Blue Letter Concordance

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Vennie Fireman

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Aug 3, 2024, 11:44:48 AM8/3/24

to spinarpizo

This week I have officially made the switch over to BlueLetterBible.org for all my online reference, linking and reading needs. While this may seem juvenile to some, this is a big deal to me on a number of levels.

Textus receptus is THE word of God, and the default on blue letter bible, and rigthly so. The revised version adopted the roman catholic critical text instead of using the majority text plus looking at the church Fathers which became textus receptus. These are just more reasons to love blue letter bible.

We also appreciate the motives behind Blue Letter Bible and have one of their search tools on our website. A very good mobile version of BLB is now available for smartphone users that is similar to the standard version.

The Blue Letter Bible (BLB) project is an initiative of Sowing Circle, a United States-based, non-denominational Christian ministry that has created a study Bible and Bible study tools stated to "make reading, searching and studying the Bible easy and rewarding".[1] The study Bible and associated resources are provided in CD format, via Internet, and via apps. Sowing Circle, a California 501(c)(3) Private Operating Foundation, was founded in November 1995. The Project supports 12 English Bible translations, Hebrew and the Septuagint for the Old Testament, and the Greek Textus Receptus and Westcott-Hort versions for the New Testament. Integrated study tools include Gesenius' Lexicon for the Old Testament, and Thayer's Lexicon for the New Testament, as well as English and Strong's Concordances for the entire Bible. Dozens of Biblical commentaries are also available.

The Blue Letter Bible is so called because of the blue color of the hyperlinks. The name "Blue Letter Bible" also contrasts with the term "red letter Bible", which is a common form of printed Bible with key words, such as the words of Jesus, highlighted in red.

CONTENT DISCLAIMER:The Blue Letter Bible ministry and the BLB Institute hold to the historical, conservative Christian faith, which includes a firm belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. Since the text and audio content provided by BLB represent a range of evangelical traditions, all of the ideas and principles conveyed in the resource materials are not necessarily affirmed, in total, by this ministry.

This NKJV Large Print Thinline Bible is inviting to pick up and hard to put down. Unique to this edition, the words of Christ are highlighted in a restful blue ink that's easy to read and colorblind-friendly.

The slim design of the NKJV Large Print Thinline Reference Bible means you can bring it along, wherever your day takes you. This large print edition features Thomas Nelson's NKJV Comfort Print(R), designed to provide a smooth reading experience of the accurate and beautiful New King James Version. And with features including extensive cross-references, concordance, and full-color maps, you'll still have the tools to get more out of God's Word.

About the Maclaren Series: Named for noted Victorian-era preacher Alexander Maclaren, this series of elegant Bibles features regal blue highlights and verse numbers and clear, line-matched text.

Trusted by millions of believers around the world, the NKJV remains a bestselling modern "word-for-word" translation. It balances the literary beauty and familiarity of the King James tradition with an extraordinary commitment to preserving the grammar and structure of the underlying biblical languages. And while the translator's relied on the traditional Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic text used by the translators of the 1611 KJV, the comprehensive translator notes offer important insights about the latest developments in biblical manuscript studies. The result is a Bible translation that is both beautiful and uncompromising--perfect for serious study, devotional use, and reading aloud.

In the 2014 update to How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (4th. ed., p. 56), Fee and Stuart recommend consulting the following translations for "the best possible start to an intelligent reading and study of the Bible":

In Fee's earlier (1993) guide to exegesis, he asserts: "The best way for you to become acquainted with the paragraph and to discover what in the paragraph needs special study is to read the paragraph through in at least seven translations." (New Testament Exegesis, Rev. Ed., p. 37, emphasis in the original.) In particular, Fee recommends English-language exegetes consult the following translations, with possible substitutions of other modern translations for the final three on the list. (Note: a number of now-popular translations or updates were not yet available at the time of this publication; the links below point to the most recent edition of each translation as of January 2024.)

Gorman is more cautious than Fee about the value of comparing English translations (particularly in an era when accessing multiple translations online is so easy that it can distract from other tasks in the exegetical process): "reading several translations can indeed provide useful insights, but this approach is somewhat overrated and can lead to erroneous conclusions. Each translation still represents exegetical judgments, and the similarities and differences should not be given undue weight." (Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers, 3rd ed., p. 49.) He recommends the following English translations as his preferred versions for exegesis, while acknowledging that other translations have strengths for other purposes:

1. Look up the Bible passage you are studying online with Strong's Exhaustive Concordance enabled using Use either the King James Version, the New American Standard Bible, or the Interlinear Bible to access the concordance. Look for the "Settings" icon:

2. Select any word highlighted in blue to see the concordance entry. This will give you the Strong's Number, the original Hebrew/Greek term, a list of additional Bible verses that use this specific word in Greek or Hebrew, and some basic English language definitions from classic public domain reference works.

The lexicons in online Bible portals generally depend on public domain resources, which can be solid starting points for research, but may be missing the insights of recent decades of biblical scholarship. For in-depth discussions of the theological uses of New Testament vocabulary, you may wish to consult major reference works in the library.

These reference works are generally organized in alphabetical order following the Greek alphabet. Even if you don't study Greek thoroughly enough to read it independently, you may find it useful to at least learn the alphabet in order to help you navigate reference tools for biblical studies. In some cases, they can be navigated using Strong's or G/K Numbers as described below.

The easiest way to find an entry for a particular word in TDNT if you don't know Greek is to look it up in the online lexica in either Bible Study Tools or Blue Letter Bible (see above). If TDNT has an entry for the word, it will show a citation giving first the volume number, then the page number for the beginning of entry. (You can disregard the number after the comma, which refers to the abridged version of TDNT.)