I looked through some concordances while I was bored in the New College Library the other day.

I really love Robert Young's Analytical Concordance. Young's is a concordance to the Authorised Version, so the entries are the English words used in the AV. But each English-language entry groups together all the words in the Greek New Testament and Hebrew Old Testament which correspond to that English word, and lists all the occurrences of each of those words in their respective source texts. That makes it a perfect tool for understanding the relationships between the biblical source texts. The only disadvantage is that it doesn't seem at all interested in the Septuagint, which is really important for understanding the way New Testament authors use the Old Testament.

It astonished me that there are concordances available of the NIV and ESV texts. Why would you want that? The texts don't correspond very well to the Greek or Hebrew source texts, and they don't have nearly as much clout as self-standing faith texts as the Authorised Version does. I really don't get it. If I had one, I would probably never open it.

I couldn't get ahold of a Strong's, but I did happen to drop in Armchair Books on the way back from the library, and they have a beautiful 19th-century Cruden's Concordance. Cruden's was the first English-language concordance when its eponymous author painstakingly constructed it in 1737, and has never been out of print since then. By the looks of it, it remains very relevant for English-speaking readers of the Bible. And going for a bargain as well... if you get there before me, I'll eat your head.
