This is episode 43 of the Giants of the Faith podcast where we look at Christians from the past 2000 years who have had an impact for the Kingdom. I'm Robert Daniels and I'm the host of this show.
Before we get into the show I want to apologize for the slow publishing schedule. There's been a lot going on in my personal life that has interrupted my research and writing time. But things are looking up now so I hope to return to a more regular cadence.
In this episode we're looking at James Strong, of Strong's Concordance fame. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance is an index of Hebrew and Greek words that are used in the Old and New Testaments in the King James Version of the Bible. It's been a very useful study aid for over 100 years and Strong's work continues to bear fruit today.
James Strong was born on August 14, 1822 in New York City to parents Thomas and Maria. James' father died in 1827 and his mother died shortly after so that, by the time he was seven, James was an orphan. His aunt - name unknown but sister to Maria - stepped up to raise James and his brother. He was reared in Flushing and then on Long Island and was raised in the Episcopal Church by his aunt and grandmother.
James wanted to become a doctor and, to that end, was sent to Lowville Academy in isolated upstate New York. When he finished his years at Lowvillle he moved on to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Wesleyan was, and is, a Methodist University. We don't know if Strong had left his Episcopalian roots behind before he went to Wesleyan or after but he did become a Methodist, and remained so for the rest of his life. At some point he gave up the idea of medicine as a career. He took an interest in Biblical studies and, importantly, Biblical languages.
When he finished school, graduating as valedictorian, he went into business and politics. Some of the high points of this part of his life include starting a railroad company and building the Flushing Railroad (which is still a part of New York's transit system). He also served as mayor of his hometown on Long Island. And as a teacher of Biblical literature. And even as a university president at Troy University. Through it all he maintained his faith.
In 1853 he published an article in The Christian Advocate magazine encouraging the Methodists to open a seminary in New York to be used to train and equip men for the ministry. Many Methodists rejected this idea and Strong was ridiculed. God chose and trained ministers, they said. Systematic teaching and training would only take God out of the equation and turn preachers into automatons. But this article would eventually bear fruit and served as a preview for the final stage of Strong's career.
While teaching, Strong met a man named John McClintock. McClintock was an academic and a Methodist and had a major influence on the course of Strong's life. McClintock was the editor of the Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature - a new project to collect and categorize contemporary Christian writing. McClintock brought on Strong to help him co-edit the project - which ended up being a massive 10 volume collection that was published between 1867 and 1887.
McClintock was also the chairman of the committee tasked with celebrating 100 years of American Methodism. As such, he was on the ground floor when steamship and railroad tycoon
Daniel Drew approached the committee with the idea, inspired by Strong's 1853 article, of founding a Methodist seminary in New York. Drew would fund and grant the school and he wanted his pastor, who happened to be John McClintock, to serve as its first president. All agreed and Drew Theological Seminary was born in 1867.
McClintock brought Strong on as Professor of Exegetical Theology and he served as the linchpin of a group of professors who became known as the Big 5. The Strong 5 - which was made up of Strong, George Crooks, Samuel Upham, John Miley, and Henry Buttz - dominated the seminary for the next 25 years and set it on sound footing. Of these, Strong was the only layman but his abilities were second to none.
Strong was a popular teacher and a respected academician. In 1871 he was invited to participate on a committee preparing a new Bible translation. Strong didn't live to see its completion but He was a central figure in the preparation of the American Revised Version Bible, which was published in 1901.
But Strong's biggest legacy is his Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, commonly called Strong's Concordance. He saw a need to provide a tool for Bible study that would benefit preachers, educators, and laymen alike. So he meticulously prepared an index of all of the words in the Bible. Strong's concordance was first published in 1890.
In it he listed each original language root word and where it can be found. This allows the reader to quickly cross-reference verses for deeper study. He numbered each word, too. There are over 5000 Greek root words and more than 8000 Hebrew ones in the Concordance. He also included brief Greek to English and Hebrew to English dictionaries in his concordance but he was careful to advise that these were not a proper substitute for a thorough, mainstream dictionary.
James Strong continue his work until he died at 71 years-old on August 7, 1894. Strong revolutionized Bible study and allowed more peopled to have deeper and more thorough dives into scripture and has surely impacted the lives of generations with his work. And that makes him a Giant of the Faith.
Thanks very much for listening. Drop me a line at podcast@giantsofthefaith.com with any comment or corrections. Until next time, God bless.
RESOURCES
Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=G7UEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA5&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false
5 Minutes in Church History: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/who-is-strong/
Bible Tools 123: https://www.bibletools123.com/Who-Was-James-Strong
Drew University: https://uknow.drew.edu/confluence/display/DrewHistory/James+Strong
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong%27s_Concordance
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Strong_(theologian)