Bible Dictionary

HOW

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How is an interrogative word asking about manner, degree, reason, means, condition, or duration. Biblical translations use it in many expressions, including “how great,” “how long,” and “how can.”

Definition

How is an interrogative word asking about manner, degree, reason, means, cause, condition, duration, or related circumstances. In biblical translation it represents various Hebrew and Greek words and may also function in emphatic statements, exclamations, compounds such as “howbeit,” and expressions meaning “that” or “how that.”

Biblical Usage

Biblical uses include questions about manner (“How shall I go?”), degree (“how great,” “how many,” “how much”), frequency (“how often”), duration (“how long”), reason, means, cause, and condition. It may also introduce emphatic exclamations such as “How are the mighty fallen!” and may be rendered “wherefore,” “what,” “why,” “when,” or “that” in different passages.

Historical Background

English versions differ in their treatment of “how.” The Revised Version often replaces it with more precise expressions, omits it, or uses “howbeit” and “howsoever” according to the underlying Hebrew or Greek wording.

Historical Bible Dictionaries

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>Represents various Hebrew and Greek words, interrogative, interjectional and relative. Its different uses refer to</p><p>(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?";</p><p>(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.;</p><p>(3) the reason, wherefore, etc. (Mt 18:12; Lu 12:49, tis);</p><p>(4) means--by what means? (Joh 3:4,9, pos);</p><p>(5) cause (Joh 12:34; Ac 2:8; 4:21, pos);</p><p>(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).</p><p>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).</p><p>"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.</p><p>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).</p><p>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."</p><p>W. L. Walker</p>
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