SOURCES, EDITIONS, AND METHOD
Research Sources and How We Use Them
King James Bible Fellowship distinguishes the wording of Scripture, attributed historical and reference material, and modern editorial synthesis. This page identifies the recurring sources used by the current Bible-study tools, explains what each contributes, and states the limits placed on its use.
Three distinguishable layers
1. Scripture
The wording and context of the King James Bible are the controlling evidence for Bible reading and word usage. Scripture is identified as Scripture and is not presented as original editorial writing.
2. Identified source evidence
Historical dictionary definitions, glossary material, concordance data, and original-language reference material remain labeled by source. A source label identifies the work being used; it is not a claim that the source is doctrinally authoritative or correct in every respect.
3. Editorial synthesis
An approved combined meaning is a modern editorial synthesis kept separate from source quotations. It may draw on KJV usage and one or more identified reference works. It is not presented as the wording of a historical source unless that source is specifically quoted and attributed.
Recurring sources in the current study tools
King James Bible usage
Edition and use: The dictionary's current concordance uses King James Bible PCE text. It supports exact-word occurrence lists, verse context, word-family review, and evaluation of how a word is used across passages. Where the site offers a 1611 comparison, that text is identified separately.
Limit: A usage label records evidence considered for a meaning. It does not turn an editorial definition into Scripture or replace reading the surrounding passage.
Robert Cawdrey, A Table Alphabeticall (1604)
Edition and use: The 1604 London edition is an early English hard-word dictionary. Its definitions are used as dated historical evidence for English words near the period of the King James Bible. View the bibliographic record and transcription.
Limit: A Cawdrey definition shows how the work explained a word in 1604. It does not by itself establish the meaning of every KJV occurrence or settle a doctrinal question.
John Bullokar, An English Expositor (1616)
Edition and use: The 1616 London edition is another early English hard-word dictionary. Its definitions are used as dated historical evidence and are displayed separately from modern combined meanings. View the bibliographic record.
Limit: A Bullokar definition is a historical witness, not an automatic interpretation of a verse and not an authority over Scripture.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)
Edition and use: The current data uses the two-volume 1828 edition. Webster definitions may appear as attributed historical definitions and as evidence considered in a combined meaning. Individual definition records link to the relevant facsimile where available. View volume 1 or volume 2.
Limit: Webster is later than the first publication of the KJV. Its wording is useful historical evidence, but it does not automatically determine what a word means in every biblical context.
Glossary of Bible Words (1893)
Edition and use: The material used is the “Glossary of Bible Words,” pages 541–558, in The Cambridge Companion to the Bible , Cambridge University Press, 1893. It supplies attributed historical Bible-word definitions and supporting evidence for selected combined meanings. View the exact volume.
Limit: The glossary is a reference witness. It is not treated as Scripture, as a doctrinal authority, or as an automatic final meaning for every passage.
Walter W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language , 4th ed. (1910)
Edition and use: The revised fourth edition published by the Clarendon Press in 1910 is identified only where a current entry explicitly uses it as evidence. The present release does not publish a general etymology layer. View the bibliographic record.
Limit: Etymology can help explain a word's history, but a word's origin does not by itself establish its meaning in a particular verse.
James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890)
Edition and use: Strong's Hebrew and Greek reference entries are mapped to specific KJV occurrences where the current data provides that mapping. They are displayed separately from historical English definitions and from approved combined meanings. View the 1890 edition.
Limit: A Strong number or gloss is an original-language and concordance aid. It is not used to rewrite the KJV, replace the verse's context, or settle a doctrinal conclusion by itself.
What readers see on an entry
Not every source appears on every word page. Readers should rely on the sources actually displayed for that entry rather than infer that every work was used everywhere.
Authority and limits
The King James Bible is presented as Scripture. Dictionaries, glossaries, concordances, facsimiles, databases, search tools, and editorial explanations are study aids. No historical dictionary, modern combined meaning, Strong number, automated process, or software system is presented as authority over Scripture.
Historical definitions answer a limited question: how did this identified work define or explain the word at that time? The meaning of a word in a particular verse still requires the wording, grammar, and context of that passage and comparison with relevant Scripture.
Provenance, review, and corrections
Source quotations are stored separately from combined meanings, source labels and source-to-entry mappings are preserved, and individual facsimile links are shown where the current record supplies them. Production checks verify that the published entries and concordance remain aligned with the approved release data.
If a source transcription, label, link, definition, verse display, or occurrence mapping appears incorrect, please report the exact page and issue through the Corrections page.
