Hebrew and Greek Without Learning Either

John

• John 1:1 The Word was God, or the Word was a god. The difference is one missing article.
• John 1:1a, 3 Was, and came to be. Two verbs one verse apart, and the whole prologue turns on the difference.
• John 1:1b The Word was with God. The preposition is not the one you would expect for with.
• John 1:1c Why call a person a Word? The Greek noun covers far more than a unit of speech, and two different backgrounds are competing for it.
• John 1:5 The darkness did not comprehend it, or did not overcome it. The verb means both and John probably wanted both.
• John 1:9 Coming into the world. Nothing in the Greek tells you whether that describes the light or the man.
• John 1:12 Power to become the sons of God. The word is closer to right or authority than to power.
• John 1:13 Not of blood. The Greek says bloods, plural, and the plural is a Hebrew way of speaking.
• John 1:14a Dwelt among us. The verb is built on the word for tent, and the whole Old Testament is inside it.
• John 1:14b Full of grace and truth. That is a Hebrew pair, and it comes from Exodus 34.
• John 1:16 Grace for grace. The preposition normally means instead of, which makes the phrase hard rather than warm.
• John 1:18 The only begotten Son, or the only begotten God. The manuscripts do not agree and the difference is enormous.
• John 1:41-42 John stops the narrative twice to translate a word for you, which tells you who he thought was reading.
• John 1:51 Verily I say unto you. The you is plural, and Jesus has been talking to one man.
• John 2:4a What have I to do with thee. A Hebrew idiom carried word for word into Greek.
• John 2:4b Mine hour is not yet come. A word John uses as a countdown to one event.
• John 2:11 The beginning of miracles. John's word is sign, and he never uses the usual word for miracle.
• John 2:15 A scourge of small cords. The noun occurs once in the New Testament and is a Latin word in Greek dress.
• John 2:17 The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. The verb is consume, and the tense was changed in the quotation.
• John 2:19 Destroy this temple. Greek has two words for temple and this is the inner one.
• John 2:23-25 Many believed. And Jesus did not believe them. The same verb, twice, deliberately.
• John 3:3 Born again, or born from above. The Greek word means both and Nicodemus hears only one.
• John 3:5 Born of water and of the Spirit. One preposition governs both nouns, or two.
• John 3:8 The wind blows where it wills. Wind and Spirit are the same Greek word, and the sentence needs both at once.
• John 3:13 Who is in heaven. Three words that are in some manuscripts and not others.
• John 3:15 Believeth in him. The phrase can attach to believe or to eternal life.
• John 3:16a For God so loved the world. So means in this way, not so very much.
• John 3:16b Everlasting life. The Greek adjective is built on the word for age, not the word for endless.
• John 3:18-19 Condemned already. The Greek word is judged, and the noun in the next verse is the judgment.
• John 3:29 The friend of the bridegroom. A defined role in Jewish weddings, not a figure of speech.
• John 3:31-36 Where does the speech end? Greek manuscripts have no quotation marks.
• John 3:36 He that believeth not. The Greek verb in the second half is disobey, not disbelieve.
• John 4:6 The sixth hour. Which clock John is using is an old and unresolved question.
• John 4:9 Have no dealings with. A rare verb, and it may mean do not share vessels.
• John 4:10 Living water. In ordinary speech it means running water from a spring.
• John 4:23-24 True worshippers. The adjective means real as against counterfeit, not sincere.
• John 4:24 God is spirit. Same construction as the last clause of John 1:1, and here nobody reads it as a god.
• John 4:26 I that speak unto thee am he. The Greek is the same two words as John 8:58.
• John 4:35 White already to harvest. The colour word points at ripeness, and the verb is a command to look.
• John 5:2 Bethesda. The manuscripts do not agree on the name of the pool.
• John 5:3-4 The angel troubling the water. A whole verse that is not in the oldest manuscripts.
• John 5:18 Making himself equal with God. The charge is the narrator's report of what they heard.
• John 5:27 Because he is the Son of man. No article, and John never does this anywhere else.
• John 5:39 Search the scriptures. The Greek form is both a command and a statement.
• John 6:27 Him hath God the Father sealed. A commercial and legal word for marking ownership.
