I need help determining what a word means in the original language, which book would be most helpful

Yin Syn said:

I need help determining what a word means in the original language, which book would be most helpful?

If you have the UBS Handbook series, this gives you the options for many words. These were designed for translators so many of the issues relating to context and range of meaning are covered.

Robert Pavich said:

good tip...I keep forgetting that one

This has become one of the first resources I turn to after my initial exegetical work.

Yin Syn said:

I guess I don't have those guides.  I believe I just have the study library edition of Logos4?  Can i buy just the UBS for L4 without upgrading again?  The cost is a concern for me.

thank you all for your help

These are in the Scholar's Gold and up. They are available separately, NT - http://www.logos.com/products/details/1782, and OT - http://www.logos.com/products/details/1904. 

You may be able to find these at a seminary library that you could use to see if they would benefit you.

Yin Syn said:

I guess I don't have those guides.  I believe I just have the study library edition of Logos4?  Can i buy just the UBS for L4 without upgrading again?  The cost is a concern for me.

thank you all for your help

The Bible study Library is very thin on original language helps. Your best option is probably the Dictionaries of Biblical Languages by James Swanson. They typically give better definitions than the various strong's dictionaries. The thing to remember is that context determines meaning. If there is disagreement over how to translate a word I would 1) consult the NET Bible footnotes, it'll probably have an explanation or the issues, 2) consult trusted commentators and a variety of English translations.

Regarding the UBS handbooks, they are awesome works, but the cost of them is such that I would just recommend saving up and upgrading, you get so much more and the cost is probably not all that different.

Yin Syn said:

I need help determining what a word means in the original language, which book would be most helpful?

i.e. Matthew 18:35 the word "brother"  When I used the exegetical word by word, it gives me several meanings - like family member, church member "brethren" and so on. 

Is there a book or guide that will show me exactly what a word means as it was use specifically in this verse of the bible, instead of how many times it was used one way, or another - but never specific to this verse only.  The Strong’s concordance does the same thing, but how do I know which one of those meaning to pick?  It can make a huge difference in the interpretation?

 

Hi, Yin. What you are asking about is a complex question, and it's the very reason why there are so many translations out there, and why translators have been wrestling with these things for years. There isn't always one correct answer to "exactly what a word means as it was used specifically in this verse." Translating a Hebrew or Greek word into English isn't an exact science because the range of meanings of words in Hebrew and Greek is different from what we have in English, so there is not a direct one-to-one correspondence. If an original language word can have multiple meanings, it requires understanding the context surrounding that verse to know the best way to translate that word. Sometimes more than one word has to be used to convey an idea that is easily conveyed in one word in another language. This is true whether it's a modern language such as French or German or an ancient biblical language. Further complicating the task is that there would have been cultural understandings of words at the time which we don't necessarily have anymore without doing a bunch of study to familiarize ourselves with the social context. Finally, the meanings of words in English shift over time, too, so translations done in the 17th century (the KJV, for example) use words in English which leave a lot of contemporary readers puzzled. New translations are done because better manuscripts are discovered, more is learned about the original social context, usages change in English, or there might be different target audiences (people for whom English is a second language, for example, might need simpler sentence structure). Compromises often have to be made.

So, how is a person who doesn't know Hebrew or Greek to understand the meanings of the words? Well, I can offer several suggestions:

1) First, read the verse (in the context of a larger passage) in several different English translations. When you see it translated by several different words in different English versions, that's a clue to you that it can have those different meanings in the original, and that the translators were wrestling with it. Usually, the more translations of the verse you read, the better overall understanding you'll have of what was originally intended. I'd pick a fairly literal translation such as NASB or ESV as well as a dynamic equivalence translation such as NIV (where not necessarily each word is exactly translated, which might result in awkward phrasing in English, but the goal is to preserve the overall meaning of the verse). The Amplified Bible expands each substantial word into several different English words whose semantic range taken altogether give you a pretty good idea of what the underlying Greek or Hebrew word means. The NET Bible is great because it has extensive footnotes which discuss why certain English words were chosen in translating the original.

You can check multiple translations at once by using the Text Comparison tool.

2) Second, see what some of the commentaries say about this verse. If it's a particularly tricky word to translate into English, the commentaries are likely to discuss this. The single volume commentaries are not likely to go into such detail, but if you have a multi-volume commentary or at least the volume for the book you're studying, you'll find helpful information. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the commentaries that come with the Bible Study Library you have are going to give you this kind of depth.

3) Third, check a word study resource. You mentioned you have Strong's Concordance, but I think you meant Strong’s Concise Dictionary of the Words of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Testament, which comes with your base package. That has only very brief definitions of the words, but it's a start. You could use the Information Tool and hover your mouse over the word brother in the English translation; that should bring up some sort of helpful info (unfortunately I can't remember how helpful it was in 4.0a because I'm using the beta of 4.0b now and they've added a bunch of functionality to customize this info window). Some people like the Complete Word Study Dictionary (separate OT and NT volumes), which comes as part of the AMG Bible Essentials CD-ROM (that's the cheapest way to get it, because you get a bunch of other resources too). Another resource some people like is Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Those are all beginner resources, though. If you aim to be doing more in depth original language word studies you'll probably want to graduate to something better eventually, or get it now and grow into it. Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains (3 volumes: Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic), Theological Wordboook of the Old Testament (TWOT), Theological Dictionary of The New Testament (TDNT), are all excellent. All of these come with Scholar's Library, so you might be wanting to upgrade to that at some point. That would be cheaper than getting them all individually, and again you'd get a bunch of other useful resources too.

Yin, I would encourage you that your heart is in the right place, and Jesus loves you. That latter quote is said so often that it might sound trite, but it means a whole lot! The Holy Spirit will guide you in your interpretation, and don't worry about making a mistake and misinterpreting something. As long as you are continually growing in your knowledge of God's Word, you will become better and better at understanding. The more you know the Old Testament, the better you will be at interpreting the New Testament. And so on. God will only hold you accountable for whatever your level of understanding is at any given time, as you journey in faith with Him. It might happen from time to time that you interpret something erroneously, but goodness knows, it has happened to others who were far more knowledgeable and equally sincere in their faith, and it isn't a sin (as long as it's not out of pride or self-justification or something) and isn't the end of the world. God will gently correct you if you are mistaken. As long as your motivation is to love him and serve him better, he will guide you into all truth. Blessings, brother! (Whatever that word means... [;)])