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How does a word study help me understand the meaning of the text?
First, you need to remember that every Bible you read in English has been translated two ways. First and most obvious it has been translated from the original Hebrew or Greek (and a small amount of Aramaic). Secondly, it has come to you through a filter of a few thousand years and many miles. That brings up cultural differences and historic issues. Sometimes the words you read in the Bible may not convey to you the original meaning of the original word the author used. Most of the time that's not a big deal, but on important points, it certainly is. For example, in the original Greek the word that's translated "hope" was more of a certainty than the word means in contemporary English. When you begin to get a better grasp of the original meaning of "hope" it can deepen your faith.
I love to do word studies, but I'm not an expert by any means. I could do a word study with you, but I really don't know enough to teach it. The only part that I'm really qualified to address is the fact that you should never do a word study on the English words! They weren't the original inspired words, so they can't give you the original inspired meaning. You must use the original Greek and Hebrew. For most of us, the best tool to use is a concordance that cross-references the English words with the Greek and Hebrew words and their definitions. I use The Strongest NIV Exhaustive Concordance edited by Goodrich and Kohlenberger. To better understand how to use it and do proper word studies, I highly recommend that you read Grasping God's Word by Scott Duvall and Daniel Hays.
If you have any questions, please email me at cheryl@cherylokimoto.com.
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