• John 6:35 I am the bread of life. The first of the predicate I am sayings.
• John 6:44 Except the Father draw him. The verb is used of hauling a net and drawing a sword.
• John 6:51-58 Whoso eateth my flesh. The verb changes at verse 54 to a word for chewing.
• John 6:63 The flesh profiteth nothing. Said immediately after a discourse about eating flesh.
• John 6:70 One of you is a devil. The Greek noun is slanderer, and it has no article here.
• John 7:8 I go not up yet unto this feast. Some manuscripts lack the word yet.
• John 7:37-38 Out of his belly shall flow rivers. Whose belly depends on where the sentence is punctuated.
• John 7:39 The Holy Ghost was not yet given. The word given is not in the Greek.
• John 7:53-8:11 The woman taken in adultery. The best manuscripts do not have this passage.
• John 8:12 I am the light of the world. Said during a festival lit by enormous lamps.
• John 8:24, 28 If ye believe not that I am. Twice in five verses, with nothing after it.
• John 8:32-34 The truth shall make you free. And the next sentence is about slavery, not about employment.
• John 8:44 A liar, and the father of it. The pronoun could be of it or of him.
• John 8:56 Rejoiced to see my day. The verb is closer to exulted, and the seeing is aorist.
• John 8:58 Before Abraham was, I am. The verb is wrong on purpose.
• John 9:7 Siloam, which is by interpretation, Sent. John stops to translate again.
• John 9:22 Put out of the synagogue. A compound word that appears nowhere before John.
• John 9:38-39 Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Some manuscripts do not have it.
• John 10:11 The good shepherd. The adjective is not the ordinary word for good.
• John 10:16 One fold, and one shepherd. The Greek uses two different nouns and the King James uses one.
• John 10:29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all. The manuscripts disagree about what is greater.
• John 11:3, 5, 36 Both love-words, one chapter, the same relationship. Whatever they are doing, they are not ranking it.
• John 11:33 He groaned in the spirit. The verb is an anger word, not a grief word.
• John 11:35 Jesus wept. A different verb from the weeping of everyone else in the scene.
• John 11:48 The Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.
• John 12:3 Ointment of spikenard, very costly. The adjective is a word nobody has settled.
• John 12:32 I will draw all men unto me. The same verb as the drawing in chapter six.
• John 12:41 When he saw his glory. Some manuscripts read when, others read because.
• John 13:1 He loved them unto the end. To the finish, or to the utmost.
• John 13:10 He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet. Some copies lack the feet.
• John 13:34 A new commandment. The word for new means fresh in kind, not recent in time.
• John 14:1-2 Ye believe in God, believe also in me. Both verbs could be statements or commands.
• John 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions. The noun means a place to stay.
• John 14:16 Comforter, Helper, Advocate, Counselor, Paraclete. Six versions, six words, one Greek noun nobody can carry.
• John 15:2 Every branch that beareth not fruit he taketh away. The verb also means lifts up.
• John 15:5 Without me ye can do nothing. The preposition is closer to apart from.
• John 16:8 Reprove the world of sin. One verb, three objects, and no agreed rendering.
• John 16:13 He will shew you things to come. The verb is announce, and the phrase need not mean prediction.
• John 17:3 This is life eternal, that they might know thee. Knowing here is relational, not informational.
• John 17:5 The glory which I had with thee before the world was. Glory again, and para with the dative.
• John 18:5-6 I am he. And they went backward and fell to the ground.
• John 18:28 Lest they should be defiled. A purity concern stated without explanation.
• John 19:13 The Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. Another gloss, in the other direction.
• John 19:17 Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull. And John says it the other way round.
• John 19:30 It is finished. One word, in a tense that means done and still in force.
• John 20:17 Touch me not. The Greek is stop doing what you are already doing.
• John 20:28 My Lord and my God. Both nouns have the article, which is the point.
• John 21:15-17 Two different Greek words for love, and the sermon you have heard about them is probably overselling it.
• John 21:15-17b Feed my lambs, tend my sheep. Four words vary, not two.

