Word study

Disobedient

1 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “disobedient”. 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 “disobedient” or one of its forms.

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מָרָה mârâhbe contentious, refractory, rebellioustranslated this way 1 time of its 44 uses · Strong’s H4784Verb  ·  Translated: rebelled 18, rebellious 5, rebelling 4, rebel 3

    Nehemiah 9:26 But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.

    Full study and all 44 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἀπειθής apeithḗsunbelieving, disobedienttranslated this way 5 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G545Adjective  ·  Translated: disobedient 5, disobey 1

    Luke 1:17 And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous — to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

    Acts 26:19 So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

    Full study and all 6 verses →
  • ἀπειθέω apeithéōI disobey, rebel, am disloyaltranslated this way 2 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G544Verb  ·  Translated: disobeyed 4, disobedient 2, disobey 2

    Romans 10:21 But as for Israel he says: “All day long I have held out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

    Hebrews 11:31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies in peace, did not perish with those who were disobedient.

    Full study and all 14 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.