Word study
Preach
2 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: preach, preached, preaching. 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 “preach” 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)
- נָטַף nâṭaphdrop, driptranslated this way 7 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s H5197Verb · Translated: preach 7, drip 4, poured 3Full study and all 14 verses →
Ezekiel 20:46 “Son of man, set your face toward the south, preach against it, and prophesy against the forest of the Negev.
Amos 7:16 Now, therefore, hear the word of the LORD. You say: ‘Do not prophesy against Israel; do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
- דָבַר dâbarspeaktranslated this way 2 times of its 1,113 uses · Strong’s H1696Verb · Translated: speak 209, said 157, spoken 142, spoke 110Full study and all 1,025 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- εὐαγγελίζω euangelízōI bring good news, preach good tidingstranslated this way 35 times of its 54 uses · Strong’s G2097Verb · Translated: preached 8, preach the gospel 8, proclaiming the good news 4, preaching the gospel 4Full study and all 52 verses →
Matthew 11:5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.
Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed,
- κηρύσσω kērýssōI proclaim, herald, preachtranslated this way 33 times of its 61 uses · Strong’s G2784Verb · Translated: proclaimed 16, preach 16, preached 9, preaching 8Full study and all 60 verses →
Matthew 3:1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea
Mark 1:4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
- κήρυγμα kḗrygmaa proclamation, preachingtranslated this way 5 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s G2782Noun · Translated: preaching 4, proclamation 2, preached 1, message 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Matthew 12:41 The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.
Luke 11:32 The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.
- καταγγέλλω katangéllōI declare openly, preachtranslated this way 3 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s G2605Verb · Translated: proclaimed 6, proclaiming 4, proclaim 4, preach 2Full study and all 18 verses →
1 Corinthians 9:14 In the same way, the Lord has prescribed that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
Philippians 1:17 The former, however, preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can add to the distress of my chains.
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.
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.