The most fundamental fact about the New Testament is that its secrets are available only
to those who are willing to obey what they find. "Believe that you may know" (John
10:25-28) is a basic teaching of the New Testament itself.
A second, balancing truth, is that although the Bible was inspired by God in
its original language, we do not regard any translation of the Bible as perfect. All
scholars and translators are human and fallible. A serious Bible student will often consult
more than one translation to find what he wants to know. But unless he has studied Greek, the
original language of the New Testament, he is forced to rely on the translators' choices of
English words. Theological seminaries have long recognized this fact and assiduously require
all students who plan to become ministers to study the biblical languages. While even that does
not solve all problems, the person who reads no Greek at all often feels a bit left out. He may
not be able to spend three years in seminary studies, nor have time to learn Greek and Hebrew
on his own. Even those pastors acquainted with Hebrew and Greek are often too busy to make practical
use of their knowledge. Eventually they may almost forget Greek and Hebrew completely.
For all such people the Word Study New Testament (and its companion volume,
the Word Study Concordance) will be a great help. Here under every noun, verb, adjective,
and adverb the reader will find the key number assigned to that word by Strong in Strong's
Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. The Bible student can turn directly to that number in the
Word Study Concordance and see the Greek word and, in English, all the various biblical
references where that Greek word was used.
Those who know Greek, or those who would like to consult what well-known scholars
have said about a specific Greek word, will find in the "Key Number Index to Standard Reference
Works" appended to this volume a cross-reference to Moulton and Geden's Concordance to the
Greek New Testament, to Arndt and Gingrich's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament,
and to Kittel's A Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.
Thus by availing himself of the numbering system in The Word Study New Testament
and its companion volume, The Word Study Concordance, the Bible student will save a huge amount
of time and will be much more likely and able to go on to make use of these widely acclaimed
reference materials.
We wish to express our gratitude to the many who have helped in the preparation
of this volume. They include our parents, our four daughters, our Sunday school class, and the
students at Bethany Missionary Fellowship in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We especially wish to thank
Clara Wong, who through many hours of arduous work checked and typed the numbers under each entry
herein.
That the study of the Bible may be enriched and made exciting through the use of
this volume is the author's earnest prayer.
RALPH D. WINTER
ROBERTA H. WINTER