Word study
Favoritism
1 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “favoritism”. 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 “favoritism” or one of its forms.
Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- הָדַר hâdarswell (?), honour, adorntranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H1921Verb · Translated: show favoritism 1, favoritism 1, honor 1, exalt 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Exodus 23:3 And do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.
Leviticus 19:15 You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
Greek words (New Testament)
- προσωποληψία prosōpolēpsíapartiality, favoritismtranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G4382Noun · Translated: favoritism 4Full study and all 4 verses →
Romans 2:11 For God does not show favoritism.
Ephesians 6:9 And masters, do the same for your slaves. Give up your use of threats, because you know that He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him.
- προσωπολήπτης prosōpolḗptēsone who shows partialitytranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4381Noun · Translated: show favoritism 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Acts 10:34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism,
- λαμβάνω lambánōI receive, taketranslated this way 1 time of its 241 uses · Strong’s G2983Verb · Translated: receive 43, received 37, took 36, take 25Full study and all 227 verses →
Galatians 2:6 But as for the highly esteemed— whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism— those leaders added nothing to me.
- προσωποληπτέω prosōpolēptéōI show partialitytranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4380Verb · Translated: show favoritism 1Full study and its 1 verse →
James 2:9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
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 favoritism: 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.