Genesis

• Genesis 1:1a In the beginning, or when God began. The first word is shaped like half a phrase.
• Genesis 1:1b Created. A verb with only one possible subject in the whole Hebrew Bible.
• Genesis 1:1c The heaven and the earth. Not two items. One idea named by its opposite ends.
• Genesis 1:2 Moved, hovered, or swept. One rare verb and a bird.
• Genesis 1:5 The first day. Literally, one day, a cardinal number, while every later day uses an ordinal.
• Genesis 1:6-8 Let there be a firmament. A word built on the sense of beating something out flat, likely naming a solid dome, not empty space.
• Genesis 1:14 Let them be for signs, and for seasons. Moedim, the same word later naming Israel's appointed feasts.
• Genesis 1:16 The greater light and the lesser light. Not shemesh, sun, and yareach, moon, the same words as the sun-god and moon-god.
• Genesis 1:21 God created great whales. The Hebrew word, tannin, elsewhere names the mythological sea-monster Leviathan.
• Genesis 1:26a Let us make. A plural announcement followed immediately by a singular act.
• Genesis 1:26b In our image, after our likeness. Two nouns, and probably one idea.
• Genesis 1:28 Subdue it, and have dominion. Forceful, even military and royal vocabulary, standing beside Genesis 2's gentler verbs for the same job.
• Genesis 2:2-3 God rested. The verb means stopped, not recovered.
• Genesis 2:4a These are the generations. A recurring formula, not a genealogy header.
• Genesis 2:4b In the day that the LORD God made. An idiom meaning when, not a calendar entry.
• Genesis 2:6 A mist went up. A word used only here and once in Job, and nobody is certain what it names.
• Genesis 2:7a Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. A different word from the one in chapter one.
• Genesis 2:7b Man became a living soul. The same phrase is used of the animals.
• Genesis 2:15 To work it and keep it. The same two verbs describe the Levites guarding the tabernacle.
• Genesis 2:16-17 Thou shalt surely die. Literally dying, you shall die: the verb said twice.
• Genesis 2:18 Help meet. Two English words that were never one word, and a Hebrew phrase that says something else again.
• Genesis 2:21-22 One of his ribs. The same word names the side chambers of the tabernacle everywhere else.
• Genesis 2:23 She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. A pun that sounds like a derivation.
• Genesis 2:24 One flesh. A kinship word, not only a body word.
• Genesis 2:25-3:1 Naked, and not ashamed. Then: the serpent was more crafty. Two words that are near-twins in Hebrew.
• Genesis 3:8 The cool of the day. The Hebrew word is the same one translated Spirit.
• Genesis 3:15a He shall bruise thy head. The Hebrew pronoun is unambiguously masculine, singular, he.
• Genesis 3:15b It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Same verb, four occurrences total, and bruise may be too gentle for either half.
• Genesis 3:16a Sorrow in childbearing, toil in the field. One Hebrew word, two English words.
• Genesis 3:16b Thy desire shall be to thy husband. Three occurrences in the whole Bible, and they do not agree.
• Genesis 3:20 He called her Eve, because she was the mother of all living. The name means life.
• Genesis 3:24 A flaming sword which turned every way. The verb form says the sword turns itself.
• Genesis 4:1 I have gotten a man from the LORD. Or: a man, the LORD. The little word between them decides which.
• Genesis 4:7 Sin lieth at the door. Its desire is to thee, and thou shalt rule over it. The same crouching-word, and the same two words as 3:16.
• Genesis 4:8 Cain talked with Abel his brother. The Hebrew text never says what he said; other ancient witnesses supply Let us go into the field.
• Genesis 4:10 Thy brother's blood crieth. The Hebrew word is plural, bloods, and English cannot say that.
• Genesis 4:12-16 A fugitive and a vagabond. Cain then dwells in the land of Nod, wandering, the same word as his curse.
• Genesis 4:23-24 I have slain a man. Or: I would slay a man. The same Hebrew perfect tense supports both.
• Genesis 4:26 Then began men to call upon the name of the LORD. Or: then it became common, in a profaning sense, to call on that name.
• Genesis 5:5-31 And he died. The same two words end almost every entry in the genealogy, on purpose.
• Genesis 5:24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. The refrain breaks, and the verb for walked is unusual.
• Genesis 5:29 He called his name Noah, saying, this shall comfort us. Comfort is nacham; the name Noah is built on the different word nuach, rest.
• Genesis 6:2 The sons of God saw the daughters of men. The oldest reading takes sons of God as divine beings, not a human family line.
• Genesis 6:3 My spirit shall not always strive with man. A verb used only this once, and nobody is fully certain what it says God's spirit will stop doing.
• Genesis 6:4 There were giants in the earth. The Hebrew word, Nephilim, does not itself mean giant.
• Genesis 6:6 It repented the LORD. A verb that means comfort, grieve, relent and change course, all at once.
• Genesis 6:14a Pitch it within and without with pitch. The noun for pitch and the verb for cover share the root behind atonement.
• Genesis 6:14b Gopher wood. A word used exactly once, and no one knows for certain what tree it names.
