TR: am → laos (People / Covenant People)¶
The Chain¶
Hebrew OT LXX (Greek OT) Greek NT
─────────── ─────────────── ────────
עַם (ʻam) → λαός (laós) → λαός (laós)
H5971, 1655v 1,400x as translation 139v in NT
"people" of am "people"
OT Usage (Hebrew)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| H5971 | עַם (ʻam) | 1,655v | people (as congregated unit); covenant people of God; nation; folk |
Key OT passages: - Exo 19:5 — "ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people" — election formula - Deu 7:6 — "thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people" - Hos 1:9 — "ye [are] not my people" — covenant revocation; reversed at Hos 2:23
H5971-am.md — canonical word study
LXX Bridge¶
| Hebrew | Greek Translation | Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ʻam (H5971) | λαός (laos) G2992 | 1,400x | Primary equivalent — PMI 26.79 |
| ʻam (H5971) | ἔθνος (ethnos) G1484 | 193x | When am = foreign nations |
Reverse direction — what Hebrew words laos also translates: | Hebrew | Count | Notes | |--------|-------|-------| | ʻam (H5971) | 1,400x | Overwhelmingly dominant source | | ʻam (H5972, Aramaic) | 13x | Aramaic cognate | | lᵉʼom (H3816) | 19x | Poetic "peoples" | | ʼummah (H524) | 7x | Aramaic "nation" |
Semantic continuity in translation: The LXX preserves the covenant-people sense of am almost perfectly. Where Hebrew distinguishes am (relational/covenantal people) from gowy (ethnic/political nation), the LXX mirrors this with laos vs. ethnos. This is one of the tightest Hebrew-to-Greek bridges in the entire LXX, with 1,400 co-occurrences and a PMI score of 26.79.
NT Usage (Greek)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| G2992 | λαός (laos) | 139v | people; the people of God; covenant community |
Key NT passages: - Mat 1:21 — "he shall save his people from their sins" — Jesus's mission defined through am/laos covenant language - Acts 15:14 — "God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name" — am/laos identity extended to non-Israelites - 1 Pet 2:9–10 — "a peculiar people... which in time past [were] not a people, but [are] now the people of God" — echoes Deu 7:6 + Hos 1:9/2:23
TODO(need G2992 study)
Direct OT→NT Quotations¶
| NT Verse | Quotes OT | Shared Word | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rom 9:25–26 | Hos 2:23 + 1:10 | ʻammî → laos mou | "I will call them my people, which were not my people" — Paul applies the Hosea reversal to Gentile inclusion |
| 2 Cor 6:16 | Lev 26:12 / Eze 37:27 | ʻam → laos | "I will be their God, and they shall be my people" — covenant formula carried verbatim |
| Heb 8:10 | Jer 31:33 | ʻammî → laos | "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people" — new covenant restatement |
| Rom 15:10 | Deu 32:43 | ʻammô → laos autou | "Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people" — eschatological inclusion |
| Tit 2:14 | Exo 19:5 / Deu 14:2 | ʻam sgullâh → laos periousios | "purify unto himself a peculiar people" — election language transferred to the church |
| 1 Pet 2:9 | Exo 19:5–6 / Deu 7:6 | ʻam sgullâh → laos eis peripoiesin | "a peculiar people" — same election formula applied to believers from all nations |
| Rev 18:4 | Jer 51:45 | ʻammî → laos mou | "Come out of her, my people" — Babylon exodus command echoing Jeremiah |
| Rev 21:3 | Eze 37:27 / Lev 26:12 | ʻammô → laoi autou | "they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them" — the covenant formula at its eschatological climax |
Continuity and Shifts¶
What stays the same across testaments: - The covenant formula "I will be their God, and they shall be my people" runs from Lev 26:12 through Jer 31:33 to 2 Cor 6:16 and Rev 21:3, carried by the am → laos bridge without any semantic disruption - Laos retains am's corporate/collective sense: the people as a unified body, not merely a numerical aggregate - The possessive construction ("my people") remains the dominant covenant-identity marker in both testaments - The "peculiar people" election formula (Exo 19:5, Deu 14:2) transfers verbatim into NT application (Tit 2:14, 1 Pet 2:9)
What shifts: - The referent expands: in the OT, am/laos is predominantly ethnic Israel; in the NT (especially Acts 15:14, Rom 9:25, 1 Pet 2:10), laos comes to include Gentile believers — "which in time past [were] not a people, but [are] now the people of God" - The Hosea reversal (lo-ammi → ammi) becomes the theological mechanism for this expansion: Paul quotes Hosea's "not my people / my people" language to explain Gentile inclusion (Rom 9:25–26) - The am/laos vs. gowy/ethnos distinction partially collapses in the NT as ethnos-peoples are incorporated into the laos of God (Acts 15:14)
Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup) Last updated: 2026-04-29