Nave's Topical Bible
Encyclopedia
Orville Nave
Orville James Nave was an American Methodist theologian and chaplain in the United States Army. He is best known for compiling Nave's Topical Bible, an index of topics addressed in the Christian Bible.-Early life:...
(1841-1917) and published by Thomas Nelson Publishers
Thomas Nelson (publisher)
Thomas Nelson is a publishing firm that began in Scotland in 1798 as the namesake of its founder. Its former US division is currently the sixth largest American trade publisher and the world's largest Christian publisher. It is owned by the private equity firm Kohlberg & Company...
. Nave was a chaplain in the United States Army and referred to his work as "the result of fourteen years of delight and untiring study of the Word of God." It is a topical concordance of the Bible, and contains Biblical references to over 20,000 topics. Scripture is quoted over 100,000 times; the same Scripture citation may appear under several headings.
The topic headings are broad, covering many religious concepts, geographical regions, and names of Biblical figures. While theological concepts such as salvation
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
and worship
Worship
Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship — to give, at its simplest, worth to something, for example, Christian worship.Evelyn Underhill defines worship thus: "The absolute...
are included, a wide range of topics, such as Biblical references to rope
Rope
A rope is a length of fibres, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength...
s, are also included. This reflects the author's intention, as stated in the book's preface
Preface
A preface is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a foreword and precedes an author's preface...
, to "...note and classify everything found in the Scriptures".
The book took fourteen years to complete. At least seven editions have been published, based on the King James Version and Revised Version
Revised Version
The Revised Version of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version of 1611. It was the first and remains the only officially authorized and recognized revision of the King James Bible. The work was entrusted to over 50 scholars from various denominations in Britain...
of the Bible. Each verse of the Bible is indexed according to the topics it is classified under. Christian figures such as Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
have endorsed the book.