Bliblical Language Resources

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Biblical Language Resources

For People who don't Know Greek and Hebrew

The English Bible is Translated

The original language clarifies a lot of Scriptures which can be ambiguous in English, and at the same time, the English translation can be interpretive or assumptive when the original language is non-specific. There are many instances where any serious Bible student will want to do some language checks.

Webster's, Strong's, and Vine's

A Good English Dictionary - This is an important reference, as nobody has a perfectly complete vocabulary. Honestly, I opened my dictionary in Bible study more often as a young man than I do now, but English comes before Greek and Hebrew.

I like Webster's Collegiate dictionary, because my hometown pastor told me every word in the (KJV) Bible was covered by Webster dictionaries, but primaily because a godly grandmother gave me one for high school graduation, so it's the one I've normally used all these years.

When I went to Bible school and studied hermeneutics I ended up needing (and getting) a Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - these are physically huge - great for stacking other books on top of, but was peerless support for a few classes. It's a collected novelty now.

Webster's 1828 Dicionary (available online) is preferred by many people who use the KJV Bible as it not only includes all the archaic terms, but it actually provides not only word-definition, but a degree of biblical-use context. It is not a Bible Dictionary, such as Unger's or Smith's, but a regular word-definition dictionary which is specifically harmonious with the KJV Bible.

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible - This is the de facto standard for key-word studies. In the front section of the book, you look up any English word, and it lists all the Bible verses including that word (keyed to KJV), and by each verse reference is a number for a Greek or Hebrew (or Aramaic) word definition. The back section of the book has the definitions listed in numberic order for simple lookup. The word definitions are well written, and reference root words and similar words. Between the definitions and understanding the roots and similar usages, the reader gets a good understanding of the word used in the original language.

As the long-established standard, 'Strongs Numbers' are used in many reference books and software, and are even shown in superscipt in many electronic Bible texts. Even though the English wordlist to find these numbers are keyed to KJV, modern references use the number with whatever version they choose, as they represent the original language words. Strong's numbers and definitions are almost always included (free) in any Bible software, and is available on online resouces. The physical book is alarmingly large (second only to my unabridged dictionary), but inexpensive.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words - This is the long-time standard companion reference for Strongs. It is divided into Old and New Testaments, you look up the word in English, and it gives you expanded definitions of original language words which correspond to that English word. Simple, useful, and more depth of understanding than using Strongs by itself. For basic key-word studies Strongs and Vines make an excellent team. Like Strongs, Vine's is long out of copyright, and so is freely available in electronic references, and the physical book is available and inexpensive.

Parallel/Interlinear Bibles

Parallel/Interlinear Bibles give you the text of multiple translations side-by-side (or above/below) so that you can directly compare. Anyone can benefit from seeing the literal word-for-words, but Interlinears are really nice if you actually have had 'some' Greek/Hebrew, or are currently taking a biblical language course. There are several distinctions regarding source-texts which must be understood when using these interlinears.

Old Testament - Masoretic Text The Masoretic text is used for both the KJV and almost all modern versions, and the difference between the KJV's source (Ben Chayyim Rabbinic Bible) and modern CT Bibles' Masoretic source (Leningrad Codex) is negligable (I only know of 9 passages which vary). I am not aware of a (printed) interlinear keyed to the Leningrad Old Testament. Green's Interlinear uses the Masoretic Text from the Ben Chayyim Rabbinic Bible.

Old Testament - Septuagint Text The Septuagint text is preferred by Eastern Orthodox churches and is the version which Christ and the Apostles quoted in the New Testament. Brenton's Septuagint with Apocrypha uses this text. This is a parallel presentation in Greek with outside columnes of literally translated English text. Note that this Bible is Old Testament only.

New Testament - Textus Receptus Text The Textus Receptus (TR) is used for the King James Version of the Bible, and for the majority of the text of the New King James Version. Green's Interlinear uses the TR for the New Testament.

New Testament - Critical Texts The Critical Texts (generically) vary from the TR and is the Greek source for the New Testament of almost all modern Bibles. The Interlinear Bible I recommend is "The Greek-English Interlinear ESV New Testament" (2018) by Crossway, using the 28th ed of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (NA28). For many years I have used "Alfred Marshall's Interlinear NASB-NIV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English," (1993) which uses NA21. Note that these Bibles are New Testament only, and also that both Bibles included the footnotes of the translation versions used.

Word-for-Word Literal Translations

Young's Literal Translation is an excellent resource, or Green's, you skip the Greek and Hebrew, but still get the word-for-word accuracy of the original languages. Many 'literal' Bibles are out there, but few are word-for-word literal. These Bibles based on the same OT & NT manuscripts of the KJV. I am not currently aware of a good equivalent word-for-word literal translation using Critical Text sources (use interlinears or software).

Technical Commentary on Translations

There are three references which I use, all of which I think I can call modern standards. These are references where the authors give actual commentary about the translation, and possible alternative translations.

Expositor's Bible Commentary by Frank E Gaebelein - The set is comprised of commentary by several authors, but the publication is done to a consistantly high standard. These commentaries bring a rather technical discussion on passages, often including aspects of translation.

New English Translation (NET) Bible - The NET Bible is uniquely valuable for it's incredibly extensive translation notes, which are well written and meaningful, explaining why the word or passage was translated as it was, and even going into alternate considerations. The extensiveness of these notes make this more of a translation reference than a Bible version, and I am not aware of any similar reference works.

A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament by Bruce M Metzger - This one blurs the line as far as usability for people who don't know Greek, but it is extremely useful when digging in to a manuscript-based translation issue. It helps if you're at least 'familiar' with Greek a little, but the book is (mostly) in English. Obviously, it only covers the New Testament.

Bible Software

Besides concordances, dictionaries, and interlinears, I only use simple Bible software programs such as e-Sword, Olive Tree, or website services. Lots of references are available, but I won't go into them here.

Bible translation software is beyond the scope of this article, but the short answer is Logos Software. You'll need to take your language classes before you'll appreciate the tools available, and you'll want to consult a rep before purchasing a package because there's a lot of variance and the packages are relatively expensive. Some schools (like Dallas Theological) will $include this already.