Word study

Meat

5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • בָּשָׂר bâsârfleshtranslated this way 63 times of its 231 uses · Strong’s H1320Noun  ·  Translated: flesh 91, meat 59, body 22, himself 8

    Genesis 9:4 But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.

    Exodus 12:8 They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

    Full study and all 212 verses →
  • מַזְלֵג mazlêgforktranslated this way 6 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H4207Noun  ·  Translated: meat forks 4, meat fork 2, forks 1

    Exodus 27:3 Make all its utensils of bronze — its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.

    Numbers 4:14 and place on it all the vessels used to serve there: the firepans, meat forks, shovels, and sprinkling bowls— all the equipment of the altar. They are to spread over it a covering of fine leather and insert the poles.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • עַל alheighttranslated this way 2 times of its 4,859 uses · Strong’s H5921Preposition  ·  Translated: on 777, over 297, in 218, against 216Full study and all 3,996 verses →
  • אֵל êlmotion totranslated this way 2 times of its 4,199 uses · Strong’s H413Preposition  ·  Translated: to 1,941, to me 285, to you 149, to him 137Full study and all 3,455 verses →
  • שְׁאֵר sheêrfleshtranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H7607Noun  ·  Translated: close relative 4, flesh 3, meat 2

    Psalm 78:20 When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can He also give bread or supply His people with meat?”

    Psalm 78:27 He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea.

    Full study and all 16 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • πνικτός pniktósstrangledtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4156Adjective  ·  Translated: meat of strangled animals 3

    Acts 15:20 Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.

    Acts 15:29 You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • κρέας kréasflesh, kinds of fleshtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G2907Noun  ·  Translated: meat 2

    Romans 14:21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything to cause your brother to stumble.

    1 Corinthians 8:13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to stumble.

    Full study and all 2 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.