** |
- Find the English word according to the instruction above, and its accompanying Greek or Hebrew word.
- Leaf to the back of the concordance to find the Greek and Hebrew section (look for the tabs marked "HEB INDEX" and "GR INDEX.").
- Scan down the alphabetical list until you locate the Greek or Hebrew word. For example, the Greek agape is translated by love, as well as other English words including "charity." (see figure 3).
Please see a library staff person if you have any questions or need assistance with using a concordance.
