Word study
Body
12 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: body, bodies. 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 “body” 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)
- בָּשָׂר bâsârfleshtranslated this way 27 times of its 231 uses · Strong’s H1320Noun · Translated: flesh 91, meat 59, body 22, himself 8Full study and all 212 verses →
Leviticus 13:13 the priest shall examine him, and if the disease has covered his entire body, he is to pronounce the infected person clean. Since it has all turned white, he is clean.
Numbers 8:7 This is what you must do to cleanse them: Sprinkle them with the water of purification. Have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes, and so purify themselves.
- נְבֵלָה nebêlâhcarcass, corpsetranslated this way 13 times of its 44 uses · Strong’s H5038Noun · Translated: body 11, carcass 10, carcasses 8, corpses 7Full study and all 41 verses →
Deuteronomy 21:23 you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Joshua 8:29 He hung the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and at sunset Joshua commanded that they take down the body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And over it they raised a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day.
- פֶּגֶר pegercorpse, carcasstranslated this way 9 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H6297Noun · Translated: bodies 7, corpses 7, carcasses 2, funeral offerings 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Leviticus 26:30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.
Numbers 14:29 Your bodies will fall in this wilderness— all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older— because you have grumbled against Me.
- גְּוִיָּה gevîâhbody, corpsetranslated this way 8 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H1472Noun · Translated: body 4, bodies 3, dead 2, and in 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Genesis 47:18 When that year was over, they came to him the second year and said, “We cannot hide from our lord that our money is gone and all our livestock belongs to you. There is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.
1 Samuel 31:10 They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan.
- נֶפֶשׁ nepheshsoul, living being, life, self, person, desire, appetite, emotion, and passiontranslated this way 6 times of its 666 uses · Strong’s H5315Noun · Translated: soul 178, life 119, lives 30, person 22Full study and all 622 verses →
Leviticus 21:11 He must not go near any dead body; he must not defile himself, even for his father or mother.
Numbers 5:2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
- מֵעֶה mêehinternal organs, inward parts (intestines, bowels), bellytranslated this way 4 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H4578Noun · Translated: body 4, within 4, heart 4, stomach 3Full study and all 28 verses →
Genesis 15:4 Then the word of the LORD came to Abram, saying, “This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir.”
2 Samuel 7:12 And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.
- עַל alheighttranslated this way 4 times of its 4,859 uses · Strong’s H5921Preposition · Translated: on 777, over 297, in 218, against 216Full study and all 3,996 verses →
Genesis 40:19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and hang you on a tree. Then the birds will eat the flesh of your body.”
- גֶּשֶׁם geshembodytranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H1655Noun · Translated: body 3, bodies 1, risked their lives 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Daniel 3:27 and when the satraps, prefects, governors, and royal advisers had gathered around, they saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men. Not a hair of their heads was singed, their robes were unaffected, and there was no smell of fire on them.
Daniel 4:33 At that moment the sentence against Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from mankind. He ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.
- בֶּטֶן beṭenbelly, body, wombtranslated this way 3 times of its 64 uses · Strong’s H990Noun · Translated: womb 36, belly 8, stomach 3, within 3Full study and all 64 verses →
Psalm 31:9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes fail from sorrow, my soul and body as well.
Micah 6:7 Would the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
- אָדָם âdâmman, mankindtranslated this way 2 times of its 509 uses · Strong’s H120Noun · Translated: man 311, men 75, mankind 21, human 18Full study and all 489 verses →
Numbers 9:6 But there were some men who were unclean due to a dead body, so they could not observe the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and Aaron that same day
Numbers 9:7 and said to Moses, “We are unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be excluded from presenting the LORD’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?”
- עֶצֶם etsembone, substance, selftranslated this way 2 times of its 115 uses · Strong’s H6106Noun · Translated: bones 83, very 7, bone 6, blood 6Full study and all 101 verses →
Job 7:15 so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.
Lamentations 4:7 Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphires.
- מֹתֶן môthenwaist, loinstranslated this way 2 times of its 39 uses · Strong’s H4975Noun · Translated: waist 12, around his waist 4, side 4, backs 3Full study and all 37 verses →
Isaiah 21:3 Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.
Nahum 2:10 She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and laid waste! Hearts melt, knees knock, bodies tremble, and every face grows pale!
Greek words (New Testament)
- σῶμα sōmabody, fleshtranslated this way 129 times of its 135 uses · Strong’s G4983Noun · Translated: body 115, bodies 14, physical 2, carcass 1Full study and all 117 verses →
Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Mark 5:29 Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
- σάρξ sárxflesh, bodytranslated this way 18 times of its 124 uses · Strong’s G4561Noun · Translated: flesh 81, body 15, people 4, in 4Full study and all 113 verses →
Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
Mark 14:38 Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
- μέλος mélosa limb, membertranslated this way 5 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s G3196Noun · Translated: parts 8, members 8, part 6, part of your body 2Full study and all 23 verses →
Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Romans 7:5 For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.
- πτῶμα ptōmaa carcass, corpsetranslated this way 5 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G4430Noun · Translated: body 3, bodies 2, carcass 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Matthew 14:12 Then John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. And they went and informed Jesus.
Mark 6:29 When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and placed it in a tomb.
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 body: 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.