Word study

Relative

3 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: relatives, relative. 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 “relative” 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)

  • אָח âchbrothertranslated this way 43 times of its 615 uses · Strong’s H251Noun  ·  Translated: brothers 234, brother 211, relatives 36, brother's 18

    Genesis 14:14 And when Abram heard that his relative had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men born in his household, and they set out in pursuit as far as Dan.

    Genesis 14:16 He retrieved all the goods, as well as his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the rest of the people.

    Full study and all 562 verses →
  • שְׁאֵר sheêrfleshtranslated this way 4 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H7607Noun  ·  Translated: close relative 4, flesh 3, meat 2

    Leviticus 18:6 None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.

    Leviticus 18:12 You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • קָרוֹב qârôbneartranslated this way 3 times of its 74 uses · Strong’s H7138Adjective  ·  Translated: near 38, nearest 4, nearby 3, next 2

    Ruth 2:20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, who has not withdrawn His kindness from the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”

    2 Samuel 19:42 And all the men of Judah replied to the men of Israel, “We did this because the king is our relative. Why does this anger you? Have we ever eaten at the king’s expense or received anything for ourselves?”

    Full study and all 72 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • συγγενής syngenḗsakin, a relativetranslated this way 8 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s G4773Adjective  ·  Translated: relatives 6, relative 2, fellow countrymen 2, flesh and blood 1

    Mark 6:4 Then Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own household is a prophet without honor.”

    Luke 1:36 Look, even Elizabeth your relative has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is in her sixth month.

    Full study and all 12 verses →
  • συγγένεια syngéneiakindred, familytranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4772Noun  ·  Translated: relatives 2, kindred 1

    Luke 1:61 They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who bears this name.”

    Acts 7:14 Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five in all.

    Full study and all 3 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.