In my last article, I presented passages that contained words such as “boat” and “Peter.” These passages are well known, but it is interesting that passages from the Gospels of John and Mark, which also mention this event, were omitted. They were omitted because St. Peter was not mentioned there. In this post, I will show you how to answer the question of which passages in the Bible use a certain word, what it sounds like in the original, and how it was translated in the Bible. The Bible was written in Greek and Hebrew, so a basic knowledge of these languages is useful for this search.
Why?
Searching for words in the Bible is very important, not only for exegetes, but for every believer. In the field of church leadership, the ability to check all occurrences of a given word allows for independent interpretation. First, it allows for a deeper understanding of certain topics in the Bible. For example, if you want to know what the Bible says about loving your enemies, you can compare the Pentateuch, the Historical Books, and the New Testament and see how the understanding of this love has evolved. Second, such a search allows for contextual analysis. We believe that the Bible is the Holy Scripture inspired by God, and that every word has a meaning intended by Him that needs to be discovered. Although different books were written by different authors, they have one divine Author—the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it can be said that the Bible interprets itself.
In practice, this means that if, for example, the word “lamp” appears in Revelation and it is difficult to understand what it means from the context, you can check where else in that book the word is used. Then you can look up where the word appears in the New Testament or the entire Bible. Each occurrence of the word has a different context, which allows you to learn new aspects of its meaning. For example, the word “faith” can appear in different contexts, in one meaning an attitude — trust, and in another a set of beliefs about the structure and origin of the universe. Thirdly, for those translating the Bible, such an analysis allows them to choose the right word to use in the translation. On the other hand, it allows those reading the Bible to check whether a “new translation of the Bible” is justified. For example, does the Bible refer to foolish virgins or imprudent virgins?
From the point of view of church leadership, this is also very important. Faith is based on Scripture and Tradition, so by manipulating the translation, one can influence the content of people’s faith and attitudes. Having the tools and procedures to examine the original text allows one to arrive at the original meaning in a factual manner. It is also an excellent exercise in searching for and verifying information based on sources, which protects against manipulation. Especially today, when the public space is flooded with content generated by artificial intelligence and it is often very difficult to distinguish reality from fiction, the ability to verify information is invaluable.
Video description
Below is a video showing how you can use a sample Bible program to check for occurrences of the word “boat” in the Bible. First, the word “boat” is searched for. (59 occurrences) Then, the original word (πλοῖον) is checked, as well as how the word has been translated in different places in the Bible.
Searching for passages that contain the word “boat OR ship” yields 131 results.
Next, you can look at the prepared lists describing ships and boats in the Bible, which contain all the Greek and Hebrew words used to describe ships and boats, as well as the words used in their translation, including passages in which it was inferred based on the tense used.
It is possible to generate and present all occurrences of the word “πλοῖον” in graphic form. In the last passage, additional criteria are added to the search: search for passages only in the Gospels and places where Peter is mentioned. As a result, three passages are obtained, which were presented in the previous entry.
- Author
- Fr. Tomasz Włodarczyk
- © 2025 Ks. Tomasz Włodarczyk. All rights reserved.
