Beware of Bible word studies
Word studies done well can yield great benefits for the earnest student of God’s word. But as fundamental as word studies are to understand the Bible—or at least, as a first step to understanding the Bible—they carry many pitfalls. Scripture was originally given in languages different from ours, so we face translation challenges. Language is always changing, so we face comprehension challenges. Language is more than mere words, so understanding a single word doesn’t resolve interpretive challenges.
Recognizing the ways we can go astray can help us avoid interpretative disasters. Here’s how not to do a word study.
1. Don’t conduct English-only word studies.
To conduct a biblical word study in English only is a fatal flaw. Every translation employs different English words for the same Greek and Hebrew words, and different Greek and Hebrew words are sometimes translated with the same English word.
The term “love” provides a good example. In Hebrew, there are two words translated as “love” in English: ahev and hesed. There are also two in Greek: agape and phileo. An English-only word study would dull the shades of meaning contained in each term. In other terms, the danger is more pronounced than merely dulling meaning. We might get it wrong altogether.
2. Don’t rely on a word’s etymology.
Etymology is the study of the origin and historical development of a word’s meaning. While such knowledge can be helpful—and is usually interesting—it can prove a distraction. Meaning isn’t primarily located in a word’s root or history.
Our Greek terms agape and phileo, for example, share no etymology but clearly overlap in meaning. Whereas the Hebrew terms lehem (bread) and milhama (war/battle) share the same root (lhm) but have no overlap in meaning. A word’s usage, not its etymology, determines its meaning. How the word is used in particular contexts must therefore take precedence over etymology.
3. Don’t be ignorant of how a word’s usage changes through time.
This pitfall is related to the last one. It’s important to be aware of how a word’s meaning may have developed and changed through history. For example, the word “silly” used to mean “worthy” or “blessed,” whereas now it means “foolish.” It means something different today than it did historically. Bible words are no different. We must be careful about reading newer meanings into older occurrences and older meanings into newer occurrences.
As fundamental as word studies are to understand the Bible, they carry many pitfalls.
The term mashiah (anointed one) is a good case study. In early usage, it simply referred to one who had been anointed with oil to be set apart for God’s service—a person like a priest (Lev. 6:22), king (1 Sam. 24:6), or prophet (Ps. 105:15). In later usage, however, it becomes a technical term for the Messiah (Dan. 9:25–26; Ps. 132:17). We see this in extrabiblical literature and in the word’s New Testament translation “Christ” as a title for Jesus.
No good word study is ignorant of a word’s chronological development.
4. Don’t collect evidence for a word’s meaning in an unbalanced way.
When gathering evidence for your word study, it may be tempting to omit occurrences if they don’t help us say what we want or if they don’t fit what we expect to find. This error is particularly pernicious because it’s intentional, stacking the deck to make our point. We must commit before we begin a word study to let Scripture shape us, rather than us shaping Scripture.
Take the Greek term apostolos as an example. Out of around 80 New Testament occurrences, all but three are technical designations for divinely appointed messengers, the apostles. If I wanted to argue all apostles carry divine authority, I’d omit the word’s uses in John 13:16, 2 Corinthians 8:23, and Philippians 2:25 where the word simply refers to a messenger or representative. But if I’m to permit Scripture to shape my theology, I must have two categories of apostolos: the original, divinely authorized apostles and another broader category of the messenger.
5. Don’t forget times when a concept is present though the word isn’t.
The occurrences unearthed by a word study alone don’t exhaust a word or concept’s meaning. It’s quite possible there may be additional information on a particular word in a passage where the term doesn’t appear; the word might be absent, but the concept isn’t. As D. A. Carson states, “As important as word studies are, it is very doubtful if profound understanding of any text or of any theme is really possible by word studies alone.”
No good word study is ignorant of a word’s chronological development.
If we’re keen to know what the Bible teaches about the church, for example, we should certainly study the term ekklesia. But our study of the single term won’t tell us all there is to know. The concept of church is larger than the word alone. Take Peter’s use of Old Testament terminology to describe the church in 1 Peter 2. He doesn’t use the term “church,” but he’s clearly teaching that the church is a spiritual house built with living stones (v. 5) and that the individuals in the church are chosen, royal, and holy and belong to God (v. 9). Our understanding of the church would be anaemic without 1 Peter 2.
6. Don’t be frightened into quitting.
Reading the side effects of medication is almost enough to put you off taking it. A medicine may offer a corrective for one ailment but create the danger of new ailments. Perhaps that’s how you feel about word studies after reading this piece. Given all the pitfalls, are they worth it? Yes, they are.
Word studies provide a foundational first step into the world of deeper biblical interpretation. It’s difficult to properly comprehend phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and entire books if we don’t fully understand the words that create them. Be aware of these pitfalls, but don’t let them paralyze your Bible study.