• Genesis 6:16 A window shalt thou make to the ark. The word may mean light or roof rather than an opening you look through.
• Genesis 7:2 By sevens, seven and seven. The Hebrew just repeats the numeral; English has to add a preposition to get the same sense.
• Genesis 7:6 The flood of waters. The word mabbul names only this flood, never an ordinary one.
• Genesis 7:11 The fountains of the great deep, and the windows of heaven. The word for deep is a cousin of the name of a Babylonian sea-goddess.
• Genesis 8:1 God remembered Noah. Not recalling a forgotten fact, but acting on a standing promise.
• Genesis 8:4 The mountains of Ararat. A region, plural mountains, not a single named peak.
• Genesis 8:21a The LORD smelled a sweet savour. The word for sweet, soothing, shares Noah's own root.
• Genesis 8:21b The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. The same diagnosis as before the flood, now given as the reason God will not flood the earth again.
• Genesis 9:4 Flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. Life and blood are named with the same word, nephesh.
• Genesis 9:6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. The Hebrew word order is a mirror around the center.
• Genesis 9:27 God shall enlarge Japheth. The verb for enlarge sounds like the name Japheth itself.
• Genesis 10:9 A mighty hunter before the LORD. Renowned in God's sight, or in open defiance of Him.
• Genesis 10:25 In his days was the earth divided. His name, Peleg, means division.
• Genesis 11:1 The whole earth was of one language. Literally, one lip, and one set of words.
• Genesis 11:4 A tower whose top may reach unto heaven. Standard ancient building-inscription language, not a literal engineering claim.
• Genesis 11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the LORD did there confound. A pun that mocks the city's own name for itself.
• Genesis 12:1 Get thee out. Literally go, for yourself, or go, to yourself: a pronoun added where none was grammatically needed.
• Genesis 12:3 In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Passive, or reflexive: blessed through you, or blessing themselves by your name.
• Genesis 12:6 The Canaanite was then in the land. The word then implies the writer already knows a time when the Canaanite was not.
• Genesis 14:18a Melchizedek, priest of the most high God. A title shared with Canaanite religion, which Abraham treats as naming his own God.
• Genesis 14:18b Melchizedek, king of Salem. His name means king of righteousness; Salem means peace.
• Genesis 15:2 The steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus. A rare word, ben-meshek, that nobody fully agrees on.
• Genesis 15:6a He believed in the LORD. The verb is the root behind amen.
• Genesis 15:6b He counted it to him for righteousness. The verb belongs in a ledger.
• Genesis 15:18 The LORD made a covenant with Abram. Literally, cut a covenant, and the chapter just showed you the cutting.
• Genesis 16:7-13 The angel of the LORD found Hagar. She then says the LORD spoke to her, and names him accordingly.
• Genesis 16:12 He will be a wild man. The Hebrew literally reads a wild-donkey of a man, animal first.
• Genesis 17:1 I am the Almighty God. El Shaddai, a title whose root meaning is genuinely uncertain.
• Genesis 17:5-15 Abram becomes Abraham; Sarai becomes Sarah. Both gain the same Hebrew letter, heh, also found in God's own name.
• Genesis 17:17 Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed. The verb tsachak becomes his son's name, Yitzchak, Isaac, he laughs.
• Genesis 18:1-2 The LORD appeared unto him. He lifted up his eyes, and lo, three men stood by him.
• Genesis 18:19 I know him, that he will command his children. Know here names a relationship, not a fact.
• Genesis 19:24 The LORD rained brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven. The LORD is named twice in one sentence.
• Genesis 19:26 His wife looked back from behind him. The verb is a deliberate, longing gaze, not a startled glance.
• Genesis 19:37 She called his name Moab. The name echoes me'av, from a father, memorializing how he was conceived.
• Genesis 20:7 He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee. The word's first use in the Bible names an intercessor, not a predictor.
• Genesis 21:9 Sarah saw the son of Hagar mocking. The verb, metzachek, is built from the same root as Isaac's name.
• Genesis 21:31 Beersheba, well of the oath, or well of seven. One root, sheva, carries both meanings.
• Genesis 22:1 God did tempt Abraham. The Hebrew verb means tested or proved, not enticed toward evil.
• Genesis 22:2 Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac. Abraham already has another living son, Ishmael.
• Genesis 22:14 The LORD will provide. The Hebrew verb is see, and the chapter has been using it all along.
• Genesis 23:6 A mighty prince among us. Literally, a prince of God, using elohim as a superlative.
• Genesis 24:1-67 The longest chapter in Genesis is long because the same story gets told twice, almost word for word.
• Genesis 25:8 Abraham gave up the ghost. One Hebrew verb, meaning expired or breathed his last; ghost has since become a word for a spirit-apparition.
• Genesis 25:22 The children struggled together within her. A rare, violent verb: crushing, not merely kicking.
