Plain-language Bible study help

Interlinear Bible guide

This page explains the words and labels used in the interlinear reader. It is written for readers who may not know Hebrew (the main language of the Old Testament) or Greek (the main language of the New Testament).

The goal is not to turn everyone into a language scholar. The goal is to help ordinary readers understand what they are seeing, why it matters, and how it can support careful Bible study.

Elements on a token card

A token card is one small study box under a verse. It usually represents one original-language word, or a word with a small attached part. The card lets you compare the original word with a simple English helper.

Simple idea: the full verse gives you the sentence. The token cards let you look at the sentence piece by piece.

What you see	Plain meaning	Example
Surface text	The original word as it appears in the verse.	בְּרֵאשִׁית (in the beginning), λόγος (word)
English gloss	A short English helper. It gives the basic idea of that word or phrase.	“In the beginning”, “word”
Transliteration	The original word written with English letters so you can sound it out more easily.	bə·rê·šîṯ, logos
Lemma	The dictionary form of the word. This is the form you look up in a lexicon (Bible dictionary).	רֵאשִׁית (beginning), λόγος (word)
Strong number	A reference number used by many Bible tools to connect words to dictionaries.	H7225, G3056
Morphology	A simple grammar note for this exact word in this exact verse.	“Noun - feminine singular”, “Verb - imperfect”
Source ID	A technical tracking ID from the source data.	Useful for checking data. Not important for normal reading.

What morphology means

Morphology means “how a word is shaped to do its job in a sentence”. In English, we already do this without thinking.

English example	What changed	Why it matters
walk / walked	The ending changed.	It tells us something about time.
book / books	The word changed from one to more than one.	It tells us number.
I / me / my	The form changed.	It tells us the word’s role in the sentence.

Hebrew (Old Testament language) and Greek (New Testament language) do this more heavily than English. A single word can carry information such as “one or many”, “male or female grammar category”, “subject or object”, or “command, statement, or possibility”.

Important: morphology helps explain a translation, but it does not replace translation. It gives clues. The wider sentence and passage still matter.

Hebrew morphologies

Hebrew is the language used for most of the Old Testament. Hebrew words often attach small pieces to the front or back of a word. These small pieces can mean things like “and”, “the”, “in”, “to”, or “from”.

Example: בְּרֵאשִׁית (in the beginning) includes a small attached part meaning “in”.

Common Hebrew grammar labels

Label	Plain explanation	Example idea
Noun	A person, place, thing, or idea.	God, earth, water, beginning
Verb	An action or state.	created, said, was
Adjective	A describing word.	good, great, holy
Preposition	A relationship word.	in, on, to, from, with
Conjunction	A joining word.	and, but
Pronoun	A word used instead of a name or noun.	he, she, they, it

Hebrew verb stems, very simply

A stem is a Hebrew verb pattern. It can show whether the action is simple, intense, caused, passive, or self-involved. These descriptions are simplified for first reading.

Stem	Simple meaning
Qal	The basic action.
Niphal	Often passive: something happens to the subject.
Piel	Often stronger or more intense action.
Hiphil	Often caused action: someone causes something to happen.
Hithpael	Often self-involved action: someone acts on or for themselves.

Other Hebrew labels

Label	Plain explanation
Masculine / feminine	Grammar categories. They do not always mean biological male or female.
Singular / plural	One / more than one.
Perfect	Often views an action as complete or whole.
Imperfect	Often views an action as not complete, ongoing, future, repeated, or possible depending on context.
Imperative	A command.
Participle	A word that can act like a verb and a describing word, such as “hovering”.

Greek morphologies

Greek is the language used for most of the New Testament. Greek words often change form to show how they are being used in a sentence.

Example: λόγος (word) can appear in different forms depending on whether it is the subject, object, or part of another phrase.

