Dictionaries :: How

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

How:

Represents various Hebrew and Greek words, interrogative, interjectional and relative. Its different uses refer to

(1) the manner or way, e.g. Ge 44:34, "How shall I go up to my father?" ('ekh); Mt 6:28, "how they grow" (pos); 1Co 15:35, "How are the dead raised?";

(2) degree, extent, frequently, "how great" (Da 4:3, mah; Mr 5:19, hosos, "how much"); "how many" (Mt 27:13, posos); "how much" (Ac 9:13, hosos); "how much more" (Mt 7:11, posos; 1Sa 14:30, ‘aph ki); "how oft" (Ps 78:40, kammah; Mt 18:21, posakis); "how long" (Job 7:19, kammah; Mt 17:17, heos pote), etc.;

(3) the reason, wherefore, etc. (Mt 18:12; Lu 12:49, tis);

(4) means-by what means? (Joh 3:4,9, pos);

(5) cause (Joh 12:34; Ac 2:8; 4:21, pos);

(6) condition, in what state, etc. (Lu 23:55, hos; Ac 15:36, pos; Eph 6:21, tis); "how" is sometimes used to emphasize a statement or exclamation (2Sa 1:19,25,27, "How are the mighty fallen!"); "how" is also used for "that" (Ge 30:29, ‘eth ‘asher, frequently "how that"; Ex 9:29, ki most frequently, in the New Testament, hoti, Mt 12:5; 16:12,21; Ac 7:25; Ro 7:1, etc., in the King James Version).

The Revised Version (British and American) has "wherefore" for "how" (Ge 38:29, margin "how"); has "what" (Jud 13:12; 1Ki 12:6; Job 13; 1Co 14:26), omits (2Co 13:5); has "how that" (1Sa 2:22); "that" (1Ch 18:9; Lu 1:58; Ga 4:13; Jas 2:22; Re 2:2); has "that even" for "how that" (Heb 12:17);" What is this?" for "How is it that?" (Lu 16:2); omits" How is it ?"(Mr 2:16, different text); has "Do ye not yet," for "How is it that?" (Mr 8:21); "Have ye not yet" (Mr 4:40, different text); "what" for "how much" (Lu 19:15, different text); omits "how that" (Lu 7:22); "then how" (Jas 2:24); has "cannot" for "How can he" (1 Joh 4:20); omits "How hast thou" (Job 26:3), "how is" (Jer 51:41); has "how" for "the fashion which" (Ge 6:15), for "and" (Ex 18:1), for "what" (Jud 18:24; 1Sa 4:16; 1Co 7:16), for "why" (Job 19:28; 31:1; Jer 2:33; Ga 2:14), for "when" (Job 37:15), for "for" (Ps 42:4), for "but God" (Pr 21:12), for "whereunto" (Mr 4:30); for "by what means" (Lu 8:36; Joh 9:21), for "how greatly" (Php 1:8); "how that" for "because" (Eze 6:9; 1Th 1:5), for "and how" (Ac 20:20); "know how to" for "can" (Mt 16:3); "how" for "by whom" (Am 7:2,5).

"How" in compounds gives us Howbeit (how be it). It is the translation of ‘ulam, "but," "truly," "yet" (Jud 18:29); of ‘akh, "certainly," "only" (1Sa 8:9); of ‘ephes, "moreover," etc. (2Sa 12:14); of ken, "so," "thus" (2Ch 32:31); of rak, "only," "surely" "nevertheless" (1Ki 11:13); of alla, "but," etc. (Joh 7:27; Ac 7:48; 1Co 8:7, etc.); of de, "but," etc. (Joh 6:23); of mentoi (Joh 7:13 the King James Version); many other instances.

For "howbeit," the Revised Version (British and American) has frequently "but" (2Ki 12:13, etc.), "and" (2Ch 21:20; Mr 5:19), "surely" (ERV) (Job 30:24), "now" (Joh 11:13), "yet" (2Co 11:21), "nay, did" (Heb 3:16); omits (Mt 17:21, different text); it has "howbeit" for "but" (2Ki 12:3; Lu 19:27; Joh 5:34, etc.), for "also" (Le 23:27,39), for "nevertheless" (Nu 13:28; 1Ki 22:43; Mr 14:36; Lu 13:33 the English Revised Version; Lu 18:8; 2Ti 2:19), for "notwithstanding" (Jos 22:19; Lu 10:20 the English Revised Version, "nevertheless" the American Standard Revised Version; (Php 4:14), for "nay" (Ro 7:7).

Howsoever (in what manner soever, although, however) is the translation of kol ‘asher, "all that which," etc. (Ze 3:7, "howsoever I punished them," the Revised Version (British and American) "according to all that I have appointed concerning her," margin "howsoever I have punished her"; the English Revised Version omits "have"); of raq, "only," "surely," "nevertheless" (Jud 19:20); of yehi-mah, "let be what" (2Sa 18:22,23, the Revised Version (British and American) "but come what may"); in 2Sa 24:3 "how" and "soever" are separated (kahem), "how many soever they may be," literally, "as they and as they."

Written by W. L. Walker