Word study
Believe
2 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
In brief
Believe is the Greek verb pisteuō, from the same family as pistis, "faith"; English has to use two unrelated words for what Greek says with one. It can mean to accept something as true or, especially with "in," to put one's trust in a person. Behind it stands the Hebrew aman, to be firm or reliable, the root of "amen."
Written and reviewed by our editorial team.
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: believe, believed, believes, believing. 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 “believe” 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)
- אָמַן âmanconfirm, supporttranslated this way 34 times of its 104 uses · Strong’s H539Verb · Translated: believe 24, faithful 14, trust 8, believed 7Full study and all 98 verses →
Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Exodus 4:1 Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”
- עַיִן ayineyetranslated this way 2 times of its 764 uses · Strong’s H5869Noun · Translated: eyes 383, sight 186, eye 38, presence 13Full study and all 731 verses →
2 Samuel 10:3 the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord, “Just because David has sent you comforters, do you really believe he is showing respect for your father? Has not David instead sent his servants to explore the city, spy it out, and overthrow it?”
1 Chronicles 19:3 the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun, “Just because David has sent you comforters, do you really believe he is showing respect for your father? Have not his servants come to you to explore the land, spy it out, and overthrow it?”
Greek words (New Testament)
- πιστεύω pisteúōI believe, have faith intranslated this way 217 times of its 240 uses · Strong’s G4100Verb · Translated: believe 114, believed 65, believes 29, believers 8Full study and all 217 verses →
Matthew 8:13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! As you have believed, so will it be done for you.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.
Mark 1:15 “The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”
- πιστός pistóstrustworthy, faithful, believingtranslated this way 7 times of its 67 uses · Strong’s G4103Adjective · Translated: faithful 45, trustworthy 6, believe 4, believers 4Full study and all 63 verses →
John 20:27 Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Acts 16:1 Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where he found a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father.
- ἀπιστέω apistéōI am unfaithful, I disbelievetranslated this way 5 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s G569Verb · Translated: believe 4, still in disbelief 1, refused to believe 1, faith 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Mark 16:11 And when they heard that Jesus was alive and she had seen Him, they did not believe it.
Luke 24:11 But their words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women.
- ἀπειθέω apeithéōI disobey, rebel, am disloyaltranslated this way 2 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G544Verb · Translated: disobeyed 4, disobedient 2, disobey 2Full study and all 14 verses →
Acts 19:9 But when some of them stubbornly refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way, Paul took his disciples and left the synagogue to conduct daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
1 Peter 3:1 Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your husbands, so that even if they refuse to believe the word, they will be won over without words by the behavior of their wives
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.