“The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible,” by James Strong, S. T. D., LL. D. 1810 large pages, 8½x11½. Bound in cloth, half-leather and whole leather bindings; prices respectively six, eight, and ten dollars. Eaton & Mains, New York.
One of the first books to come to our table since our fire is the one named above. It is welcome; for after careful and exhaustive examination, with strong friendship for other like works, we freely pronounce it the best concordance printed. Cruden’s unabridged is a good text-finder, with suggestive and useful definitions. Cruden’s abridged concordances have been useful as text-finders. Young’s Concordance is a weary disappointment in that respect, tho disappointingly helpful in the study of original terms. Strong’s Concordance has all the worth of Cruden’s as a text-finder, and is of far greater worth as a lexicon than Young’s. It possesses the excellencies of all others and the defects of none. This great concordance is a work of many years’ labor. It contains every word of the common English Version of the canonical books, and every occurrence of every word in regular order; a comparative concordance of the Common and Revised Versions, including the American variations; dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek words of the original, with references to the English words. Opposite each word in the concordance is a number referring to the original word in the Hebrew or Greek dictionary. By that means you can trace the original of the same English word, as for instance, “judge,” which comes from a half-dozen different words in the Hebrew, and half as many in the Greek. On the other hand, the lexicons, or dictionaries, give us the different words into which the original word is rendered, as for instance the Hebrew bow, a primitive root, meaning to go or come, and translated, “abide, apply, attain, be, befall,” and more than a score of other words, which may be found in the concordance. There is no Bible help equal to it; it puts in possession of the earnest intelligent student a complete English, Hebrew, and Greek concordance, as well as a Hebrew and Greek dictionary. It may be ordered through the SIGNS OF THE TIMES office.
The American Standard Revised Version of the Holy Bible, in all kinds of bindings, and ranging in prices from $1.00 to $10.00. Printed on good book paper and on thin India paper; bound in stiff covers, fine black cloth, in morocco, in levant, in sealskin; with reference and without reference; with no helps and with the finest helps. Thomas Nelson & Sons, 37 East 18th Street, New York City.
There was a feeling on the part of many scholars that when the Revised Version was published in 1885, the preferences of the American revisers were superior to those of the English. But the decisive vote rested with the latter, with the agreement that the American preferences should be published in every volume printed by the English University Presses for fourteen years after the above date. As soon as the Revised Version was published, the English revisers disbanded. The American Committee, however, held together, continued their study and research, and decided to give the world the benefit of their longer study and riper work. The result of their labors is the American Standard Revised Version, which includes more than is expressed in the appendix to the Revised Version. To our mind it is vastly superior to the English Version. Because
1. It embodies the results and benefits of all the years of scholarly criticism upon the work of the Revised Version.
2. It has longer time to revise and compare with the oldest extant Hebrew and Greek copies of the Scriptures.
3. It is more uniform in its renderings.
4. While it eliminates some of the obsolete terms used in the other versions, it seems to us that it preserves more of the sweetness of our common version.
5. It is not in any way a sectarian or denominational work; it represents thirty years devoted, earnest work of the best American scholars in all denominations.
6. The Common, or so-called “Authorized” Version of the Bible was completed in six years, with limitations placed upon the translators by the rules under which they did their work; by the original manuscripts they possessed; and by the environments around them. The American Standard Revised Version was the work of thirty years’ study.
7. It follows the paragraph form, the form of the original manuscripts, thus presenting the thought more clearly.
In short, the American Standard Revised Version is “the most accurate in translation, the most thorough in method, simplest in expression” of any translation yet produced. It has received the approval of the leading ministers of all denominations, presidents of colleges, of theological seminaries, of Bible training schools, great religious papers, and of devout students generally. It ought to be in every family; in the possession of every English reader.