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Greek & Hebrew word studies added by Holman Bible scholars


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–While translating God’s Word, they discovered unexpected riches and decided to share the bounty of their insights into key words imbedded in the Bible’s original languages.

Thus, 222 New Testament word studies have been crafted by scholars working on the Holman Christian Standard Bible. And more are on the way when the Old Testament is published in 2004.

The word studies, along with cross references and footnotes, will appear in various editions of the Bible being produced by an interdenominational team of scholars for LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

An example of a focused word study in the HCSB:

Greek word: anastasis
[ah NAH stah sihss]

Translation: resurrection

Uses in John’s Gospel: 4
(Mt, 4; Mk, 2, Lk, 6)

Uses in John’s writings: 6

Uses in the NT: 42

Key passage: John 11:24-25

The Greek noun anastasis is derived from the verb anistemi, meaning literally to stand up and then by extension to rise up. Both words could be used metaphorically. The word anastasis was common in the ancient Greek world; but it rarely referred to the resurrection of the dead, which is the dominant meaning of its occurrences in the NT. Two major events are described with the word anastasis in the NT: the physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus in the past (Rm 1:4, 1 Co 15:12-13), and the physical, bodily resurrection of believers in the future (Jn 5:29; 11:24-25; 1 Co 15:42; Php 3:11; Rv 20:5-6).

Among other words from the New Testament Greek explored in the HCSB:

Abba, Almighty, Alpha, authority, baptize, believe, blasphemy, Christian, church, circumcision, commandment, confess, Counselor, covenant, crucify, deacon, disciple, elder, epistle, evangelist, faith, fast, fear, fellowship, forgive, Gentile, glory, gospel, grace, heart, heaven, hell, holy, hypocrite, I am, Jesus, kingdom, law, life, light, Lord, love, Master, mercy, Messiah, praise, pray, preach, priesthood, prophet, redemption, rejoice, righteousness, sacrifice, Satan, Son, Spirit, Teacher, testify, tribulation, Word and worship.

Ed Blum, the HCSB’s general editor, recounted the genesis of the word study feature: “In working through the Greek and Hebrew texts, the translation team often came to words that had several possible translation options. To decide on the best English rendition, we would take ourselves through focused word studies [which proved to be] both interesting and instructive in honing in on the exact meaning of the words.

“By including some of these,” Blum said, “we hope to bring readers even closer to the truth of Scripture.”
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