Word study

Parable

2 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: parable, parables. 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 “parable” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מָשָׁל mâshâlproverb, parabletranslated this way 2 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H4912Noun  ·  Translated: proverb 10, oracle 7, proverbs 7, object of scorn 3

    Psalm 78:2 I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the beginning,

    Ezekiel 20:49 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD, they are saying of me, ‘Is he not just telling parables?’”

    Full study and all 36 verses →
  • מָשַׁל mâshalrepresent, be liketranslated this way 2 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H4911Verb  ·  Translated: like 3, speak a parable 2

    Ezekiel 17:2 “Son of man, pose a riddle; speak a parable to the house of Israel

    Ezekiel 24:3 Now speak a parable to this rebellious house and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Put the pot on the fire; put it on and pour in the water.

    Full study and all 16 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • παραβολή parabolḗa parable, comparisontranslated this way 45 times of its 50 uses · Strong’s G3850Noun  ·  Translated: parable 30, parables 15, lesson 2, proverb 1

    Matthew 13:3 And He told them many things in parables, saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed.

    Mark 3:23 So Jesus called them together and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan?

    Full study and all 48 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.