Word study
Public
2 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “public”. 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 “public” 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)
- רְחֹב rechôbbroad open place, plazatranslated this way 11 times of its 42 uses · Strong’s H7339Noun · Translated: square 13, streets 10, public square 7, squares 4Full study and all 41 verses →
Deuteronomy 13:16 And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.
2 Samuel 21:12 he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung the bodies after they had struck down Saul at Gilboa.
- קוֹל qôlsound, voicetranslated this way 1 time of its 425 uses · Strong’s H6963Noun · Translated: voice 197, sound 63, voices 22, thunder 11Full study and all 378 verses →
Leviticus 5:1 “If someone sins by failing to testify when he hears a public charge about something he has witnessed, whether he has seen it or learned of it, he shall bear the iniquity.
Greek words (New Testament)
- δημόσιος dēmósiospublic, publiclytranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G1219Adjective · Translated: public 2, publicly 2Full study and all 4 verses →
Acts 5:18 and arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
Acts 18:28 For he powerfully refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.
- ἀνάδειξις anádeixisthe proclamation of an appointmenttranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G323Noun · Translated: public appearance 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Luke 1:80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until the time of his public appearance to Israel.
- δειγματίζω deigmatízōI hold up as an exampletranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G1165Verb · Translated: disgrace her publicly 1, made a public spectacle 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Colossians 2:15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
- ἀνάγνωσις anágnōsisreadingtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s G320Noun · Translated: reading 2, public reading of scripture 1Full study and all 3 verses →
1 Timothy 4:13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching.
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.