Pictorial Guide to Using Strong’s and Vine’s

Over the years, perhaps no two books have proved more useful for moving the typical Christian student beyond simply reading God’s word in English to studying in more depth than the classic Strong’s Concordance and Vine’s Expository Dictionary.

Though a bit dated, Strong’s and Vine’s still serve the church well with good content and easy access. You can find these works in most any Christian bookstore or major book seller; beyond this, you can find them sold together for great deals. (This even fails to mention what may be out there online).

To encourage Bible students to go deeper in their study, I have wanted to provide a pictorial guide to using Strong’s and Vine’s together in Bible study. Here will be something that a Christian could come back to again or follow along with and see exactly (or close to it) what he will see when he opens his Bible and these books.

How to Use Strong’s and Vine’s in Word Studies: Example 1, “Life” in Colossians 3:4

Colossians 3:4

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

You read Colossians 3:4 above and wonder what does this mean that Christ is my life. Maybe if I knew more about the word “life” or saw how it was used elsewhere in the Bible, I might get a better idea.

You first go for Strong’s.

Then you find the “Life” entry in Strong’s. This will list all the times the word “life” appears in the KJV translation (some editions of Strong’s or other concordances list according to different Bible versions [i.e., NIV, ESV, NASB]).

Note the many times “life” occurs in the Bible.

Look for the verse you are studying. In this case, we find Colossians 3:4 listed as “Col 3:4.”

While you are there, note as well the many occurrences of the same Greek word (indicated by the number “2222″).

Now turn to the back of Strong’s and discover the Greek word. Look for your number “2222″ and see what Greek word is there.

Now with this information (and even more!) you can dive in Vine’s and find an expanded definition of this very Greek word, keyed to the number 2222.

As you open Vine’s, be sure to be in the correct section, whether Old or New Testament. Since we are studying Colossians, we must be sure to be in the New Testament section.

In Vine’s you look up our word (“life”). Upon scanning Vine’s entry for “life” (actually titled as “Life, Living, Lifetime, Life-Giving”), one notices that nine different Greek words are defined. You must carefully look for the actual word which we discovered from Strong’s. Look for the number of our word we saw in Strong’s; in this case, we are looking for number 2222.

Here it is! Note as well that under his discussion of word 2222, Vine’s mentions our specific verse in question: Colossians 3:4.

*****

I close this guide with two thoughts:

• First, word studies are helpful and essential in Bible study, but they can be abused. D.A. Carson so painfully and helpfully makes this assertion in his Exegetical Fallacies (see his chapter on “Word-Study Fallacies,” at least in the second edition). In short, do not let a word study supremely(that is, domineeringly) govern your reading of a verse or passage. Let the context reign to give the passage’s meaning while using the word studies to nuance or help draw out the passage’s significance.
• Second, though one can find Vine’s definition and the essential content in Strong’s online (see Blue Letter Bible), I recommend not using electronic resources over books all the time, especially for beginning students. Though it does take more time and you make end up with a few paper cuts, you will learn more by perusing through the old books. You pick up more in the surrounding context to your entry; for example, when you simply click on life and it gives you the definition for “zoe” (2222), you are unable to easily compare it with the other words translated “life,” like “bios” for example. These things you pick up by digging in the books themselves.

Feeling Condemned?

As I started my devotions this morning, I have felt some of the heaviness of my sin and unworthiness. It can be suffocating and life taking. We must fight with the word that gives life and trust, every day, in the precious promises of Christ’s gospel.

For an “Ask Pastor John,” John Piper was asked, “Do you ever have doubts about the sincerity of your devotion to Christ? If so, what do you pray and where do you go in God’s word?”

Does he ever doubt?

And the answer is, Yes, I do. And they’re very scary. I don’t blow them off.

Why would such a passionate and accomplished Christian doubt?

I’ve been a Christian for 52-53 years. I’ve been in the ministry, I suppose, since I was 28 (before that, if you count seminary and school). And I’m 63 now. Why should I be wondering about this?

Satan is very, very deceptive. Our own hearts are very fallen. Indwelling sin is real. And there are low seasons in life that come from physical features, emotional features, and spiritual attack that make you ask the most frightening questions. “Am I doing this because I’m making a living at it? Am I a pastor because it has gone well (and why would you not want to have your life go well)? I haven’t been persecuted enough recently, and I see some evidences that my life hasn’t borne as much fruit as I would like.” So, yes.

It is so scary when that happens because if that took hold and conquered, then you would be over. Your faith would be over, your ministry would be over, and it would be terrifying.

If the likes of John Piper must fight this fight for joy and faith in the gospel, what must we, fellow sinners, do?

