This was originally written as a resource for Laidlaw College’s Centre for Church Leadership, and can be downloaded as a PDF HERE. This resource is designed for Christians and church leaders who haven’t done a tertiary-level biblical interpretation course and who don’t have the ability to access Greek or Hebrew language.
What is a word study and what is it for?
- A word study is the process of determining what an important word means in its context and what it is contributing to a sentence.
- It is also important because words often have a range of meanings and are used differently in different places. Mistaking the meaning intended by particular words leads to misunderstanding the author’s purposes in writing.
- Example: What does “book” mean? Depends on the context. In the sentence “I would like to read that book”, “book” is different from “I need to book an appointment”. Switching the meaning between these sentences renders them nonsensical. We don’t need to think about it because these are obvious to us, but biblical texts are separated from our experience by time, culture, and language, and so we are much more likely to mistake what specific words might mean.
- This is especially important for technical or figurative[1] language, or words with connotations not used in the reader’s culture.[2]
- Word studies can be done without knowing Hebrew and Greek (but it certainly helps).
Identifying “key” words
Studying every word in a passage is impractical and unnecessary. Many words will be plainly understood by the reader, and increasingly so as time is spent doing word studies.
Look for words that are:
- Key words that impinge on the meaning of the whole passage, carrying obvious significance.
- Difficult words whose meanings are uncertain or puzzling.
- Repeated words that are used multiple times in the passage or in the wider literary context.
- Figures of speech, such as metaphors or other vivid language.
Aim to be clear to yourself about why you think particular words warrant further investigation. There are no hard and fast rules about which words could or should receive a word study—what is important is that you select the words that will help you understand the passage.
For example, you might find the role and mentioning of “floods” in Ps 93:3 puzzling. You might think that “dogs” is worth exploring in Phil 3:2. You might want more clarity on what Jesus meant by “lost” in Luke 19:10. You might detect that the “covenant” and “agreement” in Isaiah 28:14–22 is important for understanding the message. Each of these words are to determining the meaning of the passages they are found in.
Steps for Doing a Word Study
It is necessary to collect as much basic information as possible on key words. This will help you to discern the word’s meaning in its particular context.
- Identify the Hebrew or Greek word (if necessary, transliterated[3]) underlying the English word. There are two ways you can do this – using a concordance, or by using Bible study software such as STEP Bible or Logos.
- In an Exhaustive Concordance[4] that matches your Bible translation, look for the entry with your word in its verse. There will be a number or term[5] that links to a glossary at the back of the Concordance which will show you the Greek/Hebrew term with a transliteration together with additional information: the way it is translated, number of occurrences, similar words, etc.
- On a Bible software program (I would recommend Tyndale House’s Step Bible website as a really helpful free platform to use: www.StepBible.org), get the Bible passage up on your screen. Click the word you wish to study. A sidebar or popup should appear that gives you the same information as a concordance index will give. Clicking the Hebrew/Greek term on this sidebar should open a new window which shows every use of that word in the Bible.
- Find the word’s “semantic range”. This is the whole range of possible ways that the word could be translated. This will be given in the concordance entry for the word. If you can access the languages, you can find further information in a lexicon.[6]
You will find that the same word can be used in very different ways in different contexts.
For example, Duvall and Hays (p. 139) report that in English the word “hand” has eleven different uses! This list reveals the semantic range of “hand”.
- Examine the way the word is used elsewhere in the Bible, giving priority attention to uses by the same author or in the same book. Look at the way the word is used in other contexts and take notes. Look for consistency and differences across these uses. This will help narrow the likely range of options for what the word means in the verse you are studying. You will need to decide how much time to give to this: for words that are used many times in the Bible, you will need to narrow the range of uses you will examine.
- Using the insights from your work with the concordance, and any dictionaries or lexicons you have used, consider the word in the context of the passage you are studying. As far as you are able, aim to determine what its meaning is in this passage.
Some helpful tips for making use of context to decide a word’s meaning include:[7]
- Can the word be defined by identifying something that it is meant to contrast or compare with?
- Does the topic or content of the passage direct you towards a particular option(s)?Does the author use the same word in similar contexts? If so, the meaning here is likely the same as in those places.Does the intention of the passage the word is found in point toward a certain choice?
- Does the historical context favour a particular definition?
- Be prepared to be corrected or confirmed or deepened by and scholarship you might later read (e.g. in commentaries).
Pitfalls to avoid
- Ignoring the Context Fallacy. The most fundamental principle for determining the meaning of a word is that it must make sense in its context. Many of the errors discussed below prioritise another factor in determining the meaning of a word in a verse, at the expense of the controlling role of the context. Focus on the options within the semantic range that suit the surrounding verses.
