- WORD STUDY
'wərd stə.di noun. Learning the scriptures’ definition of a word through its use in the text.
In the churches where I grew up, when people talked about “doing bible study,” they really meant doing a word study. They weren’t
Well you are using a bible, and you are studying.
But properly they were doing a
And that’s good! We should understand those words better. You’d be surprised (or annoyed) at how many Christians don’t know the definitions of words we use all the time. I already told the story of a pastor who
Problem is, few Christians are taught how to properly study a word. They do it like so:
- Look up the word in the dictionary. (If they feel adventurous, they might look it up in a Hebrew or Greek dictionary, like the ones in back of a concordance. But usually they’ll just go with a Webster’s.)
- Use a concordance, or a computer bible, to get a list of every verse in the bible with that word in it.
- Read a few of the verses with that word in it, so they know “what the bible says” about that word.
- Assume these verses are using the very same definition they read in the dictionary. Regardless of whether it does or doesn’t. Read that definition into every verse. Get some “insights” as a result.
- Feel all knowledgeable, profound, and spiritual.
Outside of Christendom, only schoolchildren will claim they “studied” when all they really did was look up a word in the dictionary. Come on, Christians. Let’s do some actual study, shall we?
Pick your word.
Every bible study
I used to go about word studies the wrong way all the time. I’d choose to do a word study on “slander” because I wanted to preach against slander: I already had an idea of what “slander” means, and wanted the bible to back up my ideas. If the bible’s authors had a different idea than mine, I’d’ve been greatly annoyed: “Aw crap, now I can’t preach on that.” If I were a less-than-scrupulous Christian (and yes, I’ve known a few) I’d have bent the authors’ meaning to suit my sermon. But generally I believed the authors meant what I meant. I didn’t like slander; they didn’t like slander. Right?
Well that’s the catch: We don’t know whether they do or not. Not till we study the bible and find out!
So, as with any quest for knowledge, start with an open mind. Bear in mind we’re trying to grow as Christians, and that means correcting our faulty knowledge. When we discover we’re wrong, fix it. We’re to always work on ourselves before we start preaching at others.
Awright, let’s start with a word. Today I’m gonna look at joy. As I said
Nope, we’re not gonna do it that way.
Next step is not to get out the dictionary.
If the typical word-studiers don’t presume they already know what the word means, their next step is to crack open a dictionary.
Which dictionary? Well, the word-studiers don’t always ask that question. They just grab a dictionary; usually an English-language dictionary. Most of the time it’s “Webster’s Dictionary”—except they don’t realize any dictionary publisher can call their book “Webster’s.” The name “Webster’s” isn’t copyrighted. So if it’s called “Webster’s” and nothing more, it’s most likely a discount generic dictionary; one you could pick up at a dollar store, or in the bargain bin at the bookstore. Hence the next time your pastor starts explaining his word study with “According to Webster’s Dictionary…” you now have an idea he thinks so little of study, he never bothered to get a good dictionary.
But here’s why not to crack open your English-language dictionary: Look up “joy” in there, and you’re gonna read all the different things English-speakers mean when we say “joy.” Well, the bible wasn’t written by English-speakers. It was translated by English-speakers, into English, but English didn’t even exist when the bible was written! You think any of the bible’s authors would recognize what our culture thinks of as “joy”?
As I pointed out
I can’t tell you how many bad sermons I’ve heard where the preacher began with how Webster’s defined the word they meant to preach upon… then proceeded to preach a sermon which was all about how Webster’s defined the word. Not the scriptures. They overlaid our culture’s ideas on top of the bible, and preached that. It’s only by the grace of God they were more right than wrong.
So let’s start by dodging the wrongness. No dictionary! Not yet.
Instead the next step is to get out your computer. Which you’re on right now, reading TXAB, so that step’s done. We’re about to use a computer bible. And if you don’t own bible software, that’s fine; we’ll use the internet. We’re gonna look up your word in the bible. Not the dictionary.
Find the original-language words.
As I said, after checking out the dictionary, typical word-studiers will then look up every instance of that word in their favorite bible translation. We’re looking at “joy.” So if the word-studiers’ favorite translation of the bible is the English Standard Version, they’re gonna look up “joy” in the
Anyway, the typical word-studier with an
They’re loosely on the right track. They kinda skipped a step.
Unlike them, what we’re gonna do is find out which words, in the original languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, our bibles translate as “joy.”
If you’re not comfortable with biblical languages, relax. This is why there are such things as
I didn’t search a bible to get the following wordlist; I searched a lexical database of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words. (I have really good bible software.) But searching your favorite bible translation will do the same job just fine. Anyway here’s my list. I also noted the
| STRONG NUMBER | WORD/TRANSLITERATION (AND MAYBE MEANING) | FREQUENCY |
|---|---|---|
| H1524 | 10. | |
| H1525 | 2. | |
| H2304 | 2. | |
| H2305 | 1. | |
| H4010 | 1. | |
| H4885 | 17. | |
| H7321 | 46. | |
| H7440 | 33. | |
| H7442 | 51. | |
| H7444 | 2. | |
| H7797 | 27. | |
| H8055 | 152. | |
| H8057 | 91. | |
| H8342 | 22. | |
| H8643 | 36. | |
| G0020 | 5. | |
| G4640 | 3. | |
| G5479 | 58. | |
| G5485 | 156. |
Yep, we’ve just leapt from one word to 19.
