Word study
Assurance
2 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “assurance”. 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 “assurance” 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)
- עֲרֻבָּה ărubbâhthing exchanged, pledge, tokentranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H6161Noun · Translated: assurance 1Full study and its 1 verse →
1 Samuel 17:18 Take also these ten portions of cheese to the commander of their unit. Check on the welfare of your brothers and bring back an assurance from them.
- אָמַן âmanconfirm, supporttranslated this way 1 time of its 104 uses · Strong’s H539Verb · Translated: believe 24, faithful 14, trust 8, believed 7Full study and all 98 verses →
Job 24:22 Yet by His power, God drags away the mighty; though rising up, they have no assurance of life.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ὑπόστασις hypóstasisassurance, substance, realitytranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G5287Noun · Translated: confident 2, assurance 2, nature 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Hebrews 3:14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the assurance we had at first.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.
- πληροφορία plērophoríafull assurancetranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s G4136Noun · Translated: complete 1, conviction 1, sure 1, full assurance 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
How to study a word well
- 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.
- 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.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- 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.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- 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.
What the Bible says about assurance: passages by topic →
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.