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.
shem
Name, and with it reputation, character and authority.
Exodus 3:15, in every translation this tool compares.
He has a name in this town. English still has the reputation sense and uses it constantly.
Because acting in someone's name is a Hebrew idea about delegated authority, and English name is mostly a label.
Every version reads name.
שֵׁם shem · H8034
Shem covers the label, the reputation attached to it, and the authority it carries. Making a name at Babel, a good name in Proverbs, and calling on the name of the LORD are all the same noun doing different work.
English name kept the reputation sense in idiom but lost it in ordinary use, so the biblical phrases sound formal rather than natural.
When a common noun appears in several fixed biblical phrases, the phrases are usually exploiting a range the English word has lost.
Name is universal.
- making a name: Genesis 11:4
- a good name: Proverbs 22:1
- calling on the name: Genesis 4:26; Joel 2:32
