Table Of ContentNew Testament Greek to
Hebrew Dictionary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
500 Greek Words and Names
Retranslated Back into Hebrew for
English Readers
By Jeff A. Benner
New Testament Greek to Hebrew Dictionary
Cover design by Jeff A. Benner.
“New Testament Greek to Hebrew Dictionary,” by Jeff A. Benner.
Published 2010 by Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc., P.O. Box
9949, College Station, TX 77845, US. ©2007, Jeff A. Benner. All rights
reserved. Any part of this book may be copied for educational
purposes only, without prior permission.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
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New Testament Greek to Hebrew Dictionary
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 2
HEBREW IN THE FIRST CENTURY ........................................................... 2
ABOUT STRONG'S NUMBERS ............................................................... 5
METHODS OF TRANSLATING NT GREEK BACK INTO HEBREW ........................ 7
THE SELECTION OF GREEK WORDS IN THE DICTIONARY ............................... 8
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GREEK AND HEBREW ................................... 10
HOW TO USE THE NEW TESTAMENT GREEK TO HEBREW DICTIONARY .......... 12
DICTIONARY .................................................................................. 17
THE BOOK OF JAMES (KJV WITH STRONG’S) ................................ 115
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New Testament Greek to Hebrew Dictionary
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank a group of people who have sacrificed of
their time and talents to make corrections and suggestions for
this book. Without them, this book would not be the quality
that it is. My heartfelt thanks go out to each of these
individuals.
Holly Begley Jeanne Irons
LuAna Craig Jerry Lambert
Bea Baldridge Paul Lurk
Rob Black Matthew R. Mencel
Jordan Day Frances Stolz
Bob Fier Randy Talbot
Jason Harris Dennis Wenrick
Gordon Hayes Janet Wyckoff
Myhrrhleine Hunter Liz Zeller
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New Testament Greek to Hebrew Dictionary
Introduction
Hebrew in the First Century
The purpose of this book is to be a guide for translating the
Greek words of the New Testament into Hebrew. Why
translate the Greek New Testament into Hebrew? While the
oldest manuscripts of the New Testament are in Greek, it is
unlikely Yeshua1 or his Talmidim2 taught in Greek, but instead
in Hebrew. Even if these teachings were first "written" in
Greek, they are still a translation of the Hebrew that they
"spoke." Because the New Testament was first written by Jews
who spoke and wrote Hebrew, for Jews who also spoke and
read Hebrew, it stands to reason that they would have written
in Hebrew. Archaeological evidence to support this view can
be found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, texts contemporary to the
New Testament period, which included writings similar to the
New Testament that were written in Hebrew.
1 The Hebrew name that is transliterated into Greek as and
into English as Jesus.
2 A Hebrew word meaning “students,” where the Greek counterpart,
is usually translated as “disciples.”
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New Testament Greek to Hebrew Dictionary
Found within the book of Acts is the most compelling evidence
that the writers of the New Testament spoke Hebrew.
And as Paul was about to be brought into the castle, he
saith unto the chief captain, May I say something unto
thee? And he said, Dost thou know Greek? (Acts 21:37,
ASV)
In this passage Paul is speaking to the captain in Greek, but
the captain is surprised that he knows Greek. Why would the
captain be so surprised that Paul spoke Greek if everyone
spoke Greek? Evidently, Greek was not the language of all
people at this time. After speaking with the captain, Paul turns
to the crowd and then speaks to them in “Hebrew.”
And when he had given him leave, Paul, standing on the
stairs, beckoned with the hand unto the people; and
when there was made a great silence, he spake unto
them in the Hebrew language, saying, (Acts 21:40, ASV)
Josephus, the Jewish historian, gives us a glimpse of the
Jewish attitude toward the Greek language.
"I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the
learning of the Greeks, and understanding the elements
of the Greek language although I have so long
accustomed myself to speak our own language, that I
cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness: for
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New Testament Greek to Hebrew Dictionary
our nation does not encourage those that learn the
languages of many nations". (Josephus, Ant.20.11.2)
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church stated in its first
edition in 1958, “Hebrew ceased to be a spoken language
around the fourth century BC"3. However, upon new linguistic
and archaeological evidence, the Oxford Dictionary of the
Christian Church now says in its third edition in 1997, “Hebrew
continued to be used as a spoken and written language in the
New Testament period"4.
The most significant evidence for a Hebrew New Testament is
found within the text itself where we find many Hebraisms5. A
very common Hebraism is the use of similar sounding words
together such as we find in the following verse.
…God is able of these stones (Hebrew-ebeniym) to raise
up children (Hebrew-beniym) unto Abraham. (Matthew
3:9, KJV)
These “word puns” are not isolated incidents, but are found
throughout the text when it is retranslated back into Hebrew.
3 "Hebrew" in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, editor
F.L. Cross, first edition (Oxford, 1958)
4 "Hebrew" in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, editor
F.L. Cross, third edition (Oxford 1997).
5 Text that is characteristic of the Hebrew language.
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New Testament Greek to Hebrew Dictionary
Since the Greek text of the New Testament is merely a
translation of the Hebrew, in order to accurately read and
understand the text we must retranslate the Greek back into
Hebrew. And then take our definitions of these words from
the Hebrew.
About Strong's Numbers
The "Strong's" numbering system, which is used in this book,
was developed by James Strong in the late nineteenth
century. This numbering system assigns a unique number to
each Hebrew word found in the Old Testament and each
Greek word found in the New Testament. James Strong, in his
book Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, connected
each word in the King James Version of the Bible with the
number of the Hebrew or Greek word that English word is
translating. For instance, in John 1:1 the word "beginning" is a
translation of the Greek word (ar-khay), which James
Strong had assigned the number 746. When you look up the
Strong's Greek number 746 in this book you find that the
equivalent Hebrew word is Strong's Hebrew number 7225,
which is תישאר (rey-shit), meaning "summit." The following is
the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance entries for the word
"beginning" (in the far right column are the Strong's numbers).
Beginning
Mat 14 30 and b. to sink 756
Mat 19 4 at the b. made them 746
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New Testament Greek to Hebrew Dictionary
Mat 19 8 but from the b. it was 746
Mat 20 8 from the last unto 756
...some entries removed for brevity...
Joh 1 1 In the b. was the Word 746
Joh 1 2 was in the b. with God 746
Joh 2 10 man at the b. doth set 4412
Joh 2 11 This b. of miracles did 746
...additional entries removed for brevity...
As you can see, there are three different Strong's numbers
(746, 756 and 4412) associated with the English word
"beginning." This means that there are three different Greek
words translated as "beginning" in the King James Version of
the Bible. Strong's Greek number 746 is the Greek word
(ar-khay), which we have already seen is equivalent to the
Hebrew word תישאר (rey-shit) meaning "summit." Strong's
Greek number 756 is the Greek word (ar-khom-
ahee), which is equivalent to the Hebrew word ללח (hha-lal)
meaning "pierce." Strong's Greek number 4412 is the Greek
word (pro-ton), which is equivalent to the Hebrew
word ןושאיר (ri-shon) meaning "first."
Besides Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, there are a number
of Bible software programs6 and on-line programs7 that will
6 Such as the free E-Sword program (http://www.e-sword.net).
6
