Word study
Law
3 Hebrew and 5 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: law, laws. 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 “law” 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)
- תּוֹרָה tôrâhdirection, instruction, lawtranslated this way 192 times of its 220 uses · Strong’s H8451Noun · Translated: law 173, instruction 17, laws 15, teaching 5Full study and all 214 verses →
Genesis 26:5 because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
Exodus 12:49 The same law shall apply to both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.”
- דָּת dâthdecree, lawtranslated this way 11 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H1882Noun · Translated: law 5, decree 3, laws 2, according to the law 2Full study and all 13 verses →
Ezra 7:12 Artaxerxes, king of kings. To Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven: Greetings.
Daniel 6:5 Finally these men said, “We will never find any charge against this Daniel unless we find something against him concerning the law of his God.”
- דָּת dâthdecree, law, usagetranslated this way 7 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H1881Noun · Translated: edict 9, law 3, laws 3, decree 2Full study and all 20 verses →
Esther 1:13 Then the king consulted the wise men who knew the times, for it was customary for him to confer with the experts in law and justice.
Esther 1:15 “According to law,” he asked, “what should be done with Queen Vashti, since she refused to obey the command of King Xerxes delivered by the eunuchs?”
Greek words (New Testament)
- νόμος nómosa law, the Mosaic Lawtranslated this way 180 times of its 189 uses · Strong’s G3551Noun · Translated: law 178, of 5, principle 2, laws 2Full study and all 154 verses →
Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
Luke 2:22 And when the time of purification according to the Law of Moses was complete, His parents brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord
- νομικός nomikósabout law, one learned in the Lawtranslated this way 7 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G3544Adjective · Translated: experts in the law 5, expert in the law 2, about 1, lawyer 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Matthew 22:35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question:
Luke 7:30 But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.
- νομοδιδάσκαλος nomodidáskalosa teacher and interpreter of the Mosaic Lawtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G3547Noun · Translated: teachers of the law 2, teacher of the law 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Luke 5:17 One day Jesus was teaching, and the Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. People had come from Jerusalem and from every village of Galilee and Judea, and the power of the Lord was present for Him to heal the sick.
Acts 5:34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a short time.
- ἀνόμως anómōswithout lawtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G460Adverb · Translated: apart from the law 2Full study and its 1 verse →
Romans 2:12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
- κρίνω krínōI judge, decide, think goodtranslated this way 2 times of its 114 uses · Strong’s G2919Verb · Translated: judge 43, judged 12, judges 7, decided 5Full study and all 98 verses →
1 Corinthians 6:1 If any of you has a grievance against another, how dare he go to law before the unrighteous instead of before the saints!
1 Corinthians 6:6 Instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelievers!
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 law: 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.