No, this doesn’t mean we gotta study all 19 words! (Unless you wanna. Wouldn’t hurt.) We’re actually on the hunt for the main words for “joy” in the bible. And you notice how certain words stand out, because they’re used so frequently. In Hebrew the words samákh and simkhá make up most of the instances of “joy” in the Old Testament. In Greek, in the New Testament, that’d be the word hará. (Yes, háris appears more frequently, but in the
The greater frequency of a word in the bible, the easier it becomes to figure out what it means. You’ll see why in just a bit. So since samákh shows up a lot, yeah it means we gotta read a lot of verses. But each of these verses helps fill out its meaning just a little bit more. In comparison, if you have a word like mavligít, which only appears once in the entire bible… yeah, you only have one verse to study.
For our example, I’m gonna look up a few instances of samákh. Let’s learn what it means.
Using the scriptures to define your word.
Reading the scriptures, and reading the way its authors used these words, helps us understand what they meant by the word “joy.” Let’s look at just a few examples of samákh in the scriptures. (I’m gonna use the New Living Translation, instead of the trickier King James, or
Deuteronomy 12.7 NLT - There you and your families will feast in the presence of the L
ORD your God, and you willrejoice in all you have accomplished because the LORD your God has blessed you.
Of course “rejoice” means “to take joy in”—so you’ll take joy in all you’ve accomplished. Here Moses referred to feasting and celebrating, and making a big thing of one’s achievements, and how the Hebrews were expected to think of these things: With joy. Celebration is a way to express joy. How do you feel when you celebrate? How should you feel after achieving your goals? Whatever that is, we should be able to describe it using the word “joy.”
Got that? Good. Now another verse.
Deuteronomy 24.5 NLT - A newly married man must not be drafted into the army or be given any other official responsibilities. He must be free to spend one year at home,
bringing happiness to the wife he has married.
Bringing happiness—or bringing joy. Same word; same idea.
How should newlyweds feel towards one another? Again, we should be able to describe it using the word “joy.” Contrast that with how the newlyweds would feel if they had to be separated by war.
(True, the ancients didn’t always marry because they loved one another. But it’s okay to assume they were usually pleased with their marriage. Joy should be the product.)
Judges 9.13 NLT - “But the grapevine also refused, saying,
- ‘Should I quit producing the wine
- that
cheers both God and people, - just to wave back and forth over the trees?’ ”
In other words, that brings joy to God and people. This is part of a parable Jotham ben Gideon told about his evil brother: The trees chose to pick a king, and chose wrongly. The grapevine, one of their nominees, described its wine as bringing joy to people. Now, think about how winos love their wine. Sometimes a little too much. But generally it makes ’em feel what we’d usually call “joy.”
1 Samuel 2.1 NLT - Then Hannah prayed:
- “My heart rejoices in the L
ORD ! - The L
ORD has made me strong. - Now I have an answer for my enemies;
- I
rejoice because you rescued me.”
The prophet Hannah had joy because God rescued her. (The first “rejoice” in this verse is
This was Hannah’s song of worship because God granted her a son, Samuel, after many tearful prayers for a child. Her “enemies” probably include her husband’s other wife, who mocked her for being childless,
One last example:
1 Samuel 6.13 NLT - The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they saw the Ark, they were
overjoyed!
Some months before, the Ark of
Y’see how this works? We look at the scriptures, we consider their context, and we deduce the meaning of the word from it.
Granted, this process is much harder with certain words. Especially those words which only show up in the bible one or two times: There’s not a lot of verses to pull their meaning from! The more verses we have, the better and fuller of an idea we can have about what the word means. The fewer verses, the more questionable our interpretations might get. (So don’t go making definitive statements about a word which only appears once or twice!)
Believe it or don’t: This is how the people who write dictionaries do their job. They do word studies. They look at how people use a word, and come up with definitions based on how the words get used. When we do a proper word study, we do the very same thing. We write the definition—based on bible.
Checking your work.
Once we’re done, then we get out the dictionary. It comes last. And of course we shouldn’t get out Webster’s, nor any English-language dictionary. We’ve been studying the Hebrew word samákh, so which dictionary d’you think we oughta use? Right, the Hebrew dictionary. Here’s what you’ll find in a Strong’s Hebrew dictionary:
- 8055.
שָׂמַח SAMÁKHsa'mak verb. A primitive root; probably to brighten up, i.e. (figuratively) be (causatively, make) blithe or gleesome—cheer up, be (make) glad, (have, make) joy(-ful), be (make) merry, (cause to, make to) rejoice.
That sound anything like the conclusion you came to on your own? If so, great!—you did it right. If not, something went a little wrong. Yeah, it might be the dictionary, which is why I have multiple dictionaries. But let’s be honest: It’s way, way more likely it’s you. So go back and double-check your work. (You might’ve accidentally studied the wrong word.)
But unlike a word-studier who just flips open the dictionary, reads what’s in there, and discovers its meaning thataway: You figured out for yourself what samákh/“joy” means. You know what it means. You did the homework.
You had to think about what it meant as you dug its meaning out of the text. You saw examples of it, whereas this particular dictionary didn’t bother to give any. You saw how the folks in the bible behaved when they were joyful. You saw what made ’em joyful, both good things and bad. You likely found some really good passages
More importantly, you avoided the mistake so many word-studiers do: You didn’t take the dictionary, then try to force its meaning where it doesn’t belong. Lots of words have more than one meaning. True for Hebrew and Greek words too. The Greek word
Now that you’ve figured out the word for yourself, you can more easily catch those people who have the wrong idea about joy. Like all the Christians who claim joy isn’t an emotion, isn’t happiness. You just read all those verses in the bible about joy, so you’re now fully aware these Christians don’t know what they’re talking about. None of the folks in the scriptures who experienced joy, were just sitting there basking in their deep abiding sense of peace. They were happy. They were ecstatic. They celebrated.
Oh, there’s nothing wrong with peace. It’s a fruit of the Spirit too, y’know. But it’s not the same thing as joy, and after a good proper word study, you know it’s not the same thing as joy. ’Cause you just saw for yourself.
