Biblical Vocabulary: Breaking Down the Language Barrier
Why You Don't Understand the Word (And How Etymology Changes Everything)
What’s good, Siblings in Christ! Welcome back to The Recap where I host unusual articles with a biblical twist, and the goal is to walk with you out of the world and into the Word so that you can live a biblical life.
Walk with me! 🚶♀️
Let’s Pray In 🙏
Father, we come before You ready to grow, ready to mature, and ready to do the work. Give us a hunger for Your Word that goes beyond convenience. Teach us to search out the scriptures for ourselves so we can’t be deceived by what everybody else is telling us is in the Book. Open our eyes, sharpen our minds, and give us the discipline to dig deeper. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The New Biblical Citation: IYKYK
Listen, nobody asked, but I don’t wait for y’all to ask me something to talk anyway. So I’m putting my foot down about something.
Most Christian writers spoil y’all by always putting the book, chapter, and verse next to every scripture. You will not be spoiled like that over here.
Y’all be ready to throw hands if somebody act like you don’t know the Bible. “I read the Bible. My grandmama told me the Bible. I go to church on Sunday.”
So let me hold you to that. How about I stop making it easy for you and just deal with you according to who you claim to be—this super Christian that knows the Word backwards and forwards?
The new biblical citation is: I-Y-K-Y-K. If you know, you know.
I’m gonna put the scripture, but you need to find the book, chapter, and verse. Yeah, you do some work. My goal is to get you to read the entire Bible by yourself and for yourself so you can stop being deceived by what everybody else telling you is in the book.
God not into no spoiled fruit, honey. It said, “You shall know them by their fruit,” not no spoiled fruit. IYKYK. God is into ripe fruit, healthy fruit, good fruit.
Listen, anybody who’s been part of the Recap—my usual conversations with a biblical twist—when they left that room, they could locate any scripture at the snap of a finger and skate across the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin language when it comes to the words within scripture, baby. They was ill.
And I wanna make sure y’all ill with it too.
If this make you wanna be a crybaby about it, respectfully, I love you, but this not for you, because it’s time for us to mature. We’re taking these training wheels off.
Here’s the Real Issue
There’s a lot going on. Time is short, and the world is just getting eviller. The Word says that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. IYKYK.
The church is behind. We are nowhere near where we’re supposed to be spiritually. We are still on milk. We should be on solid food at this point.
Now for those of you like, “I understand what the Word is talking about. I read my Bible”—let me tell you something the Holy Spirit told me that really snatched my edges off and humbled me:
If you not doing what the Word says, baby, you still do not have a revelation of it.
You clearly still lack understanding because once you understand a thing, you do a thing. This is the biblical standard of true understanding.
True understanding is followed by permanent change and consistent real action.
So don’t tell yourself or anyone else that you understand anything of the Bible that you not doing, that you not living out. Unless you wanna deceive yourself and be just a hearer of the Word and not a doer. IYKYK.
Biblical Vocabulary: Expect Deeper Dives
I see biblical vocabulary being the number one stumbling block when it comes to understanding the Word of God. I strongly believe that due to the lack of understanding of biblical verbiage, that’s the main reason why we don’t be understanding what the Word is talking about. We just stick with the surface-level understandings our pastor serves to us—not because we’re not interested in the deeper things.
We don’t even understand the language of the deeper things to get into the understanding of them.
If the words are too complex, surely the message would be, right?
Now, y’all have already seen me unpack biblical vocabulary in many articles because that’s just my thing. I love words. I’ve loved them since a child and I’m very good with words. Whether it be because I’m a writer, a songwriter, singer, poet, whatever you want to call it, the Lord has graced me in the area of words and understanding and information and linguistics and things of that sort. And more presently, etymology—etymological understanding.
“A writer is a teacher. Every time you put pen to paper, you are instructing, guiding, revealing truth to those who will read your words.”
And the Word backs this up: “Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.” IYKYK
That’s my assignment as a scribe in the kingdom—to bring forth treasure, both new and old. To teach through the written word.
So, expect me to take you into deeper dives of biblical vocabulary moving forward, because this is where breakthrough happens.
What is Etymology, Really?
Let me unpack this for you. Etymology comes from the Greek word etymología—which itself breaks down into étymon (meaning “true sense” or “the true meaning of a word”) and -logia (meaning “the study of”).
So etymology is literally the study of the true meaning of words.
It’s the history of a word—tracing its development from its earliest recorded occurrence, analyzing it into its component parts (prefixes, suffixes, roots), identifying its relatives in other languages, and tracing it back to its original ancestral form. Etymology reveals what words actually meant and how they sounded 600, 1,000, or 2,000 years ago.
When we study etymology, we’re not just learning definitions. We’re uncovering the original intent behind the words—the truth that was embedded in them from the beginning. And when it comes to Scripture, understanding the true meaning of words is everything.
The Three Biblical Languages
The Bible was written across three primary languages, and understanding this is crucial:
Hebrew - The Old Testament was primarily composed in Biblical Hebrew (also called Classical Hebrew). This is the ancient language of Israel, with roots stretching back to the second millennium BC. Some portions of the Old Testament—notably in Daniel and Ezra—were written in Biblical Aramaic, a related Semitic language that became the common spoken language in Israel during Jesus’ time.
Greek - The entire New Testament was written in Koine Greek, which was the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean from the conquests of Alexander the Great (around 335-323 BC) until the evolution of Byzantine Greek (around 600 AD). Koine Greek was the lingua franca—the universal language—of the Roman Empire. It wasn’t fancy, classical Greek like Plato and Aristotle wrote. It was everyday, street-level Greek that ordinary people spoke. This is why the apostles wrote in Greek—not because it was holy, but because it was the language that could reach the most people across the known world.
Latin - While not an original biblical language, Latin became critically important through Jerome’s Vulgate translation in the late 4th and early 5th centuries. Jerome was a linguistic genius who was fluent in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. He translated the Old Testament directly from Hebrew (rather than relying on the Greek Septuagint like others) and revised the New Testament from Greek. His Latin Vulgate became the foundation for Western Christianity and influenced countless translations, including early English Bibles.
Here’s what’s fascinating: By the time the New Testament was written, many Jews couldn’t even read Hebrew anymore. Greek had become so dominant that around 200 BC, Jewish scholars completed the Septuagint—a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures—specifically for Greek-speaking Jews. This Greek Old Testament was widely used in synagogues and became the version most often quoted by New Testament writers.
Why This Matters for You
When we study Hebrew, Greek, and Latin roots of biblical words, we’re accessing layers of meaning that simply don’t translate directly into English. We’re getting closer to what the original authors intended, what the first hearers understood, and what the Holy Spirit embedded in the text.
This is what I’m gonna be doing with y’all—taking words that have y’all in a chokehold and breaking them down across these three languages so you can see what’s really being said in Scripture.
This isn’t about making you a Bible scholar. This is about giving you the tools to feed yourself instead of always depending on someone else to feed you.
Sidebar: Don’t think that the Dream Series has stopped. It hasn’t. I’ll be dropping another one tonight.
Before We Go… Let’s Pray 🙏
Father, we thank You for this new journey into understanding Your Word on a deeper level. Give us the discipline to study, the patience to learn, and the wisdom to apply what we discover. Help us move from milk to meat. We’re ready to grow up in You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Until We Meet Again…
Thank you for coming back to The Recap. I enjoyed our unusual article with a biblical twist. This is just the beginning of our etymology series, so buckle up!
Until next time, stay forever #lockedinChrist.