Word study

Amazement

1 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “amazement”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “amazement” or one of its forms.

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • בְּהַל behalalarm, dismaytranslated this way 1 time of its 11 uses · Strong’s H927Verb  ·  Translated: alarmed 4

    Daniel 3:24 Suddenly King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and asked his advisers, “Did we not throw three men, firmly bound, into the fire?” “Certainly, O king,” they replied.

    Full study and all 10 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • θαυμάζω thaumázōI wonder, admiretranslated this way 4 times of its 44 uses · Strong’s G2296Verb  ·  Translated: amazed 19, marveled 8, surprised 5, amazement 4

    Matthew 27:14 But Jesus gave no answer, not even to a single charge, much to the governor’s amazement.

    Mark 15:5 But to Pilate’s amazement, Jesus made no further reply.

    Full study and all 44 verses →
  • ἔκστασις ékstasisbewilderment, amazementtranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G1611Noun  ·  Translated: trance 3, amazement 2, bewildered 1

    Luke 5:26 Everyone was taken with amazement and glorified God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

    Acts 3:10 they recognized him as the man who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

    Full study and all 6 verses →
  • θάμβος thámbosastonishmenttranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s G2285Noun  ·  Translated: amazement 1, astonished 1, wonder 1

    Luke 4:36 All the people were overcome with amazement and asked one another, “What is this message? With authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!”

    Full study and all 3 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.