Word study
Source
6 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: source, sources. 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 “source” 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)
- מָה mâhwhat? how? aughttranslated this way 3 times of its 708 uses · Strong’s H4100Interrogative · Translated: what 313, why 183, how 80, many 5Full study and all 618 verses →
Judges 16:5 The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”
Judges 16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”
- מָקוֹר mâqôrspring, fountaintranslated this way 2 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s H4726Noun · Translated: fountain 13, flow 1, source of her flow 1, source 1Full study and all 17 verses →
Leviticus 20:18 If a man lies with a menstruating woman and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them must be cut off from among their people.
- כֹּחַ kôachstrength, powertranslated this way 1 time of its 118 uses · Strong’s H3581Noun · Translated: strength 54, power 35, produce 2, powerless 2Full study and all 114 verses →
Judges 16:9 While the men were hidden in her room, she called out, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the bowstrings like a strand of yarn seared by a flame. So the source of his strength remained unknown.
- מָקוֹם mâqômstanding, spot, conditiontranslated this way 1 time of its 381 uses · Strong’s H4725Noun · Translated: place 279, home 16, places 11, wherever 7Full study and all 364 verses →
Job 28:6 Its rocks are the source of sapphires, containing flecks of gold.
- מַבָּט mabbâṭexpectationtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H4007Noun · Translated: hope 2, source of hope 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Isaiah 20:6 And on that day the dwellers of this coastland will say, ‘See what has happened to our source of hope, those to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”
- בְּכִי Bekîweepingtranslated this way 1 time of its 25 uses · Strong’s H1065Noun · Translated: weeping 16, weep 3, wept 2Full study and all 24 verses →
Job 28:11 He stops up the sources of the streams to bring what is hidden to light.
Greek words (New Testament)
- πόθεν póthenwhencetranslated this way 1 time of its 28 uses · Strong’s G4159Adverb · Translated: where 21, how 2Full study and all 26 verses →
Matthew 21:25 What was the source of John’s baptism? Was it from heaven or from men?” They deliberated among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will ask, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’
- αἴτιος aítiosthe cause of, the originator oftranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s G159Adjective · Translated: basis for a charge 1, guilty 1, offense worthy 1, justification 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Hebrews 5:9 And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him
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.