Tool Beta
Hebrew and Greek Without Learning Either
A walk through Genesis, the Psalms, and John, plus the key Hebrew and Greek words worth knowing. Each card is a place the English Bibles part company, and what in the Hebrew or Greek made them.
eirene
Peace. In Greek it is mainly the absence of war; in the Bible it carries Hebrew shalom.
John 14:27, in every translation this tool compares.
Peace and quiet. English peace is mostly about things stopping. Now imagine a word that is mostly about things being complete.
Because the Greek noun on its own is narrower than the Hebrew idea it is standing in for, and the New Testament means the Hebrew one.
Every version reads peace.
εἰρήνη eirene · G1515
Classical eirene is the absence of conflict. The Septuagint uses it for shalom, which is wholeness, completeness, everything in its proper state. The New Testament greeting formula inherits the Hebrew sense.
English peace inherited the Greek narrowness rather than the Hebrew fullness, so a blessing of shalom reads as a wish for calm.
Greeting formulas are the most conservative part of a language. When a New Testament letter opens with one, it is usually carrying an older idea intact.
Peace is universal in English versions.
- eirene for shalom throughout the Septuagint
- The greeting at Romans 1:7 and throughout the letters
- shalom as wholeness: Judges 6:24; Isaiah 9:6
