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.
John 17:3
This is life eternal, that they might know thee. Knowing here is relational, not informational.
John 17:3, in every translation this tool compares.
I know him. I know about him. English has the distinction and uses about to mark it. Hebrew and Greek lean on context instead.
Because the verse defines eternal life, and the definition is a verb that in Hebrew usage means acquaintance and relationship rather than possession of facts.
Every version reads know.
γινώσκω ginosko · G1097
Ginosko translates Hebrew yada, which covers experiential acquaintance, including intimacy. The verse defines the life not by duration but by relationship, which is the strongest internal argument for reading aionios as quality rather than length.
English know covers both senses, so nothing is lost in the word. What is lost is the Hebrew background that makes the relational sense the default.
When a verse defines a term, the definition outranks every lexicon. John 17:3 defines eternal life inside the text.
Know is universal.
- ginosko for yada in the Septuagint
- yada as relational: Genesis 4:1; Amos 3:2
- John 17:3 as an internal definition