Greek parts of speech

Label	Plain explanation	Example
Noun	A person, place, thing, or idea.	λόγος (word), θεός (God)
Verb	An action or state.	ἦν (was)
Article	The word “the”, but with grammar attached.	ὁ (the)
Preposition	A relationship word.	ἐν (in), πρός (toward/with)
Conjunction	A joining word.	καί (and)

Greek case, very simply

Case tells you the role of a noun-like word. English often uses word order. Greek often changes the word form.

Case	Plain explanation
Nominative	Usually the subject: the person or thing doing or being something.
Genitive	Often means “of”, possession, source, or relationship.
Dative	Often means “to”, “for”, “in”, or “with”.
Accusative	Often the object: the person or thing being acted on.
Vocative	Used when directly addressing someone.

Greek verb labels

Label	Plain explanation
Person	Who is involved: I/we, you, he/she/it/they.
Number	One or more than one.
Tense-form	How the action is viewed, such as ongoing, whole, or completed with results. It is not only about time.
Voice	Whether the subject acts, receives the action, or is closely involved in the action.
Mood	Whether the verb is making a statement, command, possibility, wish, or verbal idea.

Source and Provenance

Source means where the data came from. Provenance means the traceable history of that data: which dataset supplied it, how it was sourced, and how we can check it later.

This matters because Bible-study tools should not hide where their information comes from. The reader should be able to see the wording, and the system should be able to trace the data behind it.

Field	Plain explanation	Why it matters
Source ID	A technical ID for the word in the source.	Useful for checking errors. Not important for normal reading.
Dataset	The collection that supplied the word or grammar data.	Helps with attribution and licence review.
Strong number	A dictionary reference number.	Connects words to lexicons and occurrence lists.
Lexicon source	The dictionary or word-study source used.	Shows where a definition or gloss came from.

Reading tip: source IDs are hidden by default because they are not helpful for most readers. They remain available for review, correction, and transparency.

Glossary

Use this tab when a technical word appears elsewhere on the page.

Word	Plain explanation
Hebrew	The language used for most of the Old Testament. Example: רֵאשִׁית (beginning).
Greek	The language used for most of the New Testament. Example: λόγος (word).
Interlinear	A Bible-study layout that places original-language words and English helps close together.
Token	One word or word-part shown as a study item.
Surface text	The word as it appears in the verse.
Gloss	A short English helper meaning. It is not always a full translation.
Lemma	The dictionary form of a word.
Lexicon	A dictionary for Hebrew (Old Testament language) or Greek (New Testament language) words.
Transliteration	Writing a Hebrew or Greek word with English letters.
Strong number	A reference number used to connect Bible words with dictionaries and occurrence lists.
Morphology	The grammar shape of a word in a sentence.
Case	A Greek grammar label showing a noun’s job in the sentence.
Stem	A Hebrew verb pattern that affects the kind of action being described.
Provenance	The traceable source history of the data.
Dataset	A named collection of source data.
Source ID	A technical tracking ID used for checking and audit.

Help

Interlinear Bible Guide

Plain-language Bible study help

Interlinear Bible guide

Elements on a token card

What morphology means

Hebrew morphologies

Common Hebrew grammar labels

Hebrew verb stems, very simply

Other Hebrew labels

Greek morphologies

Greek parts of speech

Greek case, very simply

Greek verb labels

How to read compact codes

Hebrew example: `HR/Ncfsa`

Greek example: `3IAI-S--`

Source and Provenance

Glossary

Help

Interlinear Bible Guide

Plain-language Bible study help

Elements on a token card

What morphology means

Hebrew morphologies

Common Hebrew grammar labels

Hebrew verb stems, very simply

Other Hebrew labels

Greek morphologies

Greek parts of speech

Greek case, very simply

Greek verb labels

How to read compact codes

Hebrew example: HR/Ncfsa

Greek example: 3IAI-S--

Source and Provenance

Glossary

Hebrew example: `HR/Ncfsa`

Greek example: `3IAI-S--`