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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!decvax!ram
From: ram@decvax.UUCP (Ram Rao)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: The best little bible in the world ...
Message-ID: <6@decvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Dec-84 23:05:57 EST
Article-I.D.: decvax.6
Posted: Mon Dec  3 23:05:57 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Dec-84 03:16:04 EST
References: <976@phs.UUCP> 
Reply-To: ram@decvax.UUCP (Ram Rao)
Organization: DEC Ultrix Engineering Group, Merrimack, NH
Lines: 48

In article  cfiaime@ihnp4.UUCP (Jeff Williams) writes:
>
>Certainly, not knowing Greek or Hebrew (yet) makes it more difficult because
>I can't go back to the original.
>
>					Jeff Williams
>					AT&T Bell Laboratories
>					ihnp4!cfiaime	

Well Jeff, there is still hope for some of the less learned amongst us
to derive some of the benefits of the original texts without knowing
the original languages.  The Strong's Concordance comes in editions in
which each word is associated with an index which uniquely identifies
the word in the original language (Hebrew or Greek as the case may be).
Hebrew and Greek lexicons found in the back of this concordance then
give you the word in the original, some hints how to pronounce it, and
various shades of meaning for that word.  For those interested in
pursuing word studies there are a number of other tools that are keyed
into Strong's indexing scheme:

1.  The Englishman's Greek Concordance.  Using the index found in Strong's
one can locate all occurences of the particular Greek word in the New
Testament; this Concordance actually enumerates the King James rendering
of the phrases containing that word.

2. The Englishman's Hebrew Concordance.  Similar to 1. for Hebrew and O.T.

3. The Englishman's Greek Lexicon.  A much more detailed lexicon than
Strong's.

4. The Englishman's Hebrew Lexicon.


I have used 1. extensively in personal Bible Study and found it rewarding.
For example, when nominated for deacon, I wanted to study what the Bible
said about deacons.  I was surprised to find that the Greek word translated
as "deacon" in 1 Tim 3:8 (and in fact every other place it appears) is the
noun form of the verb in Mark 10:45 : For even the Son of Man did not come
to be SERVED but to SERVE and to give His life a ransom for many.

I am waiting for the day when these tools will be available on-line, so I
won't have to have 3 books open in front of me, flipping pages and matching
indices.  I understand there is a small company in Austin, Texas that is
working on computerized Bible tools along these lines.

Ram Rao
DEC Ultrix Engineering
ihnp4!decvax!ram