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Lesson 10.0 Basic Word Study
This week we will learn a very basic form of word study. A word study is when you find a word from the
Bible and look it up in its original Hebrew or Greek.
Let’s first review a few points. The Old Testament was originally written in
Hebrew/Aramaic and the New Testament was written in Greek. There have been many translators who’ve
translated the Bible into English as well as other languages and none of the
translations are “purer” than others because the word “love,” for example,
encompasses several different original Bible words so sometimes we need to know
the Bible word that was originally written to mean love if we want a better
understanding of the text.
We don’t have to rely on scholars or teachers to give us
this information, the tools are available to us at the library and at church
and at the bookstore. We just need to
know what to look for. There is
something called a Greek Lexicon or a Hebrew Lexicon and they are valuable
tools; however, for the average Bible student they go very deep and you have to
understand the Greek or Hebrew alphabets to be able to use them. If you’d like more information on these,
you’ll have to seek out that information and it is out there, but it will be a
significant investment of your time.
One of the simplest ways to do a word study is with a King
James Bible and Strong’s Concordance.
The Strong’s concordance was made specifically to give definition to
every word used in the King James translation.
You will notice that the word, “cometh,” is not in the NIV. There are concordances written for other
translations as well, but the Strong’s has been proven and used for many
years. Another tool that is good to use
with the Strong’s Concordance is a Webster’s Dictionary that was published in
1828. Why that year? That was the year that the King James Bible
was first written, so in order to understand the definitions of the period, we
need a dictionary of that period. One of
the words in the KJV is “thong.” Today’s
definition is not the same as the previous.
John was saying that he wasn’t worthy of untying Jesus’ sandals … it had
nothing to do with undergarments. While
that example may be humorous, there are others that could make our
understanding of His Word a little skewed.
The first step in doing a word study is finding the word
you’d like to search out.
Let’s start with just one verse. Isaiah 55:6 KJV “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call
ye upon him while he is near.”
If we open the
concordance to MAIN CONCORDANCE, there are headers on the left upper corner of
the left page and right upper corner of the right page just like a
dictionary.
We will start with SEEK as it is the first word in the
passage.
Once we find the word SEEK in the Main Concordance section
we will look for “Isa 55:6” to give us the Strong’s number for the word,
SEEK. Some English words have multiple
Hebrew words that could mean the same thing.
In Isaiah 55:6, SEEK is given the Strong’s number “1875.” Notice that this number is in standard type
and some other numbers are in italics. Standard
type is Hebrew and italics are Greek words.
We are not at the end of this search. Now we need to go to the next section of
Strong’s that is the HEBREW AND CHALDEE DICTIONARY and find number 1875. You will find a similar entry to this:
דּרשׁ
dârash, daw-rash'; A primitive root; properly to tread
or frequent; usually to follow (for pursuit or search); by
implication to seek or ask; specifically to worship: - ask,
X at all, care for, X diligently, inquire, make inquisition, [necro-] mancer,
question, require, search, seek [for, out], X surely.
This may be a bit confusing to look at, but we can gather
from this entry that the possible meanings of this word are to follow; by
implication to seek or ask; specifically to worship. The words that follow that are not in italics
are possible translations of the word in to English.
That is just the first word of the verse. Follow the same steps for the rest of the
words in the verse. Words like "ye," "with," and "the" are actually found between the Main Concordance and the Hebrew and
Chaldee Dictionary in a section they refer to as Appendix as they are quite
frequently used. Also remember that some
phrases in English are only one word in other languages and vice versa. The only way to find out the exact original
text is to use the original text and go back to English. This is an imperfect way of word study, but it
is effective for the basic scholar.
These instructions do sound complicated, but once you’ve
looked up a few words, you’ll begin to get the hang of it. If you recall, we discussed e-Sword in a
previous lesson. If you look at the
translation KJV+, the program has done the footwork for you. Instead of using standard lettering and
italics, they use numbers like H1875 and G111.
If you hover over the number, the Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary or the
Greek Dictionary of the New Testament entry will appear in a pop-up box. This method saves a lot of time, but not
every word of every verse has a number associated with it.
Then we can also look up the words in the Webster’s 1828
Dictionary. Here is the entry for Seek
as copied from e-Sword:
Seek
SEEK, v.t. pret
and pp. sought, pronounced sawt. [L. sequor, to
follow; for to seek is to go after, and the primary sense is to advance,
to press, to drive forward, as in the L. peto.]
1. To go in searh or quest of;
to look for; to search for by going from place to place.
The man asked him, saying, what
seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethen.
Gen 37.
2. To inquire for; to ask for;
to solicit; to endeavor to find or gain by any means.
The young lions roar after
their prey, and seek their meat from God. Psa 104.
He found no place for
repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Heb 12
Others tempting him, sought of him a sign. Luke
11.
3.Seek is followed
sometimes by out or after. To seek out, properly
implies to look for a specific thing among a number. But in general, the use of
out and after with seek, is unnecessary and inelegant.
To seek God,
his name, or his face, in Scripture, to ask for his favor, direction and
assistance. Psa 83.
God seeks
men, when he fixes his love on them, and by his word and Spirit, and the
righteousness of Christ, reclaims and recovers them from their miserable
condition as sinners.
Ezek 34. Psa 119. Luke 15.
To seek
after the life, or soul, to attempt by arts or machinations; or to attempt to
destroy or ruin. Psa 35.
To seek
peace, or judgement, to endeavor to promote it; or to practice it.
Psa 34. Isa 1.
To seek an
altar, temple, or habitation, to frequent it; to restore to
it often.
2 Chr 1. Amos 5.
To seek out God's works, to endeavor to understand them. Psa 111.
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| Here is a worksheet to help you get started |
LESSON 10.0 Worksheet
What translation of the Bible do you need to use with the
Strong’s Concordance?
Are there other reliable concordances available?
Why should we use the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary when
studying with the Strong’s Concordance and King James Version of the Bible?
HOMEWORK
If you have e-sword or a Strong’s Concordance and King James
Version Bible, look up one of your favorite verses and see if your
understanding of that verse changes or stays the same after searching the words
in it.
Look up the word “loved” from John 3:16. What is the Greek word used?
Is that your understanding of how God loved the world?
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