TR: emeth → aletheia (Truth/Faithfulness)

The Chain

Hebrew OT             LXX (Greek OT)          Greek NT
───────────          ───────────────          ────────
אֶמֶת (ʼemeth)   →  ἀλήθεια (alētheia)   →  ἀλήθεια (alētheia)
H571, 125x in OT     LXX co-occ: 83x         99x in NT
"stability, truth"   primary translation      "truth"

OT Usage (Hebrew)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H571	אֶמֶת (ʼemeth)	125	stability, certainty, truth, trustworthiness

Key OT passages: - Gen 24:27 — "who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth" - Exo 18:21 — "provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth" - Psa 25:5 — "Lead me in thy truth, and teach me" - Psa 51:6 — "thou desirest truth in the inward parts"

Library: H571-emeth.md

LXX Bridge

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
ʼemeth (H571)	ἀλήθεια (G225)	83x	30.78	Primary equivalent
ʼemeth (H571)	ἀληθινός (G228)	13x	16.05	Adjective form — "genuine, true"
ʼemeth (H571)	ἔλεος (G1656)	25x	14.25	"mercy" — from chesed we'emeth pair
ʼemeth (H571)	δικαιοσύνη (G1343)	23x	13.06	"righteousness" — conceptual overlap
ʼemeth (H571)	ἀληθής (G227)	5x	11.26	Adjective — "true"
ʼemeth (H571)	πίστις (G4102)	5x	8.98	"faith/faithfulness" — emeth's reliability sense

Semantic shift in translation: Hebrew ʼemeth carries a dual sense: (1) truth/reality and (2) faithfulness/reliability/stability. The LXX splits this: ἀλήθεια captures the "truth/reality" sense (83x), while the "faithfulness" sense sometimes routes through πίστις (G4102, 5x) or ἔλεος (G1656, 25x — when paired with chesed). The notable LXX rendering as δικαιοσύνη (23x) shows that ʼemeth's "reliability of God" sense could be understood as his "righteousness." This semantic narrowing means NT ἀλήθεια leans more toward propositional/ontological truth than the Hebrew ʼemeth's broader "trustworthy stability."

Reverse: G225 ← Hebrew Sources

Hebrew Source	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
אֶמֶת (ʼemeth)	H571	83	30.78	Dominant source
אֱמוּנָה (ʼemûwnâh)	H530	22	20.06	"faithfulness" — overlaps with emeth
חֶסֶד (checed)	H2617	36	17.19	"lovingkindness" — paired with emeth in LXX hendiadys
צֶדֶק (tsedeq)	H6664	14	12.23	"righteousness" — conceptual link

NT Usage (Greek)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G225	ἀλήθεια (alētheia)	99	truth
G227	ἀληθής (alēthēs)	26	true, truthful
G228	ἀληθινός (alēthinos)	28	genuine, real, true
G226	ἀληθεύω (alētheuō)	2	to speak truth
G230	ἀληθῶς (alēthōs)	18	truly, really

Key NT passages: - Jhn 1:14 — "full of grace and truth" (echoes OT "mercy and truth" / chesed we'emeth) - Jhn 14:6 — "I am the way, the truth, and the life" - Jhn 17:17 — "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" - Eph 1:13 — "the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation"

Library: G225-aletheia.md

Continuity and Shifts

What stays the same across testaments: - Both ʼemeth and alētheia describe divine reality as opposed to falsehood - The pairing of truth with righteousness persists (OT: emeth + tsedeq; NT: alētheia + dikaiosynē) - "Walking in truth" / "doing truth" is present in both testaments (cf. 2Ki 20:3; Jhn 3:21; 3Jo 1:3-4) - "The word of truth" spans both (Psa 119:43; Eph 1:13; 2Ti 2:15)

What shifts: - Hebrew ʼemeth is fundamentally relational — God's truth is his faithfulness/reliability toward his covenant people. NT alētheia tilts more toward propositional/ontological truth — the content of revelation, correct doctrine - The OT pair "mercy and truth" (chesed we'emeth, ~25x) becomes "grace and truth" (charis kai alētheia) in Jhn 1:14, 17 — a deliberate echo but with different Greek vocabulary - NT develops "the truth" as a technical term for Christian teaching/gospel (absent in OT), especially in the Pastorals and Johannine letters - Christ as personal embodiment of truth (Jhn 14:6) has no direct parallel in the Hebrew concept, which is an attribute of God rather than a person

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Generated from: gather_trace_data.py (G225 → auto-detected H571) Last updated: 2026-04-13