Vine's Concise Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words

This is a classic, essential reference, right there with Strong's, and with good reason. If you don't have an expository dictionary of Bible words from the original languages, then you should start with this one. Some terms are discussed in depth, others more sparsely, but it gives you a good feel for the meaning of important terms. As you become more comfortable with examining the meanings of the original Hebrew or Greek words, you may find yourself wanting more, and so there are other, more in-depth dictionaries available. But this is quite accessible and an excellent starting point. Vine's is also fairly denomination-neutral, being careful not to expound too much on opinion, but sticking to the business of objectively defining the word.If you're looking for an expository dictionary and don't have one, this is the place to start.

For the student who is just starting to seriously study the Word, Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary should be the next book on your list to get after you have acquired Strong's Concordance and a Bible Dictionary. With those three volumes alone, you are quite able to dig in deeper into the meanings of important or unfamiliar words and concepts, and you are well on your way to having a solid foundation for your biblical study library. This newer edition is not only re-typeset so that it looks more modern and is easier to read than older editions, but it also has a really great feature - the entires you are looking up are not written in the original languages - they are written in English! Unlike other lexicons which utilize entries only in the original tongue, Vine's does not even require you to be able to read the entry in a different language, so as soon as you get the book you can start looking up words and benefit from the wealth of information that is contained inside. The short articles give you a lot of "meaty" and useful information but do not get bogged down in a lot of technical jargon. For those who prefer looking up the original word, there is also a Greek word index (sorry no Hebrew) and several other helps, so it is really a win-win situation.

This is an excellent resource for someone new to doing word studies. It includes Strong's Concordance numbers for each word making it easy to differentiate between various meanings. You do not need to know the original language to find the original meaning. I use it in conjunction with either Strongs Exhaustive Concordance or with Zodhiates Word Study Bible. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to do further research and get more accurate information from their Bible study.