Word study

Avoid

7 Hebrew and 6 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: avoid, avoided. 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 “avoid” 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)

Greek words (New Testament)

  • μή mḗnot, lesttranslated this way 3 times of its 411 uses · Strong’s G3361Adverb  ·  Translated: not 284, no 44, without 18, Otherwise 9

    John 18:28 Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.

    Galatians 6:12 Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. They only do this to avoid persecution for the cross of Christ.

    Full study and all 381 verses →
  • περιΐστημι periḯstēmiI stand around, avoid, shuntranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G4026Verb  ·  Translated: avoid 2, standing 1, stood around 1

    2 Timothy 2:16 But avoid irreverent, empty chatter, which will only lead to more ungodliness,

    Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, arguments, and quarrels about the law, because these things are pointless and worthless.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • διατηρέω diatēréōI keep safe, hold fasttranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G1301Verb  ·  Translated: treasured 1, avoid 1

    Acts 15:29 You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • γίνομαι gínomaiI come into being, am borntranslated this way 1 time of its 544 uses · Strong’s G1096Verb  ·  Translated: become 58, came 42, became 34, happened 28Full study and all 515 verses →
  • διά diáthrough, on account oftranslated this way 1 time of its 607 uses · Strong’s G1223Preposition  ·  Translated: through 201, by 83, because of 56, for 37Full study and all 553 verses →
  • ἐκτρέπω ektrépōI turn aside, wander, forsaketranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s G1624Verb  ·  Translated: turned aside 1, already turned aside 1, Avoid 1, turn aside 1

    1 Timothy 6:20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid irreverent, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of so-called “knowledge,”

    Full study and all 5 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.