Word study
Temple
9 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: temple, temples. 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 “temple” 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)
- בַּיִת bayithhousetranslated this way 184 times of its 1,913 uses · Strong’s H1004Noun · Translated: house 1,132, temple 176, palace 117, household 93Full study and all 1,624 verses →
- הֵיכָל hêkâlpalace, templetranslated this way 57 times of its 78 uses · Strong’s H1964Noun · Translated: temple 56, palace 7, outer sanctuary 6, palaces 4Full study and all 74 verses →
1 Samuel 1:9 So after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.
2 Samuel 22:7 In my distress I called upon the LORD; I cried out to my God. And from His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for help reached His ears.
- נָתִין NâthînNethinim, Temple-servantstranslated this way 14 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H5411Noun · Translated: temple servants 14Full study and all 14 verses →
1 Chronicles 9:2 Now the first to resettle their own property in their cities were Israelites, priests, Levites, and temple servants.
Ezra 2:43 The temple servants: the descendants of Ziha, the descendants of Hasupha, the descendants of Tabbaoth,
- הֵיכַל hêkalpalace, templetranslated this way 7 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H1965Noun · Translated: temple 7, palace 4, roof of the royal palace 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Ezra 5:14 He also removed from the temple of Babylon the gold and silver articles belonging to the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken and carried there from the temple in Jerusalem. King Cyrus gave these articles to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he appointed governor
Daniel 5:2 Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king could drink from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.
- גִּזְרָה gizrâhcutting, separationtranslated this way 6 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H1508Noun · Translated: temple courtyard 6, appearance 1, courtyard 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Ezekiel 41:12 Now the building that faced the temple courtyard on the west was seventy cubits wide, and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, with a length of ninety cubits.
Ezekiel 41:13 Then he measured the temple to be a hundred cubits long, and the temple courtyard and the building with its walls were also a hundred cubits long.
- בַּיִת bayithhousetranslated this way 5 times of its 43 uses · Strong’s H1005Noun · Translated: house 30, temple 5, archives 2, houses 2Full study and all 38 verses →
Ezra 5:3 At that time Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates went to the Jews and asked, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?”
Ezra 5:9 So we questioned the elders and asked, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?”
- רַקָּה raqqâhthe templetranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H7541Noun · Translated: temple 3, brow 2Full study and all 5 verses →
Judges 4:21 But as he lay sleeping from exhaustion, Heber’s wife Jael took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She drove the peg through his temple and into the ground, and he died.
Judges 4:22 When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to greet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man you are seeking.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera dead, with a tent peg through his temple.
- שָׁרַת shârathminister, servetranslated this way 2 times of its 94 uses · Strong’s H8334Verb · Translated: minister 32, serve 9, ministering 6, ministers 6Full study and all 88 verses →
2 Kings 25:14 They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes, and all the articles of bronze used in the temple service.
Jeremiah 52:18 They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes, and all the articles of bronze used in the temple service.
- פֵּאָה pêâhcorner, sidetranslated this way 2 times of its 57 uses · Strong’s H6285Noun · Translated: side 34, boundary 4, corners 3, edges 3Full study and all 46 verses →
Jeremiah 9:26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair of their temples. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”
Jeremiah 49:32 Their camels will become plunder, and their large herds will be spoil. I will scatter to the wind in every direction those who shave their temples; I will bring calamity on them from all sides,” declares the LORD.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἱερόν hieróna templetranslated this way 65 times of its 65 uses · Strong’s G2411Noun · Translated: temple 63, temple area 1, temple guard 1Full study and all 64 verses →
Matthew 4:5 Then the devil took Him to the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple.
Mark 11:11 Then Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, He went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
- ναός naósa temple, shrinetranslated this way 44 times of its 45 uses · Strong’s G3485Noun · Translated: temple 43, temples 1, shrines 1Full study and all 39 verses →
Matthew 23:16 Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’
Mark 14:58 “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this man-made temple, and in three days I will build another that is made without hands.’”
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.
What the Bible says about temple: 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.