The Beauty of Biblical Word Studies: A Conversation with Leslie Hollowell

I first met Leslie Hollowell when she was Leslie Gary, a single sister in Christ who had just moved to my city to be the Girls Ministry Director at my church. Little did I know then what a blessing I was in store for! Over the next several years through high school, I had the privilege of serving under Leslie’s leadership on Girls Council and learning from her in Sunday School, through one-on-one conversations, and in numerous other settings. Through all of this, Leslie modeled how to trust and serve the Lord in singleness, how to lead girls into deeper knowledge of God, and how to study His Word. Now she is a wife, mother, and counselor who continues to encourage and spur on women to grow in their relationship with Jesus. One of the things she specifically taught us girls was how to do word studies when studying the Bible, and it’s on this topic that I asked her to share.

Olivia: How do word studies enhance our understanding of Scripture?

Leslie: I love a good word study. For me, they tend to help me connect the dots throughout Scripture, and they help me to understand how to biblically apply God’s Word to my life. A word study helps me to dig a little deeper into God’s Word as I strive to understand what certain words or verses actually mean, as well as, helping me to be a doer of God’s Word and not a hearer only. (James 1:22) I could spend hours looking up words and their meanings in scripture as I seek to find out what God’s Word has to say about a particular word. This is a fun and easy method that I have used for years to help me strive to study and get a deeper understanding of Scripture.

I truly believe that every word in God’s Word is important. His Word is alive and active and powerful and taking the time to follow a thread of a particular word can truly help us understand and build knowledge of the Amazing God that we serve.

Most words in almost any language have a variety of meanings. Take for example the word change. We could say, “I need change for a dollar” or “He had to go and change his clothes.” The word “change” actually changes meaning according to the context of the sentence.  It is the same in Scripture. It is important to strive to look at all possible meanings of a word that you are studying and the context in which that word is being used. It can really be a fun and enlightening adventure as you seek to chase the thread of that word all throughout Scripture.

Olivia: What tools does someone need for doing a word study?

Leslie: As you begin your word study, it’s good to know that if you are studying a word from the Old Testament you’ll want to find the Hebrew meaning of that word. If you’re studying a word from the New Testament, you’ll want to find the Greek meaning of that word. Both of these can be easily accessed using an online Bible concordance. I like to use both biblegateway.com and blueletterbible.com, but there are lots of other good ones that you can use also as you begin your search.

Olivia: Can you share an example of a word study that you have done so people have an idea of how to get started?

Leslie: Many people have asked me how I begin a word study. For me, I often choose words or phrases as I’m reading Scripture that tend to be repetitive. Psalms is a fun one to study and look for words or phrases that often repeat themselves. For example if you look in Psalm 61, you will see the phrase Your Name in both verses 5 and 8. I actually went to my online concordance and searched for the phrase Your Name and realized that in Psalms alone that phrase is used 45 times. (Side note: I use the NIV Bible, so that number could change according to the version of the Bible you use.) I began to look up those verses and the meaning of the phrase “Your Name” – in my study, I found that Shem is the Hebrew meaning of name and its actual meaning is, “glory, honor, fame.”

So as I go back and read each verse from the Psalms I can begin to replace name when I see it with “God’s glory and honor and fame” and have a more personal description of the Amazing God that we serve. For example:

Psalm 61:8 says, “Then I will ever sing in praise of your name (glory, honor, fame) and fulfill my vows day after day.”

Psalm 63:4 says, “I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name (glory, honor, fame) I will lift up my hands.”

Psalm 66:2 says, “Sing the glory of his name; (glory, honor, fame) make his praise glorious.”

Psalm 68:4 says, “Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, (glory, honor, fame) extol him who rides on the

clouds; rejoice before him—His name (glory, honor, fame) is the Lord.”

I could go on and on with verses, but this might be a good time for you to pull out your Bible and notebook and concordance and begin the fun adventure of a word study. There are so many verses that speak about the name of our Great God. I’m going to list a few more for you at the end in order to help you get started.

As you begin your search, you can use these verses to help you as you pray and praise and seek Him daily! There is no end to building a knowledge of the Great God we serve.  I hope this helps and that it causes you to want to dig a little deeper into the depths and power of God’s Word and to continue to follow the thread of each word throughout Scripture.

Name

·         Psalm 34:3

·         Psalm 66:2

·         Philippians 2:9-11

·         Psalm 23:1-3

I’m so glad to have had the chance to introduce you to Leslie in this way, and I echo her hope that you will discover an increasing desire to learn about God through His Word. Happy studying!