Word study

Sincerity

2 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • תָּמִים tâmîmcomplete, soundtranslated this way 1 time of its 91 uses · Strong’s H8549Adjective  ·  Translated: unblemished 39, blameless 16, without blemish 11, perfect 6

    Joshua 24:14 Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

    Full study and all 85 verses →
  • מֵישָׁר mêshârevenness, uprightness, equitytranslated this way 1 time of its 18 uses · Strong’s H4339Noun  ·  Translated: equity 6, right 5

    Isaiah 33:15 He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—

    Full study and all 18 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • εἰλικρίνεια eilikríneiaclearness, sincerity, puritytranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G1505Noun  ·  Translated: sincerity 3

    1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.

    2 Corinthians 1:12 For this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God — not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • ἁπλότης haplótēssimplicity, sincerity, puritytranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G572Noun  ·  Translated: generosity 2, sincerity 2, give generously 1, generous 1

    Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

    Colossians 3:22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, not only to please them while they are watching, but with sincerity of heart and fear of the Lord.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • ἀφελότης aphelótēssimplicity, sinceritytranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G858Noun  ·  Translated: sincerity 1

    Acts 2:46 With one accord they continued to meet daily in the temple courts and to break bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart,

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • γνήσιος gnḗsiosreal, true, genuinetranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s G1103Adjective  ·  Translated: true 3, sincerity 1

    2 Corinthians 8:8 I am not giving a command, but I am testing the sincerity of your love through the earnestness of others.

    Full study and all 4 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.

What the Bible says about sincerity: passages by topic →

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.