Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon, Unabridged

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew/English Lexicon,
Unabridged

"A trio of eminent Old Testament scholars—Francis Brown, R. Driver, and Charles Briggs—spent over twenty years researching, writing, and preparing "The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon." Since it first appeared in the early part of the twentieth century, BDB has been considered the finest and most comprehensive Hebrew lexicon available to the English-speaking student. Based upon the classic work of Wilhelm Gesenius, the "father of modern Hebrew lexicography," BDB gives not only dictionary definitions for each word, but relates each word to its Old Testament usage and categorizes its nuances of meaning. BDB's exhaustive coverage of Old Testament Hebrew words, as well as its unparalleled usage of cognate languages and the wealth of background sources consulted and quoted, render BDB and invaluable resource for all students of the Bible."

For several years we have offered the commonly available abridged edition of the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon with our Word Study Bundle. But now we have available the complete and unabridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew/English Lexicon. The difference between the two is significant.

The abridged BDB is basically composed of concise English definitions of the Hebrew words. It is usually more detailed than Strong's Dictionary (where the definitions are little more than glosses), but it is much inferior to the unabridged BDB. Probably the most notable difference is the full BDB is filled with Bible references (over 160,000!) showing how the Hebrew words are used in the Scriptures. Futhermore, The full BDB elaborates on each topic with extended definitions and explaination. For an example of the differences between Strong's the abridged BDB and the full BDB, click the image below (Strong's is in the popup and the abridged BDB in the MultiWindow at the right.).

As you can see the unabridged BDB is keyed to Strong's numbers, contains numerous Hebrew words and phrases (with vowel points), and is much more thorough than Strong's or the abridged BDB. As far as we know, no other free or low cost Bible software offers the full BDB, however it is now available for Bible Analyzer for only $4.