• Genesis 25:23 The elder shall serve the younger. Or: the elder, shall the younger serve. The Hebrew word order does not decide it.
• Genesis 25:25-30 Esau, red at birth. Edom, from the red stew he later sells his birthright for. One Hebrew color word, twice.
• Genesis 25:26 His hand took hold on Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob. The same root also means deceiver, supplanter.
• Genesis 26:8 Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. The same root as laughed and mocked, now meaning caressed or fondled.
• Genesis 26:20-22 He called the name of the well Sitnah. The same root behind the word Satan.
• Genesis 28:12 A ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. A word used only here, likely naming a staircase like a ziggurat's.
• Genesis 29:17 Leah was tender eyed. The word could mean weak, or it could mean soft and lovely.
• Genesis 29:32-30:24 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph. Each name is a stated pun on the mother's words at his birth.
• Genesis 30:24 She called his name Joseph, saying, the LORD shall add to me another son. A second, earlier pun on the same name used a different root, for taking away.
• Genesis 31:19 Rachel had stolen the images. Household gods whose possession, per comparable ancient legal custom, could carry inheritance rights.
• Genesis 31:47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha; Jacob called it Galeed. Two languages, same meaning, spoken by two members of the same extended family.
• Genesis 31:49 The LORD watch between me and thee. Not a blessing of closeness; a warning born of mutual distrust.
• Genesis 32:28 Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God. The name itself could mean he strives with God, or God strives.
• Genesis 32:30 Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face.
• Genesis 33:11 Esau said, I have enough. Jacob said, I have all things. Two different Hebrew words, rav and kol, for two different postures toward wealth.
• Genesis 34:2 And defiled her. The verb anah is used elsewhere explicitly for rape, and elsewhere more broadly for affliction.
• Genesis 34:7 He had wrought folly in Israel. A fixed idiom for a grave sexual offense, not an improvised phrase.
• Genesis 35:18 She called his name Ben-oni: but his father called him Benjamin. Son of my sorrow, overridden by son of the right hand.
• Genesis 36:24 He found the yemim in the wilderness. A word used once, translated as mules by some, hot springs by others.
• Genesis 36:31 These are the kings that reigned in Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel. The comparison assumes Israel already has kings.
• Genesis 37:3 A coat of many colours. Modern scholarship increasingly favors a long-sleeved robe, not a rainbow garment.
• Genesis 37:28-36 Ishmeelites and Midianites both appear as Joseph's captors within the same short passage.
• Genesis 37:35 I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Sheol, whose precise nature the Old Testament never fully defines.
• Genesis 38:14 She sat in an open place. The Hebrew could be a place name, Enaim, or literally the opening of the eyes.
• Genesis 39:2 The LORD was with Joseph. A recurring formula that replaces direct divine speech for the rest of the book.
• Genesis 40:13-19 Pharaoh shall lift up thine head. For the butler, restored to office. For the baker, the same phrase, with one word added, means beheaded.
• Genesis 41:45 Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah. An Egyptian name whose meaning remains genuinely disputed.
• Genesis 41:51-52 Manasseh, for God hath made me forget; Ephraim, for God hath caused me to be fruitful. Two more names built from the naming sentence itself.
• Genesis 42:23 He spake unto them by an interpreter. The same root, melitz, later names a mediator or advocate in Job.
• Genesis 44:30 His life is bound up in the lad's life. Nephesh, the same word as living soul, used twice, bound together.
• Genesis 45:8 He hath made me a father to Pharaoh. An Egyptian administrative title, not a family claim.
• Genesis 45:26 Jacob's heart fainted. A rare verb some read as his heart simply stopped, not merely swooned.
• Genesis 47:26 Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day. A phrase marking the narrator's own, later vantage point.
• Genesis 47:29 Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh. An oath sworn on the organ of generation, not literally the thigh.
• Genesis 48:16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil. The first use of go'el, redeemer, in the Bible, applied to an angel.
• Genesis 48:22 I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren. Literally, one shechem, the same word as the city Shechem.
• Genesis 49:6 They digged down a wall. Or: they hamstrung oxen. The consonants are the same; only the vowels, added centuries later, decide.
• Genesis 49:10 Until Shiloh come. A word read as a place, a title, or a messianic figure, and translators still disagree.
• Genesis 50:20 Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good. The same verb, chashav, reckon, used of Abraham's faith at 15:6.
• Genesis 50:26 He was put in a coffin in Egypt. The Hebrew word, aron, is the same word later used for the Ark of the Covenant.

