{"id":87351,"date":"2025-05-30T17:11:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T22:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=87351"},"modified":"2025-05-31T08:48:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T13:48:41","slug":"is-this-a-good-way-to-do-a-word-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-this-a-good-way-to-do-a-word-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this a good way to do a word study?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h1>Question:<\/h1>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been working on a personal Greek word study structure because I want to gain a deeper understanding of the original meanings of biblical words. I&#8217;ve created a layout for how I approach these studies, and I&#8217;d appreciate your feedback.\u00a0This is what I have so far, and I&#8217;d love to get your advice on whether the structure is solid or if there&#8217;s anything I could improve.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Strong&#8217;s Number: The reference number from Strong&#8217;s Concordance that helps me identify the Greek word in the original text.<\/li>\n<li>Strong&#8217;s definitions: Strong&#8217;s Definitions is a collection of the unique Greek and Hebrew words and their definitions from the Old and New Testament, organized by Dr. James Strong in 1890.<\/li>\n<li>Usage: This section explains how the word is used in scripture<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And by the way, I&#8217;m trying to keep the structure simple. I use the Blue Letter Bible app to assist me with my Hebrew and Greek word studies while reading scripture. However, I prefer to take notes on the Bible using an app called Google Docs, which I use to explain the scriptures I read and also conduct Greek and Hebrew word studies.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>Strong&#8217;s word numbering system definitely makes it easier to identify Hebrew and Greek words, but you need to understand its limitations. Strong developed his system to create a concordance where you could find multiple passages that use the same basic Greek word. To simplify the search, he ignored the various Greek endings (approximately 28 of them) that indicate gender, number, and modes of speech. Most of the time, you don&#8217;t need the variations. However, you do need to know they are there, and Strong&#8217;s system is not the way to find them.<\/p>\n<p>Strong&#8217;s dictionary was an addition to his concordance. It is\u00a0<em>extremely <\/em>abbreviated, and you can get led astray if you don&#8217;t realize that he doesn&#8217;t provide a complete definition, or if you don&#8217;t recognize his &#8220;codes&#8221; to make the dictionary entries concise.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Strong&#8217;s concordance was tied to the King James Version. This version uses outdated terms and tends to translate terms into a variety of words. The variety reads well to an English speaker, but it doesn&#8217;t give you a good understanding of what the text actually says in some cases.<\/p>\n<p>Your system is fine, but just understand there are limits. What I would suggest checking into is <a href=\"https:\/\/biblehub.com\/\">BibleHub<\/a>. Type in the passage you want to examine, then click &#8220;Lexicon.&#8221; It will give you the Strong&#8217;s word numbers and definitions. Click on the Strong&#8217;s number, and you will get a more complete set of information on the word from a variety of sources.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Response:<\/h2>\n<p>I also asked someone else about the Strong&#8217;s dictionary, and they told me it provides brief definitions of Greek and Hebrew words. I now know that it&#8217;s better to use a Bible dictionary to get a better understanding of the original meanings of Greek and Hebrew words. I also use BibleHub to help me with my Greek and Hebrew word studies, and it has been beneficial.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for the feedback!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: I&#8217;ve been working on a personal Greek word study structure because I want to gain a deeper understanding of the original meanings of biblical words. I&#8217;ve created a layout for how I approach these studies, and I&#8217;d appreciate your feedback.\u00a0This is what I have so far, and I&#8217;d love to get your advice on&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[913,1099],"class_list":["post-87351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-bible-study","tag-resources"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16033,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-tell-when-a-word-in-the-new-testament-actually-has-an-article-in-front-of-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":87351,"position":0},"title":"How can I tell when a word in the New Testament actually has an article in front of it?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I don't know how to begin without being wordy, so here goes. How do you know when the definite article (the) is in front of a word in Greek? I have the Online Bible program that has Strongs in its King James Version. I was wanting to check more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49956,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-think-you-misused-some-verses-in-careful-what-you-say\/","url_meta":{"origin":87351,"position":1},"title":"I think you misused some verses in &#8220;Careful What You Say&#8221;","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This is something I think can be especially difficult among the churches of Christ just because of our tradition. There is a very popular way of reading the Bible in the churches of Christ that goes way back to our roots and the reasoning is that a belief or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46592,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-my-source-say-teknon-instead-of-tekna-in-i-timothy-34\/","url_meta":{"origin":87351,"position":2},"title":"Why does my source say\u00a0teknon\u00a0instead of\u00a0tekna\u00a0in I Timothy 3:4?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good afternoon, Thank you for your labor and articles. Recently my brother sent me this article:\u00a0Must elders have more than one child? In this article, you state: \"The Greek word in both I Timothy 3:4 and in Titus 1:6 is\u00a0tekna.\" I follow the logic, but when I checked (according\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18504,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/arent-the-translators-accurate-enough-so-we-dont-have-to-look-at-the-definitions-of-greek-words-for-alcohol\/","url_meta":{"origin":87351,"position":3},"title":"Aren&#8217;t the translators accurate enough so we don&#8217;t have to look at the definitions of Greek words for alcohol?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been studying about wine in the Bible. I am convinced that we should not be using fermented wine.\u00a0However, I was asked some questions for which I don't have a good answer. Why would the translators of the different versions of the Bible make a mistake when translating\u00a0oinos\u00a0with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89132,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-an-instrument-in-romans-613\/","url_meta":{"origin":87351,"position":4},"title":"What is an &#8220;instrument&#8221; in Romans 6:13?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is an instrument in Romans 6:13? The Thayer's Greek lexicon and Strong's dictionary didn't help me understand this word. Answer: \"Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49667,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-decided-that-some-words-are-inappropriate\/","url_meta":{"origin":87351,"position":5},"title":"Who decided that some words are inappropriate?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good Evening, Regarding words like gosh, gee whiz, etc., does anyone know who and when was it decided that these were words that had meanings referring to God, Jesus, etc.? As a child, my mother didn't like the word \"gosh,\" so it wasn't said. As an adult and a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87351\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}