Word study

Appearance

2 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: appearance, appearances. 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 “appearance” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מַרְאֶה marehsight, appearance, visiontranslated this way 18 times of its 76 uses · Strong’s H4758Noun  ·  Translated: appearance 16, vision 8, appear 6, sight 5

    Genesis 41:21 When they had devoured them, however, no one could tell that they had done so; their appearance was as ugly as it had been before. Then I awoke.

    Judges 13:6 So the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me. His appearance was like the angel of God, exceedingly awesome. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.

    Full study and all 63 verses →
  • עַיִן ayineyetranslated this way 3 times of its 764 uses · Strong’s H5869Noun  ·  Translated: eyes 383, sight 186, eye 38, presence 13

    Leviticus 13:55 After it has been washed, the priest is to reexamine it, and if the mildewed article has not changed in appearance, it is unclean. Even though the mildew has not spread, you must burn it, whether the rot is on the front or back.

    Numbers 11:7 Now the manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of gum resin.

    Full study and all 731 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • πρόσωπον prósōponthe face, countenance, surfacetranslated this way 5 times of its 56 uses · Strong’s G4383Noun  ·  Translated: face 25, presence 7, faces 6, facedown 4

    Matthew 16:3 and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but not the signs of the times.

    Luke 12:56 You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky. Why don’t you know how to interpret the present time?

    Full study and all 52 verses →
  • ἐπιφάνεια epipháneiaappearing, manifestationtranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G2015Noun  ·  Translated: appearing 3, appearance 2, majesty 1

    1 Timothy 6:14 Keep this commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ,

    Titus 2:13 as we await the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

    Full study and all 6 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.