TR: ben → huios (Son / Sonship)

The Chain

Hebrew OT          LXX (Greek OT)         Greek NT
───────────        ───────────────         ────────
בֵּן (ben)      →  υἱός (huios)        →  υἱός (huios)
H1121, 3652v       3,096x as translation   382x in NT
"son, child"       of ben                  "son"

OT Usage (Hebrew)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H1121	בֵּן (ben)	3,652v	son, child, member of a class, age expression
H1323	בַּת (bath)	587v	daughter (feminine counterpart)
H1	אָב (ab)	~1,200v	father (correlative term)

Key OT passages: - Exo 4:22 — "Thus saith the LORD, Israel [is] my son, [even] my firstborn" — national sonship - Psalm 2:7 — "the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee" — royal/messianic sonship - 2 Sam 7:14 — "I will be his father, and he shall be my son" — Davidic covenant sonship - Isa 9:6 — "unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder" — messianic birth announcement

→ See full study: H1121-ben.md

LXX Bridge

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Count	PMI	Notes
ben (H1121)	υἱός (G5207)	3,096x	2.55	Dominant; covers all semantic ranges
ben (H1121)	τέκνον (G5043)	123x	2.40	Child of birth; used when youth/origin is in view
ben (H1121)	φυλή (G5443)	157x	1.63	Tribe; contextual for "sons of" tribal groupings

Semantic shift in translation: The LXX renders ben almost uniformly with huios — the mapping is remarkably consistent. Both words carry the same breadth: literal son, genealogical marker, membership in a class, and divine/covenantal sonship. The Greek huios preserves the legal/heir dimension of ben (a son who builds the family name). Teknon (birth/childhood emphasis) is chosen selectively by the LXX when the Hebrew context stresses infancy or birth rather than legal standing.

NT Usage (Greek)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G5207	υἱός (huios)	382	son; used especially for Jesus as "Son of God" — see G5207-huios.md
G5043	τέκνον (teknon)	99	child; born offspring; often for believers as God's children
G3816	παῖς (pais)	24	boy, servant, child; sometimes "Son" (of Jesus) in Acts

Key NT passages: - Matt 3:17 — "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" — divine declaration, echoing Ps 2:7 - John 3:16 — "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" — huios for the unique divine Son - Rom 8:14 — "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" — adoptive sonship - Gal 4:4 — "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law" — incarnation language - Heb 1:2 — "spoken unto us by [his] Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things" — huios + heir; echoes ben as "builder/heir"

Direct OT→NT Quotations

NT Verse	Quotes OT	Shared Word	Significance
Heb 1:5a	Psalm 2:7	ben → huios	"Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee" — applied to the resurrected/exalted Jesus
Heb 1:5b	2 Sam 7:14	ben → huios	"I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son" — Davidic covenant applied to Christ
Matt 3:17	Psalm 2:7	ben → huios	Voice at baptism echoes the royal son enthronement oracle
John 1:12	Exo 4:22	bene → huioi	Believers become "sons of God" — the Israel-sonship language democratized

Continuity and Shifts

What stays the same across testaments: - The word huios in Greek NT carries every register of ben: literal son, patronymic, class membership, and divine/covenantal sonship - The messianic trajectory of Ps 2:7 and 2 Sam 7:14 flows directly through LXX huios into the NT christological title "Son of God" - The "sons of God" language for the people of God (Exo 4:22; Deut 14:1) is continued in NT adoption theology (Rom 8:14–19; Gal 4:4–7)

What shifts: - In the NT, huios as "Son of God" narrows to mean uniquely Jesus Christ in most occurrences (195 of 382 are "Son" with theological capital-S emphasis) - The NT distinguishes huios (legal/covenantal son) from teknon (born child) more deliberately than Hebrew ben could — Paul exploits this distinction in Galatians 4: believers are both born (teknon) of the Spirit and legally adopted (huios) as heirs - "Son of Man" (ben adam in Hebrew; huios tou anthropou in Greek) becomes a major NT Christological title — derived from Ezek 2:1 + Dan 7:13

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Generated from: gather_word_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --lookup, --lexicon), KJV text Last updated: 2026-04-01