The other day someone posted an interesting question on our user forums:

How would I find in which version of the Bible is “endurance” used in Hebrews 12:1?

In this age of multiple translations, this kind of question is becoming increasingly common. We may have heard a well-known verse in one translation growing up. Then we may attend a congregation which uses a different version of the Bible. We might also learn a worship song that sets that verse to music using yet another translation. The end result of all this is that we become unsure which Bible to consult for a particular wording of a familiar verse. We may even find that the wording we have in our heads is a conflation of two of more different translations.

So how can we search all our English Bibles to find the rendering of a familiar verse which matches the wording inside our heads?

We could enter a key word like “endurance” in the Search All field of the Toolbar, but that would search every verse of every Bible for the word endurance. How then can we narrow the search to a particular verse? Here’s the solution a couple of our forum gurus came up with:

First, type the word “endurance” into the Search All field. Then choose the AND command from the Enter Command submenu of the Search menu (or use the keyboard shortcut shift-command-A). Next choose the RANGE command from the Enter Command submenu of the Search menu (or use the keyboard shortcut shift-command-R). Now, replace the selected question mark inside the Range command with Hebrews 12:1. Finally, click the magnifying glass icon inside the Search All field and choose [All Texts] from the menu that appears. This will limit the search to just your Bible texts so that your Tool modules are not searched.

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When you hit Return, Accordance will find every Bible which uses the word “endurance” in Hebrews 12:1. These include the HCSB, ESV, NAS95, NKJV, and NLT. You can then compare all those versions to see which has the wording you had in mind.

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