Christian Articles Archive
Review: Crosswalk.com Bible Study Tools
Reviewed by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
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New discipleship / spiritual
formation 
curriculum for new believers
I'm very impressed with Crosswalk.com Bible Study Tools. http://bible.crosswalk.com/ In addition to about 20 English translations of the Bible, as well as other languages, there is an impressive display of Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, lexicons, histories, concordances, commentaries, and sermon helps. While nearly all of these are more than a century old, many are excellent. Some of them are on my bookshelf at home and get frequent use.
In particular, I like their New Testament Greek Lexicon, based primarily on Joseph Henry Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889).. Though Thayer's is a century old, I often refer to it because of its unique treatment of Greek word derivations. http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/Greek/
However, the real power in the online NT Greek Lexicon doesn't lie just in the word definitions, but in the ability to look at the usage of a particular Greek word wherever it occurs in the NT, in either the KJV or NASB. In turn, each verse is keyed to a number of online works, including the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, which gives references to verses with similar thoughts elsewhere throughout the Bible.
The NT Greek Lexicon is also keyed to other mostly century-old works and commentaries which include Darby's Synopsis of New Testament; Gill's Exposition of the Bible; Geneva Study Bible; Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Commentary; Matthew Henry's Complete and Concise Commentaries; People's New Testament; Wesley's Explanatory Notes; Nave's Topical Bible; Torrey's Topical Textbook; Baker's Evangelical Dictionary; Easton's Bible Dictionary; Hitchcock's Bible Names; Prophecy Dictionary; Smith's Bible Dictionary; and a couple of Spurgeon's works. These are of mixed quality -- some very good and others of questionable value and interpretation. I especially appreciate Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology (Baker, 1960), edited by Everett F. Harrison, one of my beloved seminary professors -- a helpful summary of evangelical thought and doctrine. http://bible.crosswalk.com/Dictionaries/BakersEvangelicalDictionary/
I also use Robertson's Word Pictures of the New Testament and occasionally Spurgeon's Treasury of David. The Crosswalk.com Bible Study Tools collection includes all the Ante- and Post-Nicene Fathers, as well as Eusebius' Church History and Josephus' Wars of the Jews and Antiquities of the Jews. An Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon is based on the respected Brown, Driver, Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Clarendon Press, 1907) -- dated, but only partially replaced by later Hebrew lexicons. http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/OldTestamentHebrew/
For my own Bible study, I have been a happy user of iExalt's WordSearch Bible Study Software (Greek and Hebrew Library) for a number of years. And though some of the features in WordSearch are better and faster than Crosswalk.com's online tools, some of the research tools available free on Crosswalk.com would cost me hundreds of dollars to activate in WordSearch.
Overall, Crosswalk.com Bible Study Tools offers a fabulous library for the serious Bible student, unparalleled on the Internet. I strongly recommend it. http://bible.crosswalk.com/
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