What is Strong's Concordance, and how to use it
If you have ever seen a little number next to a Bible word — like love (G26) — that is Strong’s. It is one of the most useful tools in study Bibles, and also one of the most misunderstood. Here is what it actually is, and how to use it well on a phone.
What is Strong’s Concordance?
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, first published in 1890, gave every distinct Hebrew and Greek word in the Bible a unique number — Hebrew numbers prefixed H, Greek prefixed G. The point was to let a reader without Hebrew or Greek connect an English word back to the specific original word behind it. So when two different English words translate the same Greek term — or one English word translates several different ones — Strong’s numbers let you see what is really going on underneath the translation.
A Strong’s number is a key, not a definition. On its own, G26 just says “this is Greek word #26.” Its value is what it unlocks: a lexicon entry, and a list of every other verse that uses the same word.
How do you use it for study?
Two moves do most of the work:
- Look up the word’s meaning. Follow the Strong’s number to a lexicon entry to read the actual range of meaning — not just the one English word your translation chose.
- Trace the word everywhere it appears. Use the concordance side of Strong’s to find every verse that uses that same original word, and watch how the meaning is shaped by usage across Scripture.
In Scribe, every word in the Berean Standard Bible (BSB) and Majority Standard Bible (MSB) carries its Strong’s number. Tap one to read the full Liddell-Scott-Jones (Greek) or Brown-Driver-Briggs (Hebrew) definition, then open the concordance to see every verse that Strong’s number appears in — all bundled on the device, with no connection required.
Strong’s is a starting line, not a finish line
A common mistake is treating the Strong’s gloss as the “real” meaning of a word and reading it into every verse. Words mean what they mean in context; a number does not override the sentence around it. That is why the lexicon matters: Liddell-Scott-Jones and Brown-Driver-Briggs lay out a word’s full range so you can choose the sense that fits, instead of forcing one gloss everywhere. The concordance keeps you honest by showing how the word is actually used.
Doing it on a phone
Historically this meant flipping between a concordance volume and a lexicon. On a phone it should be two taps. In Scribe, tapping a tagged word opens the original token, transliteration, the full LSJ or BDB definition, plain-English Hebrew morphology, and the concordance listing — in one panel, fully offline. There is no separate website to load and no page to wait on.
| What a Strong’s tap shows in Scribe | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original token | The Greek or Hebrew word itself |
| Transliteration | The word in the Latin alphabet |
| Strong’s number | H#### (Hebrew) or G#### (Greek) |
| Parsing / morphology (Hebrew) | Grammatical form, decoded into plain English |
| Full definition | Liddell-Scott-Jones (Greek) or Brown-Driver-Briggs (Hebrew) |
| Concordance | Every verse that Strong’s number appears in |
Where to go next
Strong’s is the on-ramp to original-language study; once you are comfortable jumping from a number to a lexicon to a concordance, you are doing the same work the big platforms are built around. For why a Strong’s gloss alone falls short — and what a full lexicon adds — see Greek word study beyond Strong’s. For the full picture, see Greek and Hebrew word study on your iPhone, or the word study feature with LSJ and BDB. For putting it to work day to day, see the Strong’s Concordance app for iPhone. And because Scribe is a one-time purchase, the whole concordance loop is yours without a subscription.