Outside Research Resources

Both of our main sources for Biblical research, the Perseus Project at Tufts University and the Blue Letter Bible provide a wealth of research detail. The Perseus Project is used for analyzing the Greek in the verses and for general definitions for word meaning. We do not use biblical resources for definitions because they are tautological, defining terms by how they are translated in the Bible regardless of their general meaning at the time of Christ.  The Blue Letter Bible is used for accessing different translations of the Bible and researching information such as the occurrences of Greek words in the Septuagint. We have tried to link all articles to the relevant parts of these databases.  I also use the Greek New Testament Coalition Project to see all the oldest Greek manuscripts to check the version at Perseus against the others when there are differences. However, both sites have changed their system of accessing pages since this site was started so some of our old links are outdated.

However, you can still access these resources to find the research material for any given verses.

Perseus Project

To find any Greek verse from the current source we use on the Perseus site;

  1. Click on this link to go to the Perseus mGNT (Greek New Testament).
  2. Enter the verse name in the box that says "Matthew 1.1." Use the whole name of the Book, the number of the chapter and the number of the verse, separated by a period or dot (.)
  3. Click on any Greek word in the verse to see its possible source words and their form. 

  4. Click on the name of the lexicon for definition. I use the Liddel-Scott-Jones (LSJ) most frequently.

  5. Click on (more statistics) to research word use.

  6. Paste any Greek word in the Search box on the upper right to have it parsed and see possible sources.

Blue Letter Bible

To find any English verse translation and research Septuagint, Latin Vulgate, etc.

  1. Click on this link. to Blue Letter Bible
  2. Enter the verse name and number in the box next to "Blue Letter Bible."
  3. Select the Translation Versions, for example, KJV, NIV, NLT, LXX (Septuagint), VUL (Vulgate), etc.
  4. Clink on the "Tools" button in front of the verse and select "Interlinear" to see detail or "Bibles" to see various versions.

Different Greek Source Versions

The Persues source that I use is taken primarily from Codex Vaticanus but the source at BlueLetterBible is taken primarily from the Sinaiticus. When the two disagree, I take a look at all the codices for that verse at Greek New Testament Collation Project. This allows me to see the differences between the Greek source I use and the Greek sources used by various other Bible translators.  I tend to go with either the majority or the oldest sources. They are four great sources, the Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican Library, the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Alexandrinus in the British Library, and the Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. The Vaticanus and Sinaiticus are both the oldest, dating back to the four century.

If you type in the name of a given verse in its Search box, links will take you to the Greek in all the versions they have put together including technical references to the sections involved.