So I plead with the Lord to open my eyes. I plead with him to incline my heart to his testimonies. I plead with him to pour out the love of God into my heart. I plead with him to help me see the glory of Christ as self-authenticatingly real and compelling. And I go to those places in the Bible that speak of his subjectively-experienced and objectively-grounded love for me.

Then Pastor John Piper proceeds to give an example of this battle in his own life:

I’ll just give you one. This is the way I did it this morning. I got up, and before I got out of bed, feeling some heaviness, I went in my head to Romans 5:5-6, because the two are brought together there: “Hope will not put you to shame, John Piper, because the love of God is poured out into your heart through the Holy Spirit who has been given to you.” …

In the same vein, my soul went to Romans 8:34 this morning: “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died–more than that, who was raised–who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” The logic of Paul runs this way.

• Who is going to condemn you, Rick Zaman? Well, it certainly will not be God.
• How would I know God would not condemn me?
• Look at the cross and tell me what you see.
• I see Christ Jesus being condemned and forsaken.
• Why is God’s most precious and beloved Son forsaken?
• Because He bore all my sins. God condemned Him instead of me.
• If God condemned His own Son fully and already, what condemnation remains for you?
• None! It is finished! It is done! Christ continues as my advocate (cf. 1 John 2:1) and pleads His death for me! I will not be condemned because Jesus was fully condemned for me! “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness!”

As he concludes his experience in fighting for joy from Romans 5, John Piper says,

That happened 2,000 years ago. I was loved 2,000 years ago, and now the Holy Spirit is given.

So where my mind goes is to the historic reality. He loved me there. Christ died for me. Holy Spirit, come! Open my eyes to this! Help me to see the wonder of this!

And he has to this point in my life. And I believe he will to the end. That’s what the doctrine of perseverance is. To this point in my life, he has done it. He has done it, and I pray that he’ll do it for you.

So, feeling condemned? Run back to Calvary! See Jesus fully condemned for you and know that no condemnation and guilt remains!

Bible’s Storyline: Gospel

In his article “The Biblical Gospel,” D. A. Carson summarizes the “Bible’s story-line (p. 6),”

God is the sovereign, transcendent and personal God who has made the universe, including us, his image-bearers. Our misery lies in our rebellion, our alienation from God, which, despite his forbearance, attracts his implacable wrath. But God, precisely because love is of the very essence of his character, takes the initiative and prepared for the coming of his own Son by raising up a people who, by covenantal stipulations, temple worship, systems of sacrifice and of priesthood, by kings and by prophets, are taught something of what God is planning and what he expects. In the fullness of time his Son comes and takes on human nature. He comes not, in first instance, to judge but to save: he dies the death of his people, rises from the the grave and, in returning to his heavenly Father, bequeaths the Holy Spirit as the down payment and guarantee of the ultimate gift he has secured for them–an eternity of bliss in the presence of God himself, in a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. The only alternative is to be shut out form the presence of this God forever, in the torments of hell. What men and women must do, before it is too late, is repent and trust Christ; the alternative is to disobey the gospel (Romans 10:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17).

Thinking through Your Bible Study

I am always interested in looking at different tools to help me and others study and understand the Scriptures.

“Arcing” is a tool that I have found rather useful from time to time. John Piper recommends it and depends heavily upon it for his study. When asked why is “arcing” important, John Piper said,

Well, it was—how shall I not overstate it?—really, really important for me in the Fall of 1968 and the Spring of 1969 to learn it. …

So arcing is important to help rethink an author’s thoughts after him and open the Bible in ways that, for me, it had never opened any other way.

Arcing is a tool that has helped me to think through the biblical author’s thoughts. It has been especially helpful when there are not the typical grammatical or verbal (i.e., conjunctions) connectors in the author’s writing. Arcing gives me a method to think through and break down how the different thoughts, say in a certain paragraph, fit together.

Click here to hear John’s Piper full response and here he too gives a brief example.

Here you will find John Piper’s Biblical Exegesis where there are detailed instructions on how to “arc.”

Also, you can find even more about “arcing” in Thomas Schreiner’s Interpreting the Pauline Epistles (chapter 6, “Tracing the Argument”). For figuring out how to do arcing myself, I have found Schrieiner’s discussion the most helpful.

BTW: Truth be told, I do not use “arcing” all that much. I only arc when I come to naughty paragraphs that I am having great difficulty “unlocking.” Actually, I am working on one right now for Hebrews 1:1-4. Normally, I will do “phrasing” as described by William Mounce in his A Graded Reader of Biblical Greek. I’ll have more about this later. But, you can click here to get the gist of “phrasing” from Mounce on pages (xv-xxviii).