Word study

Creation

2 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “creation”. 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 “creation” 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)

  • בָּרָא bârâshape, createtranslated this way 2 times of its 54 uses · Strong’s H1254Verb  ·  Translated: created 30, create 9, Creator 3, creation 2

    Genesis 2:3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.

    Ezekiel 28:13 You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold, prepared on the day of your creation.

    Full study and all 47 verses →
  • יֵצֶר yêtserform, framing, purposetranslated this way 1 time of its 9 uses · Strong’s H3336Noun  ·  Translated: inclination 3

    Habakkuk 2:18 What use is an idol, that a craftsman should carve it — or an image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak.

    Full study and all 9 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • κτίσις ktísiscreation, creature, institutiontranslated this way 15 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s G2937Noun  ·  Translated: creation 14, creature 3, God's creation 1, institution 1

    Mark 10:6 However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’

    Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.

    Full study and all 19 verses →
  • κτίσμα ktísmaa created thing, creaturetranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G2938Noun  ·  Translated: creation 2, creature 1, creatures 1

    1 Timothy 4:4 For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected,

    James 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.

    Full study and all 4 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.

What the Bible says about creation: 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.