It is often valuable to investigate the cultural contexts from which a word emerged.
![logos theoligical wordbook of the old testament logos theoligical wordbook of the old testament](http://www.swartzentrover.com/cotor/bible/Dore/doreOT/OT-003.jpg)
STEP 2: Briefly Explore the Word in Other Ancient Semitic Languages
#LOGOS THEOLIGICAL WORDBOOK OF THE OLD TESTAMENT SOFTWARE#
With Logos Bible Software we just double-click the word in the reverse interlinear and our preferred lexicon opens, which for me is A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by Holladay.¹ We then note the Strong's number, 5315, to the right of the passage and look it up in the numerically-keyed Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary appended to Strong's. Now that we have this Hebrew word in mind, we establish a preliminary definition, what scholars call a "gloss." If using print resources like Strongest Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, we look up the English word "soul" and locate the reference to Deut 6:5. When we look directly below "soul" in Deut 6:5 we see that nephesh is the Hebrew word behind the translation. In this resource, each word of the English translation is aligned with its corresponding Hebrew word. Locating the Hebrew word behind the English word "soul" is made easy with The ESV English-Hebrew Reverse Deuteronomy 6:5Old Testament. STEP 1: Make the Switch to Hebrew and Establish a Preliminary Definition
![logos theoligical wordbook of the old testament logos theoligical wordbook of the old testament](https://media.freebibleimages.org/stories/FB_Maps_Edom/overview-images/003-maps-edom.jpg)
Since we can be certain Moses did not have a copy of this dictionary in hand, we must delve into the Hebrew text in hope of gaining fresh insight into this ancient verse. In Deuteronomy 6:5, Moses admonishes the Israelites to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (ESV).īut how well does the English translation "soul" in this verse convey the meaning of the underlying Hebrew word? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers eight definitions for the word.