Psalms

• Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man. The Hebrew is a plural exclamation, not a description.
• Psalm 1:2 In his law doth he meditate day and night. The verb, hagah, means mutter or growl, not silent reflection.
• Psalm 2:7 This day have I begotten thee. A coronation formula marking a specific day, not a timeless statement.
• Psalm 2:12 Kiss the Son. Or: kiss purely, do homage in purity. The word bar is Aramaic for son, but also Hebrew for grain, clean, or pure.
• Psalm 4:2 Selah. A notation appearing seventy-one times in the Psalms whose exact meaning nobody today can confirm.
• Psalm 7:1 A Shiggaion of David. A label used only twice in the whole Bible, with no confirmed meaning.
• Psalm 8:5 A little lower than the angels. The Hebrew says elohim.
• Psalm 14:1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Nabal names moral corruption, not stupidity.
• Psalm 16:10 Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Shachat most literally means pit, the grave, with decay only as an extension.
• Psalm 17:8 Keep me as the apple of the eye. Literally, the little man, or the daughter of the eye: the pupil.
• Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God. The Hebrew noun means weight before it means brightness.
• Psalm 19:4 Their line is gone out through all the earth. Paul quotes it in Romans 10:18 as their voice, or sound.
• Psalm 22:1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The Gospels' version mixes Hebrew Eli with an Aramaic verb, not the Psalm's own Hebrew azavtani.
• Psalm 22:16 They pierced my hands and my feet, or like a lion. One letter, and it is the wrong length in some copies.
• Psalm 23:4 The valley of the shadow of death. Possibly not shadow plus death at all, but one word meaning deepest darkness.
• Psalm 23:6a I will dwell in the house of the LORD. The consonants also allow I will return.
• Psalm 23:6b Goodness and mercy shall follow me. Mercy is chesed, and mercy is the weakest word for it.
• Psalm 27:13 I had fainted, unless I had believed. The Hebrew leaves the unless-clause without its other half.
• Psalm 29:1 Ascribe unto the LORD, O ye mighty. Literally, sons of the elim, gods, the divine council again.
• Psalm 32:1 Blessed is he whose sin is covered. Kasah, cover, a near relative of kaphar, the atonement verb.
• Psalm 34:20 He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken. Quoted at John 19:36, itself echoing the Passover lamb's own unbroken bones.
• Psalm 37:11 The meek shall inherit the earth. Anav ranges from humble in spirit to poor and afflicted in circumstance.
• Psalm 39:6 Every man walketh in a vain shew. Betselem, in an image, the identical word as image of God at Genesis 1:27.
• Psalm 40:6 Mine ears hast thou opened. Hebrews 10:5 quotes it as a body hast thou prepared me, following the Greek, not the Hebrew.
• Psalm 41:9 Mine own familiar friend hath lifted up his heel against me. Akev, heel, the same root as Jacob's name, applied by Jesus to Judas's betrayal.
• Psalm 42:1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks. Arag, a rare verb for an audible cry of longing, not quiet heavy breathing.
• Psalm 45:6 Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The king addressed directly as elohim, quoted of the Son at Hebrews 1:8.
• Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God. Harpu is a military command: cease fire, stand down, not sit quietly.
• Psalm 47:7 Sing praises with understanding. Maskil, a term of uncertain meaning, also a mysterious label heading thirteen other psalms.
• Psalm 48:2 Mount Zion, on the sides of the north. Yarkete tsaphon, likely naming Mount Zaphon, the Canaanite storm-god Baal's own mythological mountain.
• Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. A statement about the depth of David's guilt, later read as a doctrine of universal inherited sin.
• Psalm 51:10a Create in me a clean heart. The verb is the one only God is ever allowed to do.
• Psalm 51:10b Renew a right spirit within me. The same noun runs through the next two verses meaning different things.
• Psalm 60:8 Over Edom will I cast out my shoe. A legal gesture claiming ownership, the same custom used to finalize a transaction at Ruth 4:7.
• Psalm 68:4 Extol him that rideth upon the heavens. The title matches rider of the clouds, Baal's own standing epithet in Ugaritic.
• Psalm 68:18 Thou hast received gifts for men. Ephesians 4:8 quotes it as gave gifts to men, matching the Aramaic Targum's own reading, not the Hebrew or Greek Old Testament.
• Psalm 72:17 His name shall be continued as long as the sun. Yinnon, a word used only here, read by Jewish tradition as one of the Messiah's own names.
• Psalm 72:20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. Yet David's name appears on psalms well after this point.
• Psalm 74:14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces. The multi-headed sea-dragon of the same chaos-combat imagery already met in Genesis.
• Psalm 82:1 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. One Hebrew word, both times.
• Psalm 84:10 I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God. Histopheph, a verb used only here, meaning to sit at the threshold.
• Psalm 88:5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave. Chophshi ordinarily means released or liberated, an odd, bitter word choice for death.
• Psalm 89:10 Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces. A different word entirely from Rahab the woman of Jericho.
• Psalm 90:2 From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Olam names indefinite, out-of-sight time rather than philosophical eternity.
• Psalm 91:6 The destruction that wasteth at noonday. Some ancient versions personify qeteb as a demon; the Hebrew itself, and the King James, keep it impersonal.
• Psalm 93:1 The LORD reigneth. Malakh could mean has become king, marking a specific moment, or reigns, describing an ongoing state.
• Psalm 95:8 As at Meribah, and as in the day of Massah. Both place names and, simultaneously, the ordinary words for strife and testing.
• Psalm 100:3 It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. Or: and his we are. One preserved letter apart, and Jewish scribal tradition marks both readings.
• Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west. A deliberately chosen pair of directions with no meeting point, unlike north and south.
• Psalm 104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits. Ruach, the same word for wind, breath, and spirit, used twice in one sentence about natural forces.
• Psalm 105:18 The iron entered into his soul. The Hebrew more literally reads his soul came into iron, a difficult phrase ancient translators handled differently.
• Psalm 110:1 The LORD said unto my Lord. Two different Hebrew words, and English uses one.
• Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Or: grievous, costly, in the LORD's sight.
• Psalm 118:22 The head stone of the corner. Either the foundation stone set first, or the capstone set last at the very top.
• Psalm 118:25 Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD. Hoshia na, the Hebrew behind Hosanna, is a plea for rescue, not originally a shout of praise.
• Psalm 121:1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. Or: unto the hills, where does my help come from?
• Psalm 127:2 So he giveth his beloved sleep. Or: he gives to his beloved even in their sleep, provision without anxious toil.
• Psalm 139:16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect. Golmi, an unformed, still-shapeless mass, the word later Judaism borrowed to name the golem.
• Psalm 141:5 Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness… for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. A notoriously difficult Hebrew text; ancient and modern versions diverge sharply.
• Psalm 145:13 The LORD is faithful in all his words, and holy in all his works. Missing between this and the previous verse: an entire nun line, preserved outside the Masoretic Text.
• Psalm 150:4 Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Ugav, an ancient reed or wind instrument, not the keyboard instrument organ now names.

