Number of different Greek (or Hebrew) words behind one English word

otini kroukamp · 2025-03-07T18:56:19+00:00

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Is there a way to determine how many different Greek words were translated into one English word? E.g. if we select a Bible Word Study on the English word "control" (Gal 3:22) we can easily count the number of Greek words translated as "control". However, if we choose the word "sin" (Gal 3:22) the segments on the ring chart become cumbersome to count accurately. I understand from the answer given by Graham Criddle here (https://community.logos.com/discussion/167426/different-greek-words-behind-one-english-word) that we could click on the English word in the middle and manually count the number of sorted Greek words but was wondering if there is an easier or more direct way.

Thanks

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Accepted answers

Francis

Are you trying to identify all the words in Hebrew or Greek that have the English sense you are looking for or are you trying to analyze what terms a specific English translation has translated that way?

If you want to know all the original language words that have a specific meaning, using a semantic dictionary might be a better approach. That approach relates to the actual meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words not how they are translated in this or that English Bible.

All comments

Francis

Graham Criddle

You could run a Bible Search for it and use the Analysis view.

If, in there, you group results by Greek lemmas and then select the Summary option I think you get what you are looking for

If you are not familiar with using the Analysis view, please advise.

Francis

The caveat of this method is that it depends on the reliability of interlinear alignment and is conditioned by the limitations of alignment. Alignment is the process by which English translation words are connected to the Hebrew or Greek words they translate. This work is done by folks qualified to do it, but errors happen, so the stats are not absolutely reliable.

The other issue there is that alignment means that sometimes, and even more so in less literal English translations, there is not always direct correspondance between English translation and a single Hebrew or Greek word thus translated. You will finding determiners and particles in search results analyses is common place. Sometimes several Greek words are rendered by one English or vice-versa, accounting for part of these oddities. The last two words (houtos and meketi in Graham's list above are a case in point).

otini kroukamp

Thank you Francis for your replies. Once I had the time to contemplate your first response it made me realize that my question was rather naïve. In a sense I was hoping for the tallying and comparing of words/lemmas to provide internal checks and balances to help me know I was on the right track—all in an attempt to overcome my lack of word knowledge/understanding. Initially I was actually looking for the latter part of the statement of the first paragraph ("are you trying to analyze what terms a specific English translation has translated that way?") but realize now that it will be better looking at the senses going forward.

Also, thank you for your second response and acknowledging that the alignment of words (at least how they are currently characterized and tagged in the databases) are not necessarily related in a one to one fashion (not always direct correspondence). This statement was comforting to me since in my previous explorations I often came across the unsettling awareness that "the numbers did not add up"—but now I understand better why this is so.

Thank you.

otini kroukamp

Thank you Graham Criddle for your reply. For some reason I was actually not aware of the "analysis" tab under the search function. Between the example you posted and following some of the hovering prompts I was actually able to familiarize myself with this functionality and very happy that you alerted me to this! I can definitely see the value of this approach.

Thank you