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{{short description|Verbal index to the King James Bible created by Alexander Cruden}}
[[Image:Cruden'sConcordance.JPG|thumb|300px|[[Alexander Cruden]]'s ''Complete Concordance to the Holy Scriptures''. First published 1737. The first entry, for example, 'abase' appears in the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) four times; in the books  of ''Job'', ''Isaiah'', ''Ezekiel'', and ''Daniel''. The header of the column of the first entry, 'abi', is the first three letters of the last entry on that page.]]
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'''''A Complete Concordance to the Holy Scriptures''''', generally known as '''''Cruden's Concordance''''', is a [[Bible concordance|concordance]] of the [[King James Bible]] (KJV) that was singlehandedly created by [[Alexander Cruden]] (1699–1770). The ''Concordance'' was first published in 1737 and has not been out of print since then.
Two editions of the ''Concordance'' appeared during his lifetime, 1761 and 1769.
(Reference 1955 edition)
==Publication and composition==
Cruden's concordance was first published in 1737, one of the first copies being personally presented to [[Caroline of Ansbach|Queen Caroline]] on November 3, 1737. Cruden began work on his concordance in 1735, whilst working as a bookseller in London. Cruden worked alone from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. every day and completed the bulk of the work in less than a year. The proofreading and layout took a little longer.<ref>Olivier, Edith. ''Alexander the Corrector: the eccentric life of Alexander Cruden''. Viking Press, 1934.</ref>

His brain was occupied with nothing else, so much so that he failed to notice the diminishing stock in his bookshop and the consequent lack of custom. "Was there ever, before or since the year 1737", writes his biographer [[Edith Olivier]], "another enthusiast for whom it was no drudgery, but a sustained passion of delight, to creep conscientiously word by word through every chapter of the Bible, and that not once only, but again and again?".<ref>Olivier, Edith. ''Alexander the Corrector: the eccentric life of Alexander Cruden''. Viking Press, 1934.</ref>

==Errors==
Although a remarkable feat, the concordance was not entirely without error. [[The Times]] recorded that Cruden left out Buz (brother of Huz) and Sneeze (put under Neeze).<ref>J.A.Gere and John Sparrow (ed.), ''Geoffrey Madan's Notebooks'', Oxford University Press, 1981, at page 16</ref> In fact, the name "Chloe" was missing until a revised edition was published in 1930.<ref>1 Corinthians 1:11</ref>{{dubious|date=January 2025}}

==See also==
* ''[[Strong's Concordance]]''
* ''[[Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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[[Category:1737 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:1737 in Scotland]]
[[Category:18th-century Christian texts]]
[[Category:Bible concordances]]
[[Category:Christianity in Scotland]]
[[Category:Scottish books]]
[[Category:King James Version]]
[[Category:Caroline of Ansbach]]


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