Word study
Pattern
3 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “pattern”. 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 “pattern” 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)
- תַּבְנִית tabnîthconstruction, pattern, figuretranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H8403Noun · Translated: plans 3, likeness 2Full study and all 15 verses →
Exodus 25:9 You must make the tabernacle and design all its furnishings according to the pattern I show you.
Exodus 25:40 See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’’
- מִשְׁפָּט mishpâṭjudgmenttranslated this way 1 time of its 406 uses · Strong’s H4941Noun · Translated: justice 111, ordinances 73, judgments 40, judgment 40Full study and all 394 verses →
Exodus 26:30 So you are to set up the tabernacle according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.
- מַרְאֶה marehsight, appearance, visiontranslated this way 1 time of its 76 uses · Strong’s H4758Noun · Translated: appearance 16, vision 8, appear 6, sight 5Full study and all 63 verses →
Numbers 8:4 This is how the lampstand was constructed: it was made of hammered gold from its base to its blossoms, fashioned according to the pattern the LORD had shown Moses.
Greek words (New Testament)
- τύπος týposa figure, model, typetranslated this way 4 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G5179Noun · Translated: pattern 4, example 4, examples 3, marks 1Full study and all 14 verses →
Acts 7:44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the wilderness. It was constructed exactly as God had directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.
Romans 5:14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the way that Adam transgressed. He is a pattern of the One to come.
- ὑποτύπωσις hypotýpōsisa pattern, exampletranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G5296Noun · Translated: example 1, pattern 1Full study and all 2 verses →
2 Timothy 1:13 Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching you have heard from me, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
- ὑπόδειγμα hypódeigmaa figure, copy, exampletranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s G5262Noun · Translated: example 3, pattern 1, copy 1, copies 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Hebrews 4:11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.
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 pattern: 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.