Word study

Impossible

1 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • פָּלָא pâlâbe surpassing, extraordinarytranslated this way 2 times of its 70 uses · Strong’s H6381Verb  ·  Translated: wonders 31, difficult 5, wonderful 3, fulfill 2

    Zechariah 8:6 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “If this is impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be impossible in My eyes?” declares the LORD of Hosts.

    Full study and all 68 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἀδύνατος adýnatosincapable, impossibletranslated this way 7 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G102Adjective  ·  Translated: impossible 7, crippled 1, powerless 1, weak 1

    Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

    Mark 10:27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • ἀδυνατέω adynatéōto be impossibletranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G101Verb  ·  Translated: impossible 1, fail 1

    Matthew 17:20 “Because you have so little faith,” He answered. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • δυνατός dynatóspowerful, able, possibletranslated this way 1 time of its 31 uses · Strong’s G1415Adjective  ·  Translated: possible 12, able 4, powerful 3, strong 3

    Acts 2:24 But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip.

    Full study and all 31 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.