Knowledge Library

Hebrew Studies

The language of the Old Testament: roots, verbs, and what they can and cannot prove.

Scripture first

Psalm 119:130 · Deuteronomy 6:6-7

God gave His words in a real language, to a real people, who were to keep them in their hearts and teach them to their children. Learning what those words meant to them is not scholarship laid over Scripture. It is listening to Scripture.

What this shelf holds

  • The vocabulary and grammar of biblical Hebrew: the three letter root, the verb stems, the way one word can carry mercy, covenant loyalty and steadfast love at once.
  • Word studies that follow a term through the Old Testament rather than defining it once.

How to use it

  • Start from the verse, not the lexicon. Ask what the sentence is doing, then ask what the word contributes to it.
  • Read the word in several passages before you settle on a sense. Usage in context, not etymology, carries the meaning.

What this cannot settle

A word does not mean everything it can mean everywhere it appears. Root etymology is the commonest error in amateur Hebrew study: the history of a word is not its meaning in a sentence.

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10 entries on these shelves

Reference works

Each of these is named so you can open it and check us. Each carries what it is good for and what it cannot decide.

Every entry below is labelled with the kind of evidence it is, so a lexicon is never mistaken for the text and a commentary is never mistaken for a conclusion Scripture has drawn.

  • A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament

    Original languageSupports the text, never settles it · Francis Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles Briggs, 1906 · Public domain

    Hebrew and Aramaic vocabulary arranged by root, with attested senses and passages.

    Use forEstablishing the documented range of a Hebrew word and its cognates.

    CautionArrangement by root can suggest connections between words that the biblical writers never made. Its comparative etymologies are often proposals.

  • Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament

    Original languageSupports the text, never settles it · Wilhelm Gesenius, translated by Samuel Tregelles, 1846 · Public domain

    Hebrew and biblical Aramaic vocabulary with grammatical notes.

    Use forA second witness alongside Brown-Driver-Briggs on a disputed word.

    CautionPredates the discovery of the Ugaritic and Akkadian material that clarified much Hebrew vocabulary.

  • Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible

    Biblical cross-referencesSupports the text, never settles it · James Strong, 1890 · Public domain

    Every word of the King James text indexed, each keyed by number to a Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek entry.

    Use forFinding every occurrence of an original word and following it across the canon.

    CautionThe numbered glosses are the briefest possible summary, not a definition. A word's meaning in one verse is set by that verse, not by the whole range Strong lists.

  • Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible

    Biblical cross-referencesSupports the text, never settles it · Robert Young, 1879 · Public domain

    English words sorted by which original word lies behind them.

    Use forSeeing where one English word translates several different Hebrew or Greek words.

    CautionKeyed to the King James Version, so the English entries will not always match the translation you are reading.

Entries on this shelf

Audela's own entries for this kind of study. Each one is taught from the passages that use it and links into the chapter studies, topics and questions that go furthest with it.

  • Eternal Life

    ScriptureFinal authority · Written and reviewed by Audela against the passages it cites · Nothing here rests on evidence outside the Bible

    The unending life of the age to come, known now through Christ

  • Faith

    ScriptureFinal authority · Written and reviewed by Audela against the passages it cites · Nothing here rests on evidence outside the Bible

    Trust in God's character and word, shown by resting on it

  • Grace

    ScriptureFinal authority · Written and reviewed by Audela against the passages it cites · Nothing here rests on evidence outside the Bible

    God's undeserved favour, given freely in Christ

  • Repentance

    ScriptureFinal authority · Written and reviewed by Audela against the passages it cites · Nothing here rests on evidence outside the Bible

    A change of mind and direction, turning from sin to God

  • Righteousness

    ScriptureFinal authority · Written and reviewed by Audela against the passages it cites · Nothing here rests on evidence outside the Bible

    Being right with God, and living rightly before him

Back to Scripture

The order of authority

Scripture · Biblical cross references · Original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek · Historical, cultural, geographical and archaeological background · Trusted biblical reference works · Explanation and application

Read how Audela weighs each rung

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One deep study, every week.

Verse-by-verse teaching with historical context, and a prayer to close. Nothing else in the email.