This lesson is part of Mel Lawrenz’ “How to Study the Bible” series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

It is amazing, when you think about it, that you can take a pencil and a piece of paper, write a single word on it, show it to someone else, and produce in that person’s mind the idea of the object, action, or concept in that single word. Whether you write lion, or moon, or wedding, or run, or war—a single written word connects your mind with another person’s mind in an instant. This is the power of words.

But it is not as simple as that. What if you write the word bar? The other person may imagine a long metal rod, or a piece of candy, or a room in a hotel where alcohol is served, or a court of law, or a musical notation. All are meanings of the word bar. And what if the other person comes from another country where the meaning of a word is entirely different, or even offensive?

Studying the Bible inevitably involves studying the meaning of individual words, but we must always remember that the meaning of the biblical author is found in complete thoughts represented in sentences or blocks of sentences. We find the meaning of words in their context. The word white can mean a color or quality, the word house can mean a home or a business establishment, but put them together—white house—and you have a specific idea. Or change it to White House and you know you’re talking about one particular building in Washington, D.C.

So let’s say you are studying John, chapter 1, a passage packed with amazing truths. We find words which we need to understand: beginning, Word, life, light, children of God, born of God, flesh, dwelling, grace, truth, Son. We may assume some of these words have obvious meanings, but we will benefit by learning all that we can even about them.

Most words have a range of possible meanings, what linguists call a “semantic range.” The word flesh, for instance, in a biblical passage may refer to the physical body, or it can mean humanity, or it can point to limited human nature, or it can refer to the sinfulness of human nature. The same is true of word in John 1. The Greek term logos can mean expression or rationality or a single word. Logos was also used at the time by certain philosophical schools for the idea of a universal power that holds the universe together. By calling Jesus “the Word” John may have been saying that in Jesus we find the fulfillment and personification of “the word of the Lord” in the Old Testament, or a better alternative to the cosmic Logos of the philosophers, or both. So much is at stake in the meaning of a word—even the word word!

So how do we study the meaning of the words of Scripture? Here is where we rely on the expertise of linguists whose job it is to take the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words of the Bible and compare their use within the Bible and with outside sources. Linguists produce lexicons or dictionaries—tools that summarize the findings of these extensive comparisons. As we have said before, one of the most useful Bible study tools is a good Bible dictionary or encyclopedia. These tools will summarize the meaning of names, geography, theology, and every other kind of word. From Caesarea to coin, remnant to resurrection, Baal to Bethel, heaven to heart, Judas to justification. Bible dictionaries are immensely valuable (see this list of Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias).

When you look up a word in such a tool, use it as an opportunity to learn about the whole range of meaning of a word throughout the Bible. This you can file away in the back of your mind for future reference. But do not make the mistake of thinking that any one use of a word in any one passage includes the full semantic range of meaning of a word. When someone uses the word bar you do not think he or she is using every possible meaning of the word. The context of the comment tells you specifically what the person means. So it is in Bible study. The word world can mean the earth, or humanity, or the sinfulness of humanity. You can tell from the context. The word judge may be God’s act of justice, or God as judge, or one of the leaders in the book of Judges, or the act of harshly criticizing others. You can tell from the context.

And then there is the issue of synonyms. The English word love in the New Testament is often used in translations for three of the four Greek words for love: agape, philia, and eros.

The other tool that helps us know what a specific word means in a specific context is the commentary. The commentator has looked at the full semantic range of all of the words in a passage, and will focus on the meaning that applies. And if the deeper meaning of a word is important, a good commentator will unpack that. (More about commentaries later.)

We should not be surprised that getting at the meaning of the words of Scripture involves some work. The basic meaning of a biblical text is typically obvious with simple reading. We have to work at times in the same way that we work at any relationship worth having. Words are gifts, and they lead ultimately to God himself.

Mel Lawrenz trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s minister at large. He has a Ph.D. in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel is the author of 18 books, the latest, How to Understand the Bible—A Simple Guide and Spiritual Influence: the Hidden Power Behind Leadership (Zondervan, 2012). See more of Mel’s writing at WordWay.