Word Studies

Introduction

This unit is all about studying the words of Scripture. Even if you don’t know the original biblical languages, Hebrew and Greek, you can still learn to use interpretive tools to do a word study properly, and we will show you how. The study starts by alerting you to common mistakes people make when studying words. It will then be explained how to identify words in a passage that need further study, how to determine what a word could mean, and finally how to decide what a word does mean in context.

Common Word Study Fallacies

English-Only Fallacy

The English-only fallacy occurs when you base your word study on the English word rather than the underlying Greek or Hebrew word and, as a result, draw unreliable or misleading conclusions.

Root Fallacy

One of the more common fallacies is the notion that the real meaning of a word is found in its original root. (i.e., in the etymology of the word). Think about how silly this can be even in English. Is a butterfly actually a fly that has lost control and crash-landed into a tub of butter? Is a pineapple a certain kind of apple that grows only on pine trees?

Time-Frame Fallacy

This fallacy occurs when we latch onto a late word meaning (usually a meaning popular in our own time) and read it back into the Bible, or when we insist that an early word meaning still holds when in fact it has since become obsolete.

Overload Fallacy

Most words can mean several different tings. The overload fallacy is the idea that a word will include all of those senses every time it is used. For example, the English word “spring” can refer to a season, a metal coil, an act of jumping, or a source of water. You would be overloading “spring: (pun intended…perhaps) to assume that in every passage in which it occurs, the word carries not just one, but all of those senses. Which meaning for “spring” does the context demand in the sentence, “Spring is my favorite season of the year”? If you said “all of the above” or even if you chose any meaning except a season of the yea, you would be guilty of the overload fallacy.

Word-Count Fallacy

We make this mistake when we insist that a word must have the same meaning every time it occurs.

Word-Concept Fallacy

We fall prey to the word-concept fallacy when we assume that once we have studied one word, we have studied an entire concept.

Selective-Evidence Fallacy

When we cite just the evidence that supports our favored interpretation or when we dismiss evidence that seems to argue against our view, we commit the selective-evidence fallacy.

Choose Your Words Carefully

Doing a word study properly takes time. Be realistic and admit that you cannot possibly study every word in your passage and still have any time for your friends. Use the following guidelines to help you choose the words you need to study.

1. Look for words that are crucial to the passage.
2. Look for repeated words.
3. Look for figures of speech.
4. Look for words that are unclear, puzzling, or difficult.

Determine What the Word Could Mean

Why do we need to determine what the word could mean before we decide what it does mean? Because most words can mean several different things (e.g., “spring”), but will usually carry only one of those meanings in a particular context. By clarifying what a word could mean, we will not confuse the various meanings of a word when interpreting a particular passage of Scripture.

Semantic Range

Once we see all the possible meanings of a word—what we refer to as a word’s range of meaning or semantic range—we will be in a better position to decide what the word actually does mean in a specific context.

Concordance Work

The first step is to use an exhaustive concordance to locate the original Hebrew or Greek word. As you see the definitions of the word and the different ways the word has been translated into English, you will begin to get a feel for what the word could mean (i.e., its semantic range).

Context Studies

This brings us to the second thing you can do to discover a word’s range of meaning. You must examine the context to see how your word is used. The one rule in doing word studies that overrules all other rules is this: Context determines word meaning.

Decide What the Word Does Mean in Context

In light of the context, the first thing you must do is to select from the possible meanings the one meaning that best fits your word. What we said earlier about the importance of context bears repeating: Context determines word meaning!

Conclusion

The process is simple, even though it takes time: (1) Determine what the word could mean, and (2) decide the most likely meaning of the word in context.