Cruden’s, Young’s, and Strong’s Concordances

The most thorough Bible concordance is one that displays original language words (normally Hebrew or Greek) in alphabetical order along with their references. English concordances are helpful for those who lack knowledge of the Bible’s original languages, but variations in translation of a Hebrew or Greek word can make using English concordances problematic. For example, a concordance keyed to the King James Version would show no references for the word “love” in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul’s famous love chapter. Instead, the KJV uses the word “charity.”

Three English concordances have historically widespread use:

1. Alexander Cruden’s 1737 concordance

2. Robert Young’s 1879 concordance

3. James Strong’s 1890 concordance

The advantage of Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible is that the alphabetically-listed English word is accompanied by the appropriate Hebrew or Greek word that it represents. Strong’s concordance assigns numbers to the original language root words, resulting in 8674 numbered Hebrew words and 5624 numbered Greek words (although numbers 2717 and 3203–3302 are not assigned to any Greek words due to an error). Strong’s numbers have become standardized so that many concordances include them beside a verse references to indicate which Hebrew or Greek word stands behind the English translation.