Word study
Sacred
3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “sacred”. 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 “sacred” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- קֹדֶשׁ qôdeshsacred, sanctitytranslated this way 50 times of its 437 uses · Strong’s H6944Noun · Translated: holy 192, sanctuary 42, sacred 31, according to the sanctuary 24Full study and all 379 verses →
Exodus 12:16 On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly, and another on the seventh day. You must not do any work on those days, except to prepare the meals — that is all you may do.
Leviticus 12:4 The woman shall continue in purification from her bleeding for thirty-three days. She must not touch anything sacred or go into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are complete.
- מַצֵּבָה matstsêbâhpillar, maƒƒ¢b¹ , stumptranslated this way 17 times of its 32 uses · Strong’s H4676Noun · Translated: sacred pillars 10, pillar 9, sacred pillar 4, pillars 3Full study and all 31 verses →
Exodus 23:24 You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces.
Leviticus 26:1 “You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.
- כְּלִי kelîarticle, utensil, vesseltranslated this way 2 times of its 282 uses · Strong’s H3627Noun · Translated: articles 59, utensils 32, weapons 20, furnishings 15Full study and all 255 verses →
Ezra 8:30 So the priests and Levites took charge of the silver and gold and sacred articles that had been weighed out to be taken to the house of our God in Jerusalem.
Ezra 8:33 On the fourth day, in the house of our God, we weighed out the silver and gold and sacred articles into the hand of Meremoth son of Uriah, the priest. Eleazar son of Phinehas was with him, along with the Levites Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἁγιάζω hagiázōI make holy, sanctifytranslated this way 2 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s G37Verb · Translated: sanctified 15, sanctify 7, hallowed 2, makes it sacred 2Full study and all 25 verses →
Matthew 23:17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred?
Matthew 23:19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes it sacred?
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.