This work, as the title-page indicates, consists of several portions somewhat distinct but naturally related, all having reference to one great object, a thorough verbal index to the Holy Scriptures, as they exist in the three most important forms now known to the British and American readers and scholars, namely, the partly Hebrew and partly Greek original text, and the "Authorized" and "Revised" ** English Versions. The basis of the whole work is the first and much the largest portion, to which this Preface more particularly applies. The design and use of the succeeding portions are explained in the Prefaces to them respectively.
The present work is entitled "The Exhaustive Concordance" of the text of the English Bible ordinarily in use, because it is the only one hitherto constructed that gives all the words of that book and all the passages where they are found; and in this respect no Concordance can ever be made more perfect.
In its preparation three great features have been constantly kept in view, completeness, simplicity, and accuracy. It is intended to be a permanent standard for purposes of reference: so full in its vocabulary and lists that every one consulting it will be sure to find a passage easily and quickly, by seeking it under any word whatever that it contains; so plain in its arrangement that a child cannot miss his way in using it; so correct in its citations, both numerical and verbal, that the most scholarly may implicitly depend upon it.* A mere comparison with other works of the kind hitherto produced, however useful they may have been in their place, will reveal the fact that none of them perfectly or adequately combines these advantages; and it will especially be evident that they all fall short in the most essential requisite, namely, completeness.
For this reason no preceding work of the kind has been taken as a basis for the present one; it is entirely independent of them all. The passages were collected directly from the sacred text, and they have been repeatedly compared with it, both in the manuscript and in type, in so careful and thorough a manner as to test satisfactorily their exhaustiveness and exactness. The comparatively few passages?chiefly unimportant particles, which have at last been found to have escaped all previous verification, are given in the Addenda at the close of this vocabulary.?
By observing the subjoined Directions, in the associated use of the Comparative Concordance ** and the Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries, the reader will have substantially a Concordance-Lexicon of both the Authorized and the Revised English Version, as well as of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament.
* The most unsparing industry and scrupulous care have been exercised to weed out all errors, as the work was passing through the press, by means of varied and minute verification with the English and the original texts; but in a task so extended and of such intricacy and peculiar detail, the author cannot hope to have escaped all errata, whether typographical or clerical. He feels confident, however, that in the most essential part of the work, namely, the Main Concordance, which gives the means of readily finding any passage in the Common Version?the purpose for which a Concordance is usually consulted?this will rarely if ever be found defective. He will be thankful to any of his readers who will do him the favor of pointing out any errors that they may discover in it, with a view to their future correction.
? In such cases a small caret mark (thus ^) is added immediately after the leading word at the heading of the corresponding article in the Main Concordance, in order to call the reader's attention to these further citations in the Addenda. Where the heading has itself been omitted, the caret is set horizontally in its place (thus >).
** The Revised Version, and now even the American Standard Revised Version, have fallen into relative disuse. The King James Version continues to hold the field, having withstood myriads of versions since this work appeared in 1894. For this reason, we have dropped the Comparative Concordance to the Revised Version.
1. All the original words are treated in their alphabetical Greek order, and are numbered regularly from the first to the last, each being known throughout by its appropriate number. This renders reference easy without recourse to the Greek characters.
2. Immediately after each word is given its exact equivalent in English letters, according to the system of transliteration laid down in the scheme here following, which is substantially that adopted in the Common English Version, only more consistently and uniformly carried out; so that the word could readily be turned back again into Greek from the form thus given it.
3. Next follows the precise pronunciation, according to the usual English mode of sounding syllables, so plainly indicated that none can fail to apprehend and apply it. The most approved sounds are adopted, as laid down in the annexed scheme of articulation, and in such a way that any good Grcist would immediately recognise the word if so pronounced, notwithstanding the minor variations current among scholars in this respect.
4. Then ensues a tracing of the etymology, radical meaning, and applied significations of the word, justly but tersely analyzed and expressed, with any other important peculiarities in this regard.
5. In the case of proper names, the same method is pursued, and at this point the regular mode of Anglicizing it, after the general style of the Common English Version, is given, and a few words of explanation are added to identify it.
6. Finally (after the punctuation mark :?) are given all the different renderings of the word in the Authorized English Version, arranged in the alphabetical order of the leading terms, and conveniently condensed according to the explanations given below.
By searching out these various renderings in the Main Concordance, to which the Dictionary is designed as a companion, and noting the passages to which the same number corresponding to that of any given Greek word is attached in the marginal column, the reader, whether acquainted with the original language or not, will obtain a complete Greek Concordance also, expressed in the words of the Common English Version. This is an advantage which no other Concordance or Lexicon affords.
+ (addition) denotes a rendering in the A. V. of one or more Gr. Words in connection with the one under consideration.
× (multiplication) denotes a rendering in the A. V. that results from an idiom peculiar to the Gr.
( ) (parenthesis), in the renderings of the A. V., denotes a word or syllable sometimes given in connection with the principal word to which it is annexed.
[ ] (bracket), in the rendering from the A. V., denotes the inclusion of an additional word in the Gr.
Italics, at the end of a rendering from the A. V., denote an explanation of the variations from the usual form.
KJV Usage: Alpha.
Often used (usually ἄν, before a vowel) also in composition (as a contraction from G427) in the sense of privation; so, in many words, beginning with this letter; occasionally in the sense of union (as a contraction of G260). G427 G260KJV Usage: Alpha.