A plain-language
Bible study glossary

How to read this glossary

Each entry is self-contained — you can read one without reading the rest. The definitions describe how the terms are used in ordinary Bible study, not the position of any one tradition; where Christian traditions differ, the difference is named rather than settled. Terms like cross-reference, interlinear, and Strong's number describe tools you will find inside Trinity itself; terms like canon, Septuagint, and Masoretic text describe the wider world of the text those tools open onto.

Tools you will find inside Trinity

These are the study features Trinity builds into the reader. The whole Bible — every translation we ship, audio narration, plans, and the cross-reference list itself — is free; the deeper original-language and navigation tools belong to Trinity Plus, which carries a seven-day trial.

Cross-reference

A pointer from one verse to another that quotes, alludes to, fulfills, or parallels it — the mechanism by which Scripture interprets Scripture. In Trinity, tapping a verse shows its references; the Plus tier lets you tap one to jump to that passage.

Interlinear

A presentation that places the original Hebrew or Greek and an English gloss line by line, word for word, so you can see the source text beneath the translation. Trinity Plus opens an interlinear view on any verse.

Strong's number

A unique index number (assigned in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance) for each original Hebrew or Greek word, letting a reader trace a single word across the whole Bible without knowing the language. Trinity Plus shows the Strong's number on each word in the original-language view.

Concordance

An alphabetical index of words in the Bible with every place they occur, used to study how a term is used across passages. Strong's numbers tie a concordance to the underlying Hebrew and Greek rather than only to English spelling.

Lexicon

A dictionary of an ancient language that gives the range of meaning for a word, its grammatical forms, and where it appears — the reference behind a definition when you study an original-language term.

Parsing

Identifying a word's grammatical form — for a verb, its tense, voice, mood, person, and number; for a noun, its case, gender, and number. Parsing notes explain how a Greek or Hebrew word actually functions in its sentence.

Transliteration

Writing a Hebrew or Greek word in Latin letters so it can be pronounced and recognized by readers who do not read the original script, for example agape or shalom.

Word-synced narration

Audio of the Bible in which each spoken word is highlighted in the text as it is read, so the eye follows the voice. In Trinity this HD narration is free on the KJV and on the Spanish Reina-Valera 1909.

Translations and editions

The names that label which Bible you are reading, and why some can be offered free.

KJV (King James Version)

The 1611 English translation, revised through 1769, prized for its cadence and literary influence and long in the public domain. Trinity bundles the complete KJV offline — all 31,102 verses — free for everyone.

Reina-Valera 1909

A classic Spanish translation of the Bible, descended from Casiodoro de Reina's 1569 work as revised by Cipriano de Valera, in the public domain. Trinity offers free word-synced audio on the Reina-Valera 1909 alongside the KJV.

Public-domain translation

A translation whose copyright has expired or never applied, so it may be reproduced freely. Trinity ships the KJV plus eight more public-domain translations — nine in total — which is why the whole Bible can be free.

Vulgate

Jerome's Latin translation of the Bible, completed around AD 405, which became the standard Bible of the Western church for over a thousand years and shaped much of Christian theological vocabulary.

Verse and chapter divisions

The numbered units used to locate text precisely; they were added centuries after the books were written — chapters around the thirteenth century and verses in the sixteenth — and are not part of the original inspired text.

The original-language text

The sources beneath every translation, and the words scholars use when they compare them.

Septuagint (LXX)

The ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, made from roughly the third to first centuries BC and widely quoted in the New Testament. Its readings sometimes differ from the later Hebrew text.

Masoretic Text

The authoritative Hebrew text of the Old Testament preserved and vowel-pointed by Jewish scribes called the Masoretes between roughly the sixth and tenth centuries AD, and the basis for most modern Old Testament translations.

Textual variant

A place where surviving manuscripts of a passage differ in wording. Scholars compare manuscripts to judge the earliest reading; many study Bibles note significant variants in the margin or footnotes.

Tetragrammaton

The four Hebrew letters YHWH that form the personal name of God revealed in Exodus, rendered in many English Bibles as LORD in small capitals out of reverence for the name.

Canon and the ancient writings

Which books belong, which are read alongside, and which sit outside every canon. Trinity offers the apocryphal and deuterocanonical books as an Ancient Writings library — alongside the canonical text, not equal to it.

Canon

The collection of books recognized as authoritative Scripture. Christian traditions agree on the sixty-six books of the Protestant canon and differ on whether certain additional books belong to it.

Apocrypha / Deuterocanon

Books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, and 1 and 2 Maccabees that Catholic and Orthodox traditions include in the canon and most Protestant traditions place alongside it as worthy of reading but not doctrine-setting. Trinity offers these as an Ancient Writings library.

Pseudepigrapha

Ancient Jewish and early Christian writings, such as 1 Enoch or Jubilees, attributed to figures who did not write them and held outside every mainstream canon — useful for historical background, not as Scripture.

Reading and interpreting

The disciplines and the literary units that shape how a passage is understood.

Exegesis

Drawing out the meaning a passage actually carries — what its author said to its first readers — by attending to its words, grammar, and context. It is contrasted with eisegesis, reading one's own ideas into the text.

Hermeneutics

The principles and method of interpreting a text — the rules of reading that guide exegesis, such as weighing genre, historical setting, and the wider witness of Scripture before settling on a meaning.

Typology

Reading earlier persons, events, or institutions — such as the Passover lamb or the bronze serpent — as patterns that anticipate and are fulfilled in Christ, without denying their own historical reality.

Eschatology

The study of last things — death, resurrection, judgment, and the renewal of creation — and of the Bible's teaching about how history is moving toward its end in God.

Pericope

A self-contained unit of text — a single story, parable, or teaching — treated as one passage for reading or study, for example the parable of the prodigal son.

Doxology

A short ascription of glory to God, such as the closing line of the Lord's Prayer or Romans 11:36, often marking the end of a section of praise or argument.

Books, genres, and themes

Words for the kinds of writing within the Bible and the threads that run through it.

Covenant

A binding relationship God establishes with people, with promises and obligations — for example with Noah, Abraham, and at Sinai, and the new covenant in Christ. The word organizes much of the Bible's storyline.

Gospel

From a word meaning good news: the announcement of salvation through Jesus Christ, and also the name of the four narrative books — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — that record his life, death, and resurrection.

Epistle

A letter written to a church or individual that became part of the New Testament, such as Romans or 1 Peter, usually addressing a real situation in the early church.

Parable

A short comparison or story drawn from ordinary life that Jesus used to reveal truth about the kingdom of God to those willing to hear it.

Pentateuch / Torah

The first five books of the Bible — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy — traditionally associated with Moses and called the Torah, meaning instruction, in Jewish usage.

Synoptic Gospels

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, so called because they share a common viewpoint and much of the same material, allowing their accounts to be set side by side and compared.

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