Hebrew & Greek Lexicon
75 Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek terms organized by canonical thread.
Why these words matter
The English carries the meaning, but the original word often holds what the English flattens. When someone says “the text can't mean that,” the Hebrew or the Greek is where you find out. “Draw” (helkuo), “foreknow” (proginosko), “world” (kosmos), the whole argument often turns on a single word, and here you can open it and see for yourself.
These seventy words aren't grouped by language. They're grouped by the seven threads that run through Scripture, because that's what they carry. Each one is a place where the story God is telling comes to a point you can hold in your hand. Learn the word, and you can read the thread at its source, so no one can tell you the English is hiding something the original doesn't say.
Each entry provides the original word, transliteration, pronunciation, part of speech, theological significance, and Scripture references. Includes helkyō, antipiptete, en autō, ho thelōn, chai-ani, chafets, chesed, harpazō, paidagōgos, oikonomia, bachar, nacham, mashakh, and more.
A God Who Cannot Stop Reaching
'As I live.' The strongest possible oath in the OT.
To delight in, desire, take pleasure in, be pleased with.
Steadfast love, covenant loyalty, lovingkindness, faithful love.
Compassionate, merciful.
Gracious.
Slow to anger.
'Mine heart is turned within me.' The divine pathos of Hosea 11:8.
To draw, pull, attract.
To have compassion, to be moved with compassion in one's inner organs.
To want, desire, will, be willing.
To will, intend, desire, often with emphasis on deliberate, purposeful intention.
To love with the will:
To draw or drag.
The People Chosen In Him
To choose, select, prefer, examine and take as best.
The chosen one.
'In your seed.' The OT grammatical ancestor of Paul's en Christō (in Christ).
Assembly, congregation, gathered community.
Faithfulness, steadfast trust, reliability.
Elected/chosen (eklektos);
Seed, offspring, descendants.
'In him.' The location of election in Ephesians 1:4.
Assembly, congregation, church.
To know beforehand.
To mark out a boundary beforehand, to determine in advance.
Word, and the thing the word brings about:
The Story That Moves Toward a King
Anointed one, messiah.
'One like a son of man.' The Aramaic idiom in Daniel 7:13 for an ordinary human being, the most humble self-designation available.
Dominion, sovereign authority, rule.
'Until the age / forever, for eternity.' The temporal phrase that establishes the permanence of the Davidic covenant.
Tabernacle, dwelling place.
To snatch, seize, catch up suddenly.
A welcoming procession, citizens going out from a city to meet an arriving dignitary and escort him back in.
A long duration, an age;
Word:
The Dignity of the Real Response
Image / Likeness.
'But as for YOU.' The emphatic adversative construction in Genesis 4:7.
To rule, govern, have dominion (mashal).
To turn, return, repent.
'Leave me alone / Let me be.' God's words to Moses in Exodus 32:10.
To believe, trust, actively commit oneself in trust to.
You are actively resisting, falling against with force.
Dead, corpse.
'You do not believe.' John 6:36.
'To the one who is overcoming.' Present tense, not 'the one who was elected to overcome' but 'the one currently and persistently in the act of over…
A change of mind that turns the man.
Soul, life, the living being.
The Roadmap Through Scripture
The primary Hebrew narrative past tense, 'and then… and then…' Each action in the chain caused the next.
Guardian, escort.
Administration, stewardship, dispensation.
Fullness, completion, fulfillment.
Law.
The word that comes and stands.
Hidden in Him, Revealed with Him
To dwell, settle (shakan);
The manifest divine presence.
Glory, weight, honor, significance.
Kinsman-redeemer.
Worm;
Tabernacled among us, pitched his tent.
In him, the union aspect.
A down payment, a deposit that guarantees the full sum will come.
To seal, to mark as owned and secured.
The Word in whom all things are held.
Whosoever Will, May Come
'Ho, everyone who thirsts!' The opening call of Isaiah 55:1.
Come! Go! Plural imperative of halakh (to walk/go).
'All the nations of the earth.' The scope statement of the Abrahamic blessing (Genesis 22:18).
Everyone who is believing.
World, the created order, humanity in its fallen state.
Propitiation, the atoning sacrifice that deals with sin and turns away the wrath of God.
A ransom in exchange for many / in the place of many.
It has been and remains completely finished.
The willing one / the one who desires.
'From every tribe.' Revelation 5:9, the scope of the redeemed:
'Come to me, all.' Matthew 11:28.
To buy, to purchase in the marketplace;
Freely, as a gift, without cost or cause.