Word study

Illegitimate

2 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • מַמְזֵר mamzêrbastardtranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4464Noun  ·  Translated: illegitimate birth 1, mixed race 1

    Deuteronomy 23:2 No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the LORD, nor may any of his descendants, even to the tenth generation.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • זוּר zûrbe a strangertranslated this way 1 time of its 76 uses · Strong’s H2114Adjective  ·  Translated: foreigners 13, strangers 12, outsider 9, stranger 8

    Hosea 5:7 They have been unfaithful to the LORD; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the New Moon will devour them along with their land.

    Full study and all 75 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • γεννάω gennáōI beget, bring forth, give birth totranslated this way 1 time of its 96 uses · Strong’s G1080Verb  ·  Translated: father 39, born 37, become your father 3

    John 8:41 You are doing the works of your father.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they declared. “Our only Father is God Himself.”

    Full study and all 65 verses →
  • νόθος nóthosillegitimate, bastardtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G3541Adjective  ·  Translated: illegitimate children 1

    Hebrews 12:8 If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

    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.