Word study

Creator

3 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • קָנָה qânâhget, acquiretranslated this way 3 times of its 82 uses · Strong’s H7069Verb  ·  Translated: buy 16, bought 13, purchased 7, acquire 6

    Genesis 14:19 and he blessed Abram and said: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,

    Deuteronomy 32:6 Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you?

    Full study and all 75 verses →
  • בָּרָא bârâshape, createtranslated this way 3 times of its 54 uses · Strong’s H1254Verb  ·  Translated: created 30, create 9, Creator 3, creation 2

    Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of adversity come and the years approach of which you will say, “I find no pleasure in them,”

    Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.

    Full study and all 47 verses →
  • יָצַר yâtsarform, fashiontranslated this way 1 time of its 62 uses · Strong’s H3335Verb  ·  Translated: formed 17, potter 9, potter's 5, Maker 5

    Isaiah 27:11 When its limbs are dry, they are broken off. Women come and use them for kindling; for this is a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.

    Full study and all 55 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • κτίζω ktízōI create, form, shape, maketranslated this way 3 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G2936Verb  ·  Translated: created 10, Creator 3, create 1

    Matthew 19:4 Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’

    Romans 1:25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen.

    Full study and all 12 verses →
  • κτίστης ktístēsa founder, creator, Godtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G2939Noun  ·  Translated: Creator 1

    1 Peter 4:19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should entrust their souls to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
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.