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.
hagios
Holy. The idea is set apart for a purpose, not morally spotless.
1 Corinthians 1:2, in every translation this tool compares.
The good china. It is not better china morally. It is the china you do not use on a Tuesday, because it has been set aside for something.
Because saints in English means exceptionally good people, and Paul addresses whole congregations as saints while telling them off in the same letter.
Versions read holy, and saints for the plural noun. Some read God's people or holy ones.
ἅγιος hagios · G40
Hagios and Hebrew qadosh both carry separation for a purpose as the core idea. Moral purity follows from whose purpose it is rather than being the word's own content.
English holy and saint both imply attained goodness, which reverses the direction: the word is about designation, and the conduct is the response.
When a word describes a status, check whether English has turned it into an achievement. Status words become merit words very easily.
Holy is the majority rendering and saints is the majority for the plural, though God's holy people is gaining ground.
- Paul addresses the Corinthians as hagioi at 1 Corinthians 1:2
- qadosh of vessels and days: Exodus 30:29; Genesis 2:3
- 1 Peter 2:9 quoting Exodus 19:6
