Word study

Priestly

4 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • כֹּהֵן kôhênpriesttranslated this way 6 times of its 726 uses · Strong’s H3548Noun  ·  Translated: priest 387, priests 285, way the priest 8, priestly 5Full study and all 646 verses →
  • בֶּגֶד begedtreacherytranslated this way 2 times of its 213 uses · Strong’s H899Noun  ·  Translated: clothes 76, garments 61, clothing 16, garment 13

    Leviticus 21:10 The priest who is highest among his brothers, who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let his hair hang loose or tear his garments.

    Numbers 20:26 Remove Aaron’s priestly garments and put them on his son Eleazar. Aaron will be gathered to his people and will die there.”

    Full study and all 189 verses →
  • כְּהֻנָּה kehunnâhpriesthoodtranslated this way 1 time of its 14 uses · Strong’s H3550Noun  ·  Translated: priesthood 12, duties of the priesthood 1, priestly office 1

    1 Samuel 2:36 And everyone left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver or a morsel of bread, pleading, “Please appoint me to some priestly office so that I can eat a piece of bread.”’”

    Full study and all 12 verses →
  • כָּהַן kâhanact as priesttranslated this way 1 time of its 23 uses · Strong’s H3547Verb  ·  Translated: serve me as priests 8, serve as priests 4, priests 3, served as priests 2

    Isaiah 61:10 I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom wears a priestly headdress, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

    Full study and all 23 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἐφημερία ephēmeríaa class of prieststranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G2183Noun  ·  Translated: priestly division 1, division 1

    Luke 1:5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and whose wife Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • ἱερουργέω hierourgéōI minister in holy thingstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G2418Verb  ·  Translated: priestly service 1

    Romans 15:16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
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.