Tuesday, November 17, 2009

What's a Bible Concordance (and why should I care?)


If you're interested in the Bible, a concordance is a handy tool that can help you do at least three things: (1) Find where in the Bible a specific passage is located; (2) Find a Bible passage that speaks about a theme or idea you're thinking about; and (3) Connect two (or more) passages with the same words, ideas or themes.

Simply look up in the concordance a word related to the passage, idea or theme you want to explore. For example, if you want to explore passages where the Spirit of God is imaged as "breath"--like when Jesus breathed on the disciples after the resurrection and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit"; or when the breath (or wind or spirit) hovered over the waters at creation--simply look up the word "spirit" (or "breath" or "wind") in your concordance--then see what you discover!


You can purchase a printed concordance that works only with your preferred Bible, but there are several online concordances available, free of charge. Find them by using the search feature of your browser (aka, googling) to search for "concordance" and the name of the Bible version you're using (New American Bible, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, etc.).

But whether you use an online concordance or a printed one, have fun exploring the Bible!