Concordance Assignment for Genesis 1-3
A concordance is a reference resource that lists every occurrence of every word that is in the Bible. Because each translation of the Bible contains slightly different vocabulary, each translation (version) of the Bible has its own concordance. For this reason it is best to use an online concordance.
www.biblegateway.com is recommended. Simply type in your search term and see which hits you get.
A concordance can be used for several different things:
- A concordance can help you find passages about particular themes.
- A concordance can tell you if a particular word is common or uncommon in the Bible.
- By showing the different contexts in which a word or phrase occurs, you can get more information about what terms or phrases mean.
- Using several concordances can sometimes tell you when words are translated differently in different versions.
For this assignment, you will do 3 concordance searches.
- Select one proper name from Genesis 1-3 (Adam, Eve). If the proper name you choose has only a single hit, select a different name.
- Search the term “serpent.”
- Search one of the following phrases: “tree of life” or “be fruitful and multiply.” (To search phrases, put them in quotation marks).
For each of your searches, provide the following information:
- Which version of the Bible did you use?
- How many hits did you get?
- Were the hits mostly in the Old Testament or the New Testament?
- Pick 2 hits for each search and read the passage (not just the verse—the passage—this might be the whole chapter, but it will at least be a paragraph. It will be easiest to determine the passage if you look it up in your actual Bible).
- Does your hit seem to refer to the same person, word or phrase?
- What more do you learn about the term from the additional passages or contexts?