TR: ʼêpher → spodos (Ashes)¶

The Chain¶

Hebrew OT             LXX / Greek OT        Greek NT
──────────────        ───────────────       ─────────────
אֵפֶר (ʼêpher)     →  σποδός (spodos)    →  σποδός (spodos)
H665, 22v             LXX co-occ: 20x       3v in NT
"ashes"               PMI score: 30.06

OT Usage (Hebrew)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H665	אֵפֶר (ʼêpher)	22 unique verses	ashes; dry residue associated with mourning, humility, ritual residue, or reduced remains

Key OT passages: - Gen 18:27 — "dust and ashes" as humility language. - Num 19:9 — ashes of the heifer gathered for purification-water use. - Est 4:1 — sackcloth with ashes in mourning. - Job 42:6 — repentance "in dust and ashes." - Ezek 28:18 — reduced "to ashes upon the earth."

[H665-epher canonical study: H665-epher.md]

LXX Bridge¶

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
H665 ʼêpher	σποδός (spodos) G4700	20	30.06	Primary ashes equivalent
H665 ʼêpher	σάκκος (sakkos) G4526	6	13.70	sackcloth collocation
H665 ʼêpher	γῆ (ge) G1093	5	2.05	earth/dust overlap

The LXX mapping is tight despite the small corpus: σποδός is the regular bridge for H665's ashes sense.

NT Usage (Greek)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G4700	σποδός (spodos)	3 unique verses	ashes

Key NT passages: - Matt 11:21 — sackcloth and ashes in repentance language. - Luke 10:13 — parallel sackcloth-and-ashes saying. - Heb 9:13 — ashes of a heifer in purification comparison.

[G4700-spodos canonical study: TODO(need G4700 study)]

Continuity and Shifts¶

What stays stable: The core ashