Another instalment in
an ongoing series about studying the Bible using methods deduced from the Bible
itself. The series introduction can be found here.
The first Bible study tool we are discussing is comparison, specifically comparison of
words and phrases in the original language.
WORD / PHRASE
COMPARISON (Continued)
My last post used Genesis 3:16 to illustrate how there is
often more than one possible meaning for any particular word or phrase:
“To the woman he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’ ” (Genesis 3:16)
The meaning of the phrase “Your desire shall be for your husband” seemed unclear and we began
to look for the most reasonable interpretation.
i) desire for a husband and family;
ii) desire to be led by or occupied with a male
rather than with God;
iii)
desire to contest leadership of the man/wife
relationship; or
iv)
desire for intimacy.
Of course all
these interpretations could be wrong. Looking at commentaries and other people’s
opinions is usually a bad place to start in Bible study. It’s preferable to
determine one’s own convictions from the actual text before comparing them to
those of others. Language-based interpretations tend to be less polluted by our
own assumptions, culture or political correctness. And choosing from a menu of
possible interpretations will tend to limit your search for other good ways of
reading the text.
Tools
We’re going to need some tools for this:
2. a numerically coded concordance (I use Wigram Englishman’s Hebrew-Chaldee
Concordance of the Old Testament for OT passages like this one, but there’s
also a Greek New Testament volume, neither of which is online, I’m sad to say)
3. a King James version of the Bible (if you’re
using the online version of Strong’s, there’s an NASB option to circumvent the potential
confusion of old English — regrettably there are no concordances keyed to the
English words in other modern translations, at least not yet)
4. Vine’s Expository
Dictionary of New Testament Words can be helpful but is not a ‘must’
The difference between the two concordances is this:
Strong’s:
Strong’s is an alphabetical list of English words (from the King James or NASB) translated from Greek or Hebrew words in the original text or texts on which that version is
based. That’s your starting point. You’ll get a list of
every use of that English word in the entire Bible, with a three- or four-digit
number assigned to each different Greek or Hebrew word.
For the English word “telleth” [I did mention the original Strong’s was based on the old KJV, right?] there are 7 verses
listed, 6 from the OT and 1 from the New. These listings tell us that “telleth”
was used to translate 3 different Hebrew words and 1 Greek word and it gives us
the three- or four-digit numbers to reference each one.
Wigram:
Wigram gives a list of Strong’s numbers assigned to each particular Greek or Hebrew word with every use of that Greek or Hebrew word in the entire Bible. After each number, he gives you the actual word in
Hebrew or Greek, an English phonetic pronunciation guide and a list in order
from Genesis to Malachi (or from Matthew to Revelation).
For the first Hebrew word translated as “telleth” (5046,
found in 2 Sam 7:11), Wigram tells us the Hebrew word in the original is nahgad, and follows that with a list of
every single time this word is used in the Bible, no matter how it was
translated or what tense of the verb was used.
For instance, nahgad
is variously translated as “declared”, “has showed”, “reported”, “told”, etc.
Each reference displays a few words of the verse to indicate context.
The Value
Word study may or may not be useful, depending on the
situation. For very common words like “the”, you are simply wasting your time.
Strong’s lists them, but what’s the value, and why would you need to look? The
real value is to assess the meaning of words that are less frequently used and
more likely to require some digging.
The particular value of the Wigram concordance is that, assuming the Holy Spirit wanted to draw our attention through the repeated use of a particular word (not something I’d assert dogmatically; you’d have to look for yourself and draw your own conclusions), it’s Wigram that would most easily confirm that. A similarity between words in our English Bibles is no guarantee that it reflects a similarity in the original language.
And of course, we continue to remember that the same word in the original language may bear different meanings depending on the context in which it occurs. Word study is not magic or math.
The particular value of the Wigram concordance is that, assuming the Holy Spirit wanted to draw our attention through the repeated use of a particular word (not something I’d assert dogmatically; you’d have to look for yourself and draw your own conclusions), it’s Wigram that would most easily confirm that. A similarity between words in our English Bibles is no guarantee that it reflects a similarity in the original language.
And of course, we continue to remember that the same word in the original language may bear different meanings depending on the context in which it occurs. Word study is not magic or math.
Back to our Example
Let’s look up the word translated “desire” in Genesis 3:16.
Online Strong’s:
·
Type “desire” into the search box, change the
drop down menu on the right to “New American Standard”, and click “Search”
·
Click the link to Genesis 3:16
·
Check the box on the right above the verse that
says “Strong’s numbers”
·
Click the highlighted word “desire” in the verse
to get the Strong’s number and a very abbreviated definition of the word
My Strong’s number for “desire” is 8669 (and the phonetic spelling
of the Hebrew word is “tesh-oo-kaw”, for whatever that’s worth to me).
Hardcover Strong’s:
·
Look up “desire” just like you would in any
dictionary
·
Same result, 8669
But you can also very quickly see by glancing down the list
that this particular word is not the Hebrew word most frequently used to
translate the idea of “desire”. Many other Hebrew words are frequently
translated “desire” too.
Since we’re interested in this particular one, on to Wigram:
Wigram:
·
Flip pages until you come to 8669. Not tough.
And voila, the Hebrew word is t’shookah and it is used only three times in the entire Bible.
Again, let me say that word comparisons will not be a useful
way of determining meaning in every instance. There are other kinds of
comparison that may be more effective, depending on the situation.
But you won’t know that unless you do the legwork. So on to some actual comparing.
Next: Analyzing the
results
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