Lesson 9 | Searching the Original
Uncommon Words
The more difficult situation is one where you have an especially uncommon word. Composing a helpful search in such cases will require a bit more care…and more clicking.
1. Search the LXX
For the New Testament, the next place you should search when you do not have many hits is in the Septuagint (LXX). It is true that the Greek in the LXX is not contemporary to that of the NT (it was written about 200 years earlier) and languages change over time. However, the LXX was the common Greek translation of the OT used in the early Church and so we are right to expect its usage of words to generally align.
Whereas the simple meaning of being “accursed” can be seen in the six NT uses of this word, it takes a search in the LXX to understand how this term brings to mind the nations and pagan practices of Canaan that God declared “devoted to destruction.”
2. Search Cognates
We previously discussed how cognates between languages are not a reliable way to understand meaning. However, sometimes cognates within a single language can be helpful in this regard.
This can be demonstrated in English.
First, let’s think about when cognates do not help, even within a single language. The word “prescription” is a cognate of the word “subscription.” Now, we could explain why they are related if we already knew the definition of both. But if we did not know the definition of “subscription,” considering the definition of “prescription” would not help us.
On the other hand, knowing the definition of the verb “teach” (verb) is, in fact, helpful in understanding the meaning of the words “teaching” (noun) and “teachable” (adjective)—particularly if I know the part of speech for each. So too in the original languages.
Strong’s Concordance will oftentimes have clickable references to related Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek words. In this case, we see that the noun מַרְבֶה (marbeh) comes from the verb רָבָה (râbâh). Since the verb form appears many times in the OT (229x), it can be used to supplement my understanding of this rare word.
