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.
kohen
Priest. A functionary of the sanctuary, and the word used of foreign priests too.
Exodus 28:1, in every translation this tool compares.
Doctor. It tells you what someone does, not who they work for.
Because the same noun covers Israelite priests, Melchizedek, and the priest of Midian, which means it is a job description rather than a claim about which god is served.
Every version reads priest.
כֹּהֵן kohen · H3548
Kohen is used of Aaron's line, of Melchizedek at Genesis 14:18, of Jethro priest of Midian, and of Egyptian priests. The office is defined by function: sacrifice, instruction, and mediating between people and the sanctuary.
English priest is now heavily denominational, so a neutral functional term reads as a claim about church order.
Job-description nouns usually apply across religions in the ancient world. The word tells you the function, not the allegiance.
Priest is universal.
- Melchizedek: Genesis 14:18
- Jethro: Exodus 3:1
- Egyptian priests: Genesis 47:22