Key words

• adam / adamah Human, and the ground he was taken from. The pun is the point.
• adon / adonai Lord, master, sir. An ordinary word, and also what is said aloud in place of the divine name.
• aion Age. The noun behind the adjective English renders eternal.
• anastasis Resurrection. The noun means a standing up again, and it is a bodily word.
• apostolos Apostle. The noun simply means one who is sent, with authority to act for the sender.
• avon Iniquity. The act, the guilt, and the consequence, in one noun.
• basar Flesh, body, meat, and by extension kinship and human frailty.
• basileia Kingdom. Closer to kingship or reign than to a territory.
• berit Covenant. A binding arrangement, and in Hebrew you cut one rather than make one.
• chara Joy. Built on the same root as grace, which is not an accident.
• chatta't Sin, and also the offering that deals with it. One word for both.
• chayim Life. Plural in form, singular in meaning.
• chokmah Wisdom. It includes skill with your hands.
• chronos Time as duration. The other half of the pair, and the one English defaults to.
• davar Word, thing, matter, event. Speech and the thing spoken are one noun.
• diakonos Servant. The word behind deacon, and it is not a lesser word than the one for slave.
• dikaioo To justify. A courtroom verb meaning to declare in the right, not to make good.
• dikaiosune Righteousness. English splits this into righteousness and justice; Greek and Hebrew do not.
• doulos Slave. English versions mostly print servant, and the two are not the same relationship.
• doxa Glory. In ordinary Greek it meant opinion or reputation; the Septuagint loaded it with Hebrew weight.
• eirene Peace. In Greek it is mainly the absence of war; in the Bible it carries Hebrew shalom.
• ekklesia Church. A civic word for a called-out assembly, with no religious content of its own.
• el God. The shortest word for deity, and also the name of the high god of Canaan.
• eleos Mercy. In the Septuagint it is the word chosen for Hebrew chesed, which is much larger.
• elohim God, gods, divine beings. A category word, and plural in form even when it means one.
• elpis Hope. Confident expectation, not wishing.
• erets Land, earth, country. Which one it means is usually the whole question.
• euangelion Gospel. In ordinary Greek it was the announcement of a royal victory or an emperor's accession.
• goel Kinsman-redeemer. A legal role English has no word for at all.
• hagios Holy. The idea is set apart for a purpose, not morally spotless.
• hamartia Sin. The word carries an image of a shot that misses.
• hevel Vapour, breath. The word Ecclesiastes repeats and English calls vanity.
• hodos Way. A road, and the first name the movement had for itself.
• hupomone Endurance. The word is built on staying under a weight, not on waiting quietly.
• kairos Time. The right moment, as against time on a clock.
• kaleo / klesis To call. The verb behind church, calling, and the word for those called out.
• kavod Glory. From a root meaning heavy. Weight before brightness.
• kipper To atone. The root sense is disputed between covering and wiping clean.
• kohen Priest. A functionary of the sanctuary, and the word used of foreign priests too.
• koinonia Fellowship. A word for shared ownership and partnership, including in money.
• kosmos World. The root idea is order and arrangement, which is why it also gives cosmetics.
• kurios Lord. Also sir, and also the Septuagint's replacement for the divine name.
• makrothumia Longsuffering. Literally long-tempered, the opposite of short-tempered.
• mal'ak Messenger. The same word is used of human envoys and of heavenly ones.
• martus Witness. The English word martyr is the same Greek word, after what happened to the witnesses.
• mashiach Anointed one. In the Old Testament it usually means the reigning king.
• mavet Death. Also personified, and paired with Sheol in the poetry.
• melek King. The ordinary word, and the one behind Moloch and Melchizedek.
• metanoia Repentance. The Greek noun is about a change of mind, and the Latin behind the English is about penance.
• mishpat Justice, judgment, the right ordering of things, and also a legal decision.
• navi Prophet. One who speaks for someone else, which is a job rather than a gift of prediction.
• nephesh Soul, life, self, appetite, throat. The animals have one too.
• nous Mind. Understanding and the faculty that does it, in one noun.
• olam A long duration, an age, the far horizon. Usually flattened to forever.
• or Light. The first thing spoken into existence, and a standing image for life and favour.
• panim Face, presence. Plural in form, and used of God constantly.
• pesha Transgression. A relational breach, closer to rebellion than to a slip.
• pisteuo To believe. In Greek that is closer to entrusting yourself than to agreeing with a claim.
• pneuma Spirit. The same noun means wind and breath, exactly like Hebrew ruach.
• Psalm 119 Thy law. The Hebrew word is instruction, and the psalm has eight words for it.
• Psalm 18 Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22 are two versions of the same song, close but not identical.
• Psalm 29 The voice of the LORD, seven times. A storm-theophany pattern closely paralleling Ugaritic hymns to the storm-god Baal.
• Psalm 53 Psalm 53 duplicates Psalm 14 almost word for word, but replaces every LORD with God.
• Psalm 9-10 Psalms 9 and 10 together form a single acrostic, moving through the Hebrew alphabet letter by letter, a structure no translation can preserve.
• psuche Soul. The same word is rendered life a few verses away, and it translates Hebrew nephesh.
• qadosh Holy. Set apart for a purpose, before it is anything about moral purity.
• sarx Flesh. Sometimes meat, sometimes the body, sometimes a whole orientation of life.
• shalom Peace. Wholeness and completeness, not merely the absence of conflict.
• shem Name, and with it reputation, character and authority.
• sheol The realm of the dead. Not hell, and not nothing.
• soma Body. The word Paul chooses for the church, and deliberately not the other one.
• sozo / soteria To save. One Greek verb covers rescue from danger, healing from disease, and eternal salvation.
• The four loves Four Greek words for love, and two of them never appear in the New Testament.
• torah Instruction, teaching. Law is a narrow rendering of a wide word.
• tsava Army, host. The plural in the title LORD of Hosts.
• tsedaqah Righteousness, and just as often justice. English splits them.
• When the English moved, not the Greek Roughly a hundred and thirty-six King James phrases now say something the Greek and Hebrew never said. Not one of them is a translation error.
• yad Hand, and with it power, agency and control.
• yare To fear, and also to revere. The same problem English has with awe.
• yasha To save, deliver, rescue. The root behind the names Joshua and Jesus.
• zera Seed. Singular in form, collective in sense, and Paul builds an argument on that.
• zoe Life. Greek has a second word for life as a span, and the Gospel of John never uses it.

