Word study
Atone
1 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: atoned, atone, atoning. 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 “atone” or one of its forms.
Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- כָּפַר kâpharcover over (figurative), pacify, make propitiationtranslated this way 9 times of its 100 uses · Strong’s H3722Verb · Translated: make atonement 58, atoned 6, made atonement 4, atone 3Full study and all 94 verses →
Exodus 30:15 In making the offering to the LORD to atone for your lives, the rich shall not give more than a half shekel, nor shall the poor give less.
Deuteronomy 21:8 Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἱλασμός hilasmósa propitiation, atoning sacrificetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G2434Noun · Translated: atoning sacrifice 2Full study and all 2 verses →
1 John 2:2 He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 4:10 And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
- ἱλαστήριον hilastḗriona sin offering, coveringtranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G2435Noun · Translated: atoning sacrifice 1, mercy seat 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Romans 3:25 God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.
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.
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.