Word study
Former
2 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “former”. 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 “former” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רִאשׁוֹן rishônformer, first, chieftranslated this way 18 times of its 171 uses · Strong’s H7223Adjective · Translated: first 85, beginning 10, former 9, former things 6Full study and all 164 verses →
Numbers 21:26 Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land as far as the Arnon.
2 Kings 17:34 To this day they are still practicing their former customs. None of them worship the LORD or observe the statutes, ordinances, laws, and commandments that the LORD gave the descendants of Jacob, whom He named Israel.
- קַדְמָה qadmâhantiquity, former statetranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H6927Noun · Translated: former state 2, before 1, origin 1, once 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Ezekiel 16:55 And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state.
Greek words (New Testament)
- πρότερον próteronformerly, beforetranslated this way 2 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G4386Adjective · Translated: first 2, former 2, formerly 2, before 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Ephesians 4:22 to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children, do not conform to the passions of your former ignorance.
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.
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.