Bible Research Guide

A concordance is simply an alphabetized index of every word in the bible.  You can use a concordance to locate every occurrence of a word throughout the bible.  With a concordance you will be able to 1) find a particular bible passage based on vocabulary you know; 2) track down a particular word wherever it occurs to learn nuances based on context; 3) see where particular theological concerns arise in the various writings.

Make sure you use a concordance that matches the translation of the bible that you are using.  Since the concordance is an index to a particular vocabulary, using a concordance for a different translation could be confusing since it references words that may or may not appear in your translation.

Most of you will be using the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) which is pictured below.

There are other concordances in the reference room, such as: