Word study

Workmanship

1 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “workmanship”. 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 “workmanship” or one of its forms.

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מַעֲשֶׂה maăsehdeed, worktranslated this way 6 times of its 223 uses · Strong’s H4639Noun  ·  Translated: work 71, works 38, deeds 8, made 7

    Exodus 28:8 And the skillfully woven waistband of the ephod must be of one piece, of the same workmanship — with gold, with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and with finely spun linen.

    Ezekiel 1:16 The workmanship of the wheels looked like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. Their workmanship looked like a wheel within a wheel.

    Full study and all 211 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ποίημα poíēmaa thing madetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G4161Noun  ·  Translated: workmanship 2

    Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.

    Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • ἔργον érgonwork, labor, action, deedtranslated this way 2 times of its 163 uses · Strong’s G2041Noun  ·  Translated: works 51, deeds 44, work 32, actions 6

    1 Corinthians 3:13 his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.

    1 Corinthians 9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you yourselves not my workmanship in the Lord?

    Full study and all 153 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.