Exodus

• Exodus 3:14 I AM, or I WILL BE. The Hebrew is one form and it carries both.

Deuteronomy

• Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel. In Hebrew, hearing that does not change anything is not hearing.
• Deuteronomy 6:5 Love God with all your heart. The Hebrew word is about the thinking, deciding self, not the feelings English now hears.

2 Samuel

• 2 Samuel 13:1, 15 Hebrew has one word for love, and this is the chapter that proves how wide it is.

Isaiah

• Isaiah 7:14 Virgin or young woman. One Hebrew word, seven occurrences, and an argument that has run for two thousand years.

Ezekiel

• Ezekiel 37:5, 9, 14 Breath, wind, and Spirit. One Hebrew word, three English words, all in one vision.

Matthew

• Matthew 6:11 Daily bread. The word translated daily occurs twice in all of Greek literature, here and in Luke's version of the prayer.

Mark

• Mark 12:28-30 Deuteronomy lists three. Jesus lists four. The extra one tells you how the first century read the original.

Luke

• Luke 2:7 No room at the inn. The word is not the word for inn. Luke uses it again for the upper room at 22:11, and he has a different word for a commercial inn at 10:34.

Romans

• Romans 1:31; 2 Timothy 3:3 Storge never stands alone in the New Testament. It turns up inside compounds, and the one that names it as missing is the one most readers meet.
• Romans 3:22; Galatians 2:16 Faith in Christ, or the faithfulness of Christ. Greek does not say which.
• Romans 10:4 Christ is the end of the law. Stopped, or arrived at? The Greek noun means both.
• Romans 12:10 Two Greek words for love welded into one, and English has to pick a phrase.

Ephesians

• Ephesians 5:18 Be filled with the Spirit. The Greek is a command to keep being filled, continuously, and by someone else.
• Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives. The word is agape, and the word you would expect is the one that is missing.