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Concordance Search (Searching the Bible)

The Bible Search (or concordance) provides a way to search for occurrences of words or phrases throughout the Bible.

The Bible search is useful when you are looking for all of the Biblical references to a person, place, or concept. It is also helpful when searching for a particular passage, for which you can't recall the reference but can recall a word or phrase. The Bible search will find every occurrence of that word or phrase.

To perform a concordance search:

1. Click the Concordance tab in the NavPanel.

2. Type the desired word or phrase in the Word or phrase edit box.

3. If you want the search to find only those occurrences which exactly match the case that you have entered, click the check box labeled Case Sensitive. (For example, a case sensitive search for "Lord" would find every occurrence of "Lord"; while a non-case sensitive search would find every occurrence of "Lord", "lord", and "LORD".)

4. If you wish to limit the search within a specific range of books (e.g., just Psalms, or just the Gospels), specify the desired Start Book and End Book. You can click the Start Book or End Book edit box and type the book name or you can click the bm4 button and select the book from a complete list. The Start Book must precede, or be the same as, the End Book.

5. Click the bm7 button to begin the search or click the bm10 button to exit the Bible Search dialog without performing the search. (Note: The OK button will be disabled until you have entered a word or phrase for which to search.)

To view the results of a concordance search:

1. The results of a Bible search are displayed in a Bible Window, with the search results being displayed in a Search Pane at the top of the window. The number of matches found, the version searched, and the word or phrase used in the search are displayed at the top of the Search Pane.

2. To resize the Search Pane and Bible Pane, move the mouse cursor to the horizontal splitter between the two, until the cursor appears as bm49, then click and drag the splitter line to see more or less of the search results. In the same way, you can resize the Search Pane by moving the mouse cursor to the vertical splitter between the Reference and Context titles, until the cursor appears as bm48, then click and drag the splitter line to see more or less of the Reference pane.

3. As mentioned above, the Search Pane is divided into two sections: Reference and Context. Reference displays the Bible reference for each match found during the search. Double-click any reference to display that Bible text in the Bible pane. Context displays the match, along with some of the text "surrounding" the match, to give a sense of the context. Every match found is highlighted, both in the Context pane and in the Bible pane.

4. Often, a Bible search will find more matches than can be displayed at one time in the Search Pane. Use the scroll bar (located at the far right of the Search Pane) to scroll through all of the matches found.

Also See:

Bible Window for instructions on viewing Bible text.

Englishman's Concordance Search for instructions on searching the Bible, based on the original language (Greek or Hebrew) root word.

How to Search for instructions on searching other reference materials for a word or phrase.

Word or Phrase Search for detailed instructions on search criteria, including AND and OR searches, combinative searches, wild-cards, and more.