- One meaning fallacy. Readers who do not know Hebrew or Greek may not realise that one Heb/Grk word can have more than one meaning when translated into English. It would distort the language to rigidly translate a word in the same way in every occurrence—although it is preferable to limit the range for consistency’s sake. Furthermore, multiple Heb/Grk words might translate most easily into the same English word (e.g. agapē and phileo both commonly translated as “love” in English). This is why it is important for a word study to examine the term in its original language (which you can do without learning the languages). Remember that Hebrew and Greek words don’t align perfectly with English equivalents.
- Root fallacy. This is the mistake of attempting to discern the meaning of a word by breaking it down into its parts. This might work at times, but it often does not. In English, the word “underpants” can be worked out this way, but “understand” cannot. Other English examples where this doesn’t work would include “butterfly” and “marshmallow”. The same goes for Hebrew and Greek words. E.g. ekklēsia is made up of the parts “called” and “out”, but it does not mean that the word means “the called-out ones”. It had become the word for a gathered assembly, as represented in non-religious Greek settings as well as the Greek translation of the OT regarding the gathered people of Israel (e.g. at the foot of Mt Sinai). The parts of a word don’t necessarily add up to its meaning.
- Time-Frame Fallacy. This occurs when word meanings change over time, and an earlier or later meaning is imposed onto a use of the same word. A simple and common example is that of the English word “dynamite”. It derives from the Greek word dunamis, which carried the ideas of “power” or “ability”—but not that of a dangerous, explosive power! Dynamite did not exist in the ancient world, and would not be part of what a user of that word was thinking. A more subtle form of this problem is where a word meaning has changed over the centuries within ancient history. For example, Greek words used in the time of Classical Greek (400–500 BC) are sometimes used differently by the time of Koine Greek in the NT period, e.g. hyperētēs: “under-rower” in a Greek ship in the classical period, had become simply a general word for “servant” by the NT era. Don’t impose later (or earlier) meanings onto words.
- Overload Fallacy. This mistake is made when all possible meanings of a word are assumed to be present in any given use of a word. This is something that can be seen in the Amplified Bible, or when there are a lot of interesting but different uses illustrated in biblical and non-biblical literature. For example, “grace” can refer to a gift, or favour, or elegance, or good manners—but not all at once! Don’t dilute the force of a word by assuming it carries all the possible meanings in any one place.
- Word Count Fallacy. It is not always the case that if a majority of uses mean one thing, the remaining few must also mean that too. Although this might often be the case, the context must be determinative for meaning and might lead to a different meaning to what is otherwise the case. Duvall/Hayes say that the word otherwise always translated “suffer” in should in Gal 3:4 mean “experienced” in a positive sense due to the context. Don’t assume that the usual meaning of a word must determine every meaning.
Further Resources:
Carson, D. A., Exegetical Fallacies, 2nd ed. (Baker Academic, 1996), 27–64.
DeSilva, David A., An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods, and Ministry Formation (IVP Academic; Apollos, 2004), 703–713.
Duvall, J. Scott and J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-on Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible, Third edition. (Zondervan, 2018).
Fee, Gordon D., New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors, 3rd ed. (Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 79–95.
Gorman, Michael J., Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers, Rev Exp. (Hendrickson, 2009), 105–11.
Klein, William W., Craig Blomberg, and Robert L. Hubbard, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (Thomas Nelson, 2003), 247–57.
[1] Images conveyed through words, e.g. metaphors, similes, symbols. Sometimes culturally bound, sometimes drawn from a more universal human experience. Important to determine their function in a particular text. E.g. the diverging use of the word “Lion” for Jesus and for Satan (and pictorial depictions online!). These must be interpreted “by means of a disciplined imagination in light of the context in which they appear” (Gorman, Elements, 2009, p110).
[2] Connotations are additional meanings to a word, especially those that have emotive force or value judgement attached to them. This is outside of a word’s normal semantic range or “denotative” meaning. Connotations are specific to cultural contexts or situations, and are difficult to detect or grasp if you are not from that culture. E.g. “Cows of Bashan” in Amos 4:1. Calling a woman a “cow” is an insult with sexist connotations in modern parlance. But Amos’ use is focussed instead on the fact that the women in view are indulgent and well-off—like the excellent cattle of the lush pastures of Bashan—and have no concern for those who are poor and needy.
[3] “Transliteration” means writing a foreign word in English (for example) lettering. This allows you to read out the sound of the word without needing to learn a foreign alphabet.
[4] An exhaustive concordance is an index book of every word in a translation of the Bible (things like “a” and “the” are excepted). These show every use of every English word alphabetically, and index these to the Greek/Hebrew word that was translated to each word.
[5] The recent ESV Exhaustive Concordance uses terms rather than numbers.
[6] A lexicon is a dictionary for another language, e.g. of the Greek used in the NT.
[7] From Duvall/Hays, pages 146–148.
