Concordances and Bible Browsers

Online Bible Browsers

There are online bible browsers that can help you find specific passages or terms.  One good one is the Oremus Bible Browser at

http://bible.oremus.org/  It has the NRSV translation.  You should uncheck hide verse numbers.  You can search for a particular passage or a key term such as “Abraham” or “covenant”.  You tell the browser in which book or range of biblical books to look.  It will pop up the passages with some context and provide a link to the passages in the chapters in which they occur.  You can also tell the browser to pop up a specific biblical passage.  For example, Genesis 12:1-12.

For passage and keyword searches ("concordance-like searches"), there are a number of other helpful sites as well.  Two  are the  Unbound Bible  and http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/   You can select from a number of translations on these sites.  Some allow you to compare verses in several translations at the same time.  These are like parallel bibles.

One difficulty is that the same word in Hebrew or Greek may be translated by several English terms

Physical Concordances

There are also physical books that have keyword searches.  These are called concordances.  They list key terms or phrases in alphabetical order, indicating in what biblical passages the terms occur.  Of course, a Hebrew concordance for the Hebrew Bible and a Greek concordance for the New Testament are best as they will always find the passages using a term or phrase in the original language.  However, there are some good English concordances.  One good one our library has is The Concise Concordance to the New Revised Standard Version. New York : Oxford University Press, c1993. UI Library Main Stacks Call Number: BS425.C66 1993 . Another in the reference section on the first floor is Goodrick, Edward W., The NIV Exhaustive Concordance. Grand Rapids, Mich. : Zondervan Pub. House, c1990. UI Library Reference Collection (non-circulating) Call Number: Ref BS425.G62 1990