 Computers in Bible Study  The computer can be used to advantage in understanding Scripture. There are many programmes available, offering searches in English for a number of translations of the Bible. Some will also allow searches using Strong's Reference Numbers (SRN). Details of using a particular programme are not given, for there are as many methods as there are programmes. The results obtained from a search performed for one English word are demonstrated. First the computer is asked to find every occurrence of the word 'judge' in the King James Version of the New Testament. There are 58 references:-
The printout obtained from examining the first reference is Mat 5:25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. A similar result would be obtained from examining any of these 58 verses. But this seems a rather small number of references to such an important subject. It would be useful to know which Greek words are translated 'judge'. Some programmes will allow a search for words which have been translated as a particular English word. The computer finds 67 occurrences of 'judge'. This is more than the 58 found for the English word 'judge' in the first search. Some verses must contain 'judge' more than once. Table 1 lists the 67 words, grouped according to the Greek words translated 'judge'. Six words are listed. The programme shows how many times each word is so translated. One word has the number '0'. This is an example of a word printed in italics in the Authorised Version, where the word is supplied by the translators although it does not exist in the original text.
Asking the computer to search the New Testament for the occurrences of each of these words by its Strong's Reference Number (i.e. by the Greek word) gives the following results.
These references show the difference between searching by word and number. Two important conclusions can be drawn from this table. (1) A Greek word may be translated to more than one English word. (2) Sometimes more information may be found by searching for Greek words rather than English words. As a number of other words for judge are derived from 2919, it will be examined in more detail. A typical computer printout when searching for words by their Strong number is
Strong's numbers for most of the words in the verse are given. Notably here, 2919, (  ) is translated as condemn. The following verses show in bold different ways this word is translated.
The one Greek word has been translated in thirteen different ways.
As this word occurs 96 times in the New Testament, and has been translated in so many ways, a careful examination of the 96 verses is worthwhile. Maybe some of them could be better translated than the way they have been in whatever version of the Bible is being studied. A problem arises here. The Bible student who does not know Greek has difficulty in deciding which is the best translation in some cases. The context can be helpful. Context may be within the verse as in Rom 14:5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.'One man judges one day above another' clearly means the man thinks one day is better or more important than another. He esteems that day. 'Esteem' is a better translation than 'judge' for 'esteem' defines the kind of judgement involved without forcing the reader to work it out. The context of the surrounding verses may help, as in Acts 20:15 - 16. And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios; and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium; and the next day we came to Miletus. Paul had judged to sail by, or bypass, Ephesus for a particular reason. He decided or determined to do this and the context of his choosing his route shows 'determined' is a good translation. Context may also relate to other passages altogether, as in Acts 16:4 And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. This verse relates to the events of Acts 15, where the apostles and elders in Jerusalem were asked to decide what was required of Gentiles who became Christians - should they be circumcised? The council met, decided, and James stated their decision in Acts 15:19-20. Wherefore my sentence (krinw) is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.Those in Jerusalem decreed or ordained what was to be done. It was a judgement, but 'ordained' carries the meaning of what they did, and is a good translation. The message given in Acts 15:19 - 20 is the one referred to as 'ordained' in Acts 16:4. This illustrates some of the kind of reasoning which must be applied to make sense of the words employed in the Bible. It is much more complex than this, and the following section shows where more help may be found. So far the computer has been used as a fast concordance. It can do much more than that. If your interest is deeper, and better grammatical information is required, then it is worth investigating more advanced software. Accordance is probably the most advanced available. It allows you to do grammatical searches and will parse Greek and Hebrew words. Remaining with the English word 'judge', and also searching for 'krino' gives the following information on one verse.
There is much more to Accordance than this illustration, for the programme contains lexicons to explain the words, and a number of commentaries and other tools to help with understanding. It is a complex and powerful programme. Details are available from The Gramcord Institute. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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