Adolph Ernst Knoch

Adolph Ernst Knoch (December 19, 1874 – March 28, 1965) was the author of numerous theological writings and a Bible publisher.

Knoch founded the Concordant Publishing Concern and translated the Concordant Version of the Bible.

Knoch was raised in a German-speaking part of Missouri, born in St. Louis, Missouri as the son of Adolph Knoch, who had emigrated from Germany to the United States . One of his sisters, Addie, remained in Germany. Knoch grew up bilingually: in his parents' house only German was spoken; Knoch learned English only at school.

In 1885 the family moved to Los Angeles, where he completed high school in 1893. One of the teachers apparently told him that he had literary talent, and he should study great literature such as Shakespeare or the Bible. Since works by Shakespeare were not available, the young Knoch read in the family Bible. While at school, and thereafter (a total of around 20 years), he worked as a printer in the company of his brother.

As part of a job, he came with a group, the "Plymouth Brethren", part of the Brethren Movement. Tutor McClure led Knoch in this group. He concurred with the teachings and was baptized. Because of his interest in languages, in 1900 at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, he studied "Ancient Greek, the NT in the proto-reading". In 1901 Knoch compared his translation output with the new American Standard Revised Version; he was disappointed.

During this time he began developing a form of his concordant method of Bible translation. In the "Plymouth Brethren" he met Olive Hyde, another religious teacher; they married in April 1903. Knoch began to give Greek courses at the local YMCA. He discovered what he believed were additional mistakes in traditional translations and increasingly taught from the Greek to avoid teaching that of which he no longer was totally convinced. He began applying his systematic program with Biblical Greek to his writing work. On November 5, 1907, his son Ernest Oliver was born.

Dr. Ethelbert William Bullinger, publisher of the magazine in England, "Things to Come", in 1906 published a few articles from Knoch. Russian Vladimir Gelesnoff, living in the United States, read the articles and contacted Knoch. Together they published the magazine "Grace and Glory", but for only eight issues in 1909. It appeared some time later they made some changes and moved to the title known today as "Unsearchable Riches", particularly regarding dispensationalism and detailed word studies. Knoch concentrated on the Greek New Testament, while Gelesnoff processed the Hebrew Old Testament. Knoch was subsequently published in various books and writings. Knoch's methodology used thousands of index cards on which all occurrences of each Greek word were listed.

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