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IV. Using an Exhaustive Concordance Why would I want to use an “exhaustive” concordance instead of an abridged one? Simple, In an abridged concordance, someone else decided which appearances of certain words you don’t need to see, while with an exhaustive concordance, you get to make those choices. How An Exhaustive concordance works
How can the Concordance Improve my Bible Study? 1. Use a Concordance to locate a book, chapter, verse references when you know a verse or part of a verse, but don’t know where to find it. You can shorten your search time by using the most rare word that occurs in the verse (the list you need to run through will be shorter). 2. Locating everywhere a word occurs in the Bible, so you can either list or study everything about the item in Scripture. For a topical study, the first thing you want to do is find everywhere in the Bible that a term of interest occurs. When you know where the word occurs, then you can investigate each usage and begin to collect the information by which you can arrive at an understanding and some conclusions about “what the Bible teaches” on that topic.
A) What does John tell us about “when” antichrist appears? (v. 18) B) What does John tell us about “how many” of them there are? (v. 18) C) What does John tell us about the identity of these characters? (v. 19,22) D) What doctrine/heresy seems to be characteristic of these characters? (1Jn. 4:1-3; 2Jn. 7) E) Reflect on what you have learned from Scripture about “antichrist” in comparison or contrast to popular notions that are around? How many times is “antichrist” mentioned in the book of Revelation? Does John associate “antichrist” with the 2nd coming or any kind of political/war events?
Also read context - many who say that salvation is by “faith only” stop at verse 31 - what happened in verses 32-34?
Get your concordance out and find where the word “tribulation” occurs in your Bible. If you use the NAS (right), you will find thlipsis translated as “tribulation(s)” about 20 times in the New Testament. However, if you use the NIV (left), the Greek word thlipsis (pressure) is only rendered “tribulation” one time (Revelation 7:14). How many Greek words are behind the NAS translation “tribulation”? What words are used in these places by the NIV? Why does the NIV translate thlipsis as “tribulation” so rarely? Does it help or hinder Bible study to have one Greek word translated as a dozen different English word when one would work? Other things you can do with the concordance: 1. find out how many things the Apostles associated with salvation 2. Where is Jehoshaphat mentioned in the Bible? 3. Is the phrase “Cleanliness is next to godliness” in the Bible? 4. Find out if things are NOT in the Bible (are we saved by "faith alone"?) 5. Prop doors open 6. build up your arm-strength carrying it around Other types of Concordances Phrase Concordance Original Language concordance (Hebrew & Greek)[1] Examples & Questions
A) Read the verse in context B) check the word for “called” in Greek (chrematidzo) and see if there are any hints there (right) C) Does the term “Christian” appear elsewhere in Scripture and what can we learn from these? (Acts 26:28; 1Peter 4:16) D) Chrematidzo appear to be a “technical term” (reserved for special meaning)
The Exhaustive concordance is a great tool for research. Start from scratch and pursue some questions that are on your mind or swirl around us in popular notions. 1. What are the “signs of the times” and do these apply to the 1st or 2nd coming? 2. What is “the tribulation”? “Great Tribulation”? 3. What is “Gog and Magog”? 4. What or who are the “saints”? 5. What is “the Gospel”? 6. Where are Jesus’ words “it is more blessed to give than to receive” recorded? 7. Where does the New Testament mention “infant baptism and confirmation”? 8. Where does the Bible mention “clergy / Archbishops / the Papacy”? 9. Is there any evidence that the apostles were married? 10. In what verse are all of the following terms for our spiritual adversary used: dragon, serpent, devil, Satan? 11. When are “the last days”? 12. Where does the term “the unforgivable sin” appear in Scripture? These are just examples, but your first and best tool for doing better Bible study is the concordance. [1] Wigram & Green’s The New Englishman’s Hebrew/Aramaic Concordance (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1984); Moulton & Geden’s Concordance to the Greek Testament (Edinburgh: T&T Clark 1974 reprint)
Email Chuck at: chuck@severnchristian.org
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First of
all, every word that appears in the Bible is collected
alphabetically. In each listing of where a word appears, you have
them listed from Genesis to Revelation with the book/ chapter/verse
reference and then a portion of the verse to show the word in
limited context. To the right, you have a numbering system that
will link you to the Hebrew or Greek word behind each translation
occurrence. Remember that Genesis through Malachi numbers will link
you to the Hebrew Dictionary, whereas Matthew through Revelation
will link you to the Greek Dictionary. Here is what the regular
listing for “Abandoned” looks like in the New American Standard
Exhaustive Concordance (above, left).
First,
you are given the “key word” that you are interested in and all of
the places where that word appears in the Bible (your translation).
Next, you will find a number of entries, depending on how often the
word appears. You will see the word (or possibly just the first
letter of the key word high-lighted in a portion of the verse
(limited context). To the right, you will find the book/
chapter/verse reference and then another number that will link you
to the Hebrew or Greek dictionary in the back of the concordance.
Now. let’s go to the Hebrew Dictionary and see what we can learn
about this word.
Since
the Strong’s number was 5800a, we will go to the Hebrew dictionary
in the back and find that number. First you have the word in Hebrew
characters, followed by a transliteration, so you can sound the word
out in English letters and sounds. The word sounds like “ah-zob”
and we are then told its Hebrew root (number given), its general
meaning, and then all of the various ways that your translation of
Scripture renders the word azab into English.
Let’s
try an easy topic like “antichrist.” Go to your concordance and see
where and how often the term “antichrist” appears in the Bible.
Then, read each verse in context and pay attention to what each
passage has to tell you about the topic. Learn to ask good
questions - who, what, when, how many, where from, what is being
done - that will help you to pull out the information you seek.
Read 1 John 2:18-22; 4:1-3; 2John 7 and ask these questions:
3. What can we learn from the original languages (disclosed by
concordance study)? Consider
Acts 16:30-31 and is the issue “just believe” in order to be saved
or “who” should you believe in so as to be saved? In the NAS (New
American Standard), what Greek word is “sirs” in verse 30 and “Lord”
in verse 31? If the same word is used in both verses, does the
choice of different English words impact the meaning? Would it
change the meaning if we translated the words kurioi/kuriou
as “Lords/Lord”? Were they telling him “believe only” or “don’t
believe in us - we’re not gods - (see: Acts 14:8-18), believe in
Jesus as Lord and you can be saved through Him”?
4. How consistent are translations in rendering Hebrew & Greek
words? Consider the English word “tribulation” - what is “the
tribulation”? How would you begin to “search the 
Acts 11:26 - “the disciples were first called Christians in
Antioch.” Does this have any particular significance? Was this a
term of derision applied by outsiders or a Divinely-designated term?
