This is not a thorough review of “Key Word” study Bibles; it is a brief discussion of their place and use in studying Scripture at the word level.

Bibles available with “Key Word” entries and notes for underlying Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words of Scripture can be useful tools for the student interested in “word studies,” but they are not replacements for a careful process. These Bibles are standard English translations (NKJV, ESV, NIV, NASB, etc.) where, in addition to cross references and study notes found in many study Bibles, “key words” are indicated and references given to notes with Strong’s reference numbers. Strong’s “dictionaries” of Hebrew and Greek words are included in the back so that the reader can note the key word he/she is interested in and look up the information provided by Strong’s. Most “key word” Bibles available today are published by AMG publishers (see below for Nelson’s key word Bible), and their Strong’s “dictionaries” also expand many of the entries with additional information. The amended entries are needed since Strong’s notes are more than a century old.

The word “dictionaries” is in quotes here and in the previous paragraph because Strong’s entries are not, and they were never intended to be, definitions in the sense we usually find in standard dictionaries. In his notes for his Hebrew and Greek dictionaries, James Strong made it clear that his listing of Hebrew and Greek words are followed first by what he termed the “radical meaning” of the word and then by English words in the KJV used to translate the original word. The word “radical” refers to the fundamental, core, root meaning of a word, which is far different from the definition of a word. It is a “gloss” of the biblical language into a very simple English rendering. The radical meaning conveys the essential idea of a word, which is then used in its context to convey specific, focused nuances of meaning based on how it is used. Grammatical and syntactic elements shape the intent of the author in his choice and use of words in their context. Elements such as tense, voice, number, and other characteristics of the biblical language such as verb mood (Greek) or stem (Hebrew) have a significant and determinative impact on meaning. Strong’s does not provide any information to understand the meaning of words in those terms, and it was not his intention to do so. The expanded entries provided by AMG does provide more insight into the meaning of words, but those entries cannot account for all contextually-dependent elements for the actual usage of each word.

It needs to be noted here that for NT Greek, AMG provides grammatical information for verbs, along with a guide to understanding the grammatical abbreviations found in NT passages. The notes are very brief and dense. The information is good, and the examples provided are good as well, but to the person unfamiliar with grammatical terms, the notes would be very confusing. To the person familiar with English grammar, the notes might help clarify some aspects of verb usage, but there would need to be more research done with other tools, such as the grammatical information available with online interlinears or from NT Greek grammar books.

A benefit of the “key word” editions is the indication of which words in a passage are, in fact, “key.” This is a subjective evaluation by the publishers, but it is a good step forward for students who are new to the idea of finding key words in a passage (see, for example, the discussions of key words and key verbs in Living by the Book by Howard and William Hendricks). The scholarship involved in identifying key words is a great advantage to students of Scripture wanting and needing help in working through a passage of Scripture in order to come to a sound conclusion as to the meaning of that passage. As just mentioned, however, the noted key words are provided by the publishers and tie into the notes they are bringing to their editions. Any other word in a passage of Scripture is worth the student’s time and attention.

The “Key Word” Bible published by Thomas Nelson (using the KJV) has a different approach from that of AMG Publishers. The Nelson edition is more focused on providing notes on the key word as used in its context, which is a great benefit to the student. This makes the notes more of a commentary than a language tool, but the commentary is specifically dealing with word usage. The notes present an obvious theological orientation, but that is the case with any commentary or notes provided in study Bibles. In the examples I have read in the Nelson key word Bible, the notes represent a traditional, evangelical perspective, which I appreciate. The notes are a good balance of insightful language-related information and conservative theology. It is also worth noting that Nelson’s edition also uses Strong’s reference numbers and provides indexes for both Hebrew and Greek words (transliterated into English spellings).

While a welcome addition to the wealth of biblical language tools, there is no method or guidance given for how to use the information. That was not the intent of either publisher, so the student using these tools needs to understand that there still must be a careful, thoughtful analysis of each word in its context, and no single language tool provides that. The language tools are there to be consulted as the student takes steps through the necessary process of discovering the contextual meaning of a word. “Key word” study Bibles provide information in a handy form for those who can bring to it a methodical approach to ascertaining word meanings in context. The student cannot simply look up an entry in a “key word” Bible and walk away with an understanding of the meaning of a word. The result of looking up these entries is an understanding of the core (Strong’s “radical”) meaning of a word at the level of its general semantic domain, or, in the case of Nelson’s edition, a better understanding of the word in its context, though it is still a brief summary; more work needs to be done by the student. A word’s meaning in context cannot be gleaned from a dictionary or lexical entry without knowing its contextual grammatical properties, filtering out other nuances that depend on grammatical usage and comparing specific usages in other contexts.