Chapter 3: The Primary Meaning of Words

A brief overview of the history and development of language over time reveals the need to understanding the meaning of words. In order to understand the meaning of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic words, it is important to know the original meaning of the word, how a word was used at the time, how the meaning of a word may have changed over time, and recognize the importance of a word’s synonyms. This research and study is referred to as etymology. Another field of science useful in understanding words is comparative philology. Philological research traces a word through families of languages taking note of the variety of forms, different usages, and different shades of meaning. Philological and etymological study is especially helpful with very ancient words that appear only once in the text of Scripture where the meaning of it is difficult of ascertain.

In every language known to man today the original meaning of some word has been lost. The great wealth of Greek literature has served to aid the biblical interpreter for a great many of the New Testament words. However, the Old Testament Scriptures are what essentially remain of the Hebrew language. When Joseph dreamed of a ladder where the angels of God ascended and descended upon it, the Hebrew word of ladder is cullam. This word appears only once in the Hebrew Scriptures. Etymological research suggests that its root is calal, meaning to lift up, or cast up, or exalt. Tracing the Arabic word, sullum, leaves little doubt to the word meaning stairway or ladder.

In the New Testament, the Greek word epiousion, translated as ‘daily’ in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3, appears nowhere else in Greek literature. In order to arrive at the meaning of the word, its roots must be traced. Etymologically there are two possible derivations. The first is epeimi, which means to go toward or approach, and would mean the bread for the coming day, or tomorrow’s bread. The second is possible root is epi and oupia meaning existence or subsistence. Given the sentence itself in which this word appears, the meaning becomes clear to be our daily essential subsistence, or bread.

These examples serve to illustrate the need for understanding both the etymology of a word and tracing a word through a family of languages in order to arrive at its proper meaning. Tracing the derivations of words often reveals the meaning of a particular word which may be justly deduced from the context in which it is found, especially when the word is only used in the Bible. This is also helpful when seeking the meaning of compound words, such as the word peacemaker found in Matthew 5:9. The Greek is eirenopoios, made up of two words, eirene, meaning peace, and poieo, meaning to make. Tracing the etymology of this compound word helps bring meaning to the text when a word is used only once and is only found in the Bible.