Reading with Strong’s numbers: one word, its original
Updated
Every translation is a decision. Where the Greek or Hebrew has one particular word, the translator picks an English one — and sometimes something that was clear in the original gets lost along the way. Strong’s numbers bring exactly that back: they link every word to its original, without you learning a single word of Greek. This guide explains what they are and how to read with them.
What Strong’s numbers are
James Strong published a concordance in 1890 that gave every original word in the Bible a number: Hebrew H1 to H8674, Greek G1 to G5624. Every Greek and Hebrew word got a fixed address. When you tap a word in the text and see “G26”, you can look it up in a lexicon to find which original word stands behind it, how it is pronounced and what it precisely means.
The beauty of it: you do not need to know the languages. The number is the bridge. It does not tell you how to read — it tells you what you are looking at.
Why one word can be more than its translation
The most famous example is in John 21. After the resurrection Jesus asks Peter three times: “Do you love me?” In English it sounds like repetition. In Greek it is two different words.
Twice Jesus asks with “agapáō” (G25) — the self-giving, committed love. But Peter answers each time with “philéō” (G5368) — the love between friends. On the third time Jesus switches to Peter’s word and asks with “philéō”. And there, the text says, Peter was grieved. Only in the original do you see why: Jesus meets him exactly where Peter is.
No translation that writes “love” is wrong. But the Strong’s number shows you a layer that otherwise stays invisible — and suddenly the whole passage reads differently.
How to read with Strong’s
In practice it is simple. You read normally, and when a word catches your eye — “love”, “word”, “Lord”, “grace” — you tap it. Up comes the original word with its number, the pronunciation and the definition from the classic lexicons — Brown-Driver-Briggs for Hebrew, Abbott-Smith for Greek, prepared by STEPBible and built into the app.
Three questions take you a long way: Which original word is this? Is there an English word that hides several originals (like “love”)? And: where else does the same word appear? The last question is often the most rewarding — the same word in another place throws light back on the one you are reading now.
How to get started
You need no degree and no expensive program. All it takes is a Bible where the Strong’s numbers hang right on the word and a tap is enough. The King James Bible is the classic for this: it is fully and freely linked to the Greek and Hebrew original — the edition most Strong’s tools are built on.
That is exactly what Super Strong does: the King James Bible with Strong’s in a calm, beautiful Mac app, tap a word, see the root meaning. CHF 20 once, no subscription.