James Strong (theologian)

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James Strong (1822-1894)

James Strong (August 14, 1822 – August 7, 1894) was an American Methodist biblical scholar and educator, and the creator of Strong's Concordance. He was born in New York City; was Professor of Biblical Literature at Troy University in 1858-61, became Professor of Exegetical Theology at Drew Theological Seminary in 1868 and died at Round Lake, New York.

His best known work is Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, first published in 1890, of which new editions are still in print as of 2006. Adaptations (e.g. Strongest Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: 21st Century Edition) are also now available.

For the concordance, Strong numbered every Hebrew or Greek root word which was found, for ease of reference. This numbering system (8674 Hebrew roots and 5523 Greek roots) is now used in works by many other writers and is widely available on the web[1] where it is used in conjunction with Wigram's Englishman's Concordances and Thayer's Lexicon.

Another major contribution was to the majesterial "Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature"^[1] (10 vols., 1867-81 ; supplement, 2 vols., 1885-7). Work on this project, having begun in 1853, Strong played second fiddle to Dr. John McClintock and did so for the preparation of the first few volumes. However, with Dr. McClintock's death in 1870, Strong took sole charge of the project to see it to its completion.

Amongst others, some of his lesser works are "A New Harmony and Exposition of the Gospels" (1852); "Scripture History delineated from the Biblical Records and all other Accessible Sources" (1878) and "The Tabernacle of Israel in the Desert" (1888).