Concept
BibliologyDisambiguation
The Bible reuses names constantly: five Marys, three Herods, two Judases at one table, and the study starts with telling them apart.
#method#names
- 5passages
- 45original words
- 1approved connection
- 68cross-references
The words behind it
Hebrew and Greek standing in the 5 passages listed below, not a lexicon of "disambiguation" itself. The number on each word is how often it occurs in those passages; the connecting words the languages use everywhere are set aside so the words that carry meaning can be seen.
Hebrew10
Greek35
25 more greek words ▾
The passages
Every passage this site attaches to the concept, in canon order. Each row says where it came from.
Old Testament1
- 1 Kings 7:21approved connection
Thus he set up the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jachin, and the pillar to the north he named Boaz.
Commentary on 1 Kings 7:212 voices
Boaz--These names were symbolical, and indicated the strength and stability--not so much of the material temple, for they were destroyed along with it (Jer 52:17), as of the spiritual kingdom of God, which was embodied in the temple.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
Jachin - Jachin signifies he; That is, God shall establish, his temple, and church, and people: and Boaz signifies, in it, or rather, in him (to answer the he in the former name) is strength.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765Evangelical
New Testament4
- Matthew 10:4listed key text
Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on Matthew 10:42 voices
This chapter is one of peculiar solemnity. Here is the record of the first ordination which ever took place in the Church of Christ. The Lord Jesus chooses and sends forth the twelve apostles. Here is an account of the first charge ever delivered to newly ordained Christian ministers. The Lord Jesus himself delivers it. Never was there so important an ordination! Never was there so solemn a charge! There are three lessons which stand out prominently on the face of the first fifteen verses of this chapter. Let us take them in order.
J.C. Ryle· Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, 1856
The second part (Mt 10:16-23) contains directions of no such limited and temporary nature, but opens out into the permanent exercise of the Gospel ministry. The third part (Mt 10:24-42) is of wider application still, reaching not only to the ministry of the Gospel in every age, but to the service of Christ in the widest sense.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871Reformed
- Mark 16:1listed key text
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could go and anoint the body of Jesus.(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on Mark 16:12 voices
We may well believe that it required great courage to do this. To visit the grave in the dim twilight of an eastern day-break, would try most women, under any circumstances. But to visit the grave of one who had been put to death as a common malefactor, and to rise early to show honor to one whom their nation had despised, this was a mighty boldness indeed. Yet these are the kind of acts which show the difference between weak faith and strong faith — between weak feeling and strong feeling towards Christ.
J.C. Ryle· Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition), 1857
In the time of the old covenant, the sabbath was highly revered. Now under the gospel the sabbath has been recast, now viewed as the Lord's resurrection day. The sabbath formerly had pertained to the pedagogy and rudiments of the law. When the great master himself came and fulfilled them all for us, all that had prefigured his coming was transformed. The old sabbath was like a candle lit in the night before the rising and appearing of the sun.
Athanasius of Alexandria· HOMILIES, 373Patristic
- John 14:22listed key text
Judas (not Iscariot) asked Him, “Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?”(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on John 14:222 voices
Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot,.... This was Judas Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus, the same with Jude the apostle, the author of the epistle which bears his name; and is said to be "not Iscariot", to distinguish him from the betrayer.
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748)Reformed
Judas - The same as Thaddeus and Lebbeus, the brother of James, and author of what is called the epistle of Jude. How is it - Or, how can it be - τι γεγονεν, what is to happen? - on what account is it? Judas, who was probably thinking that the kingdom of Christ should extend over all the earth, wonders how this can be, and yet Christ manifest himself only to his disciples and not to the world, Joh 14:19. To this our Lord, in a more express manner than he had done before answers: -
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Evangelical
- Acts 12:12listed key text
And when he had realized this, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered together and were praying.(opening verse of the passage)
Commentary on Acts 12:122 voices
Upon reflection, he saw that he should not simply continue on his way, but rather give thanks to the Benefactor. This John was perhaps not the one who constantly remained with the apostles. That is why the writer added his distinguishing name, since he said: …
Theophylact of Ohrid· Commentary on Acts, 1107Patristic
And when he had considered the thing,.... The whole of the salvation wrought for him; or rather, where he should go, to what house he should betake himself; ere he was aware, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark. This good woman seems to be a widow, no mention being made of her husband, and was sister to Barnabas, Col 4:
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748)Reformed
Approved connections
1 link an editor approved, each with the reason it was kept.
- person vs thing1 Kings 7:21
'Boaz' is both David's great-grandfather (person, H1162G) and the left temple pillar (thing, H1162H) - why disambiguated proper-name data is non-negotiable.
1 Kgs 7:21; TIPNR
Voices on these passages
Commentary matched to the verses above, each named with its source: the full pool sits on each verse page.
Boaz--These names were symbolical, and indicated the strength and stability--not so much of the material temple, for they were destroyed along with it (Jer 52:17), as of the spiritual kingdom of God, which was embodied in the temple.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole BibleReformed
1 Kings 7:21
This chapter is one of peculiar solemnity. Here is the record of the first ordination which ever took place in the Church of Christ. The Lord Jesus chooses and sends forth the twelve apostles. Here is an account of the first charge ever delivered to newly ordained Christian ministers. The Lord Jesus himself delivers it. Never was there so important an ordination! Never was there so solemn a charge! There are three lessons which stand out prominently on the face of the first fifteen verses of this chapter. Let us take them in order.
J.C. Ryle· Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew
Matthew 10:4
We may well believe that it required great courage to do this. To visit the grave in the dim twilight of an eastern day-break, would try most women, under any circumstances. But to visit the grave of one who had been put to death as a common malefactor, and to rise early to show honor to one whom their nation had despised, this was a mighty boldness indeed. Yet these are the kind of acts which show the difference between weak faith and strong faith — between weak feeling and strong feeling towards Christ.
J.C. Ryle· Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition)
Mark 16:1
Study it deeper
5 moves a student can make from here. Every one opens a tool on this site.
Trace one word to every place it stands
A word page lists every verse that word occurs in, with its definition and its range of meaning. Start with the roots that occur most under the passages above.
Walk out from the passages
The passages above carry 68 cross-references between them, links from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, the great 1830s reference work, together with the reader-voted index at OpenBible.info. The most-linked destinations:
Read it in both testaments
Set the earliest passage beside the New Testament one and ask what changed and what did not, the shape of disambiguation before Christ and after him.
Read the whole chapter around it
A verse quoted alone can mean almost anything. Open 1 Kings 7 in the reader, where the Hebrew or Greek sits under every line.
See everywhere else it appears
The search page is a doorway: it returns verses, word studies, people, places and studies for one term at once.
Where this comes from
Names in Scripture are common property: Zechariah names some thirty different men, and the New Testament alone carries several Marys, Simons, and Jameses. Confusing two of them rewrites a passage.
The text usually supplies the distinguishing tag itself: "Judas (not Iscariot)", "Simon the Canaanite", "Mary the mother of James"; and this site keeps a separate page per person so that a link never quietly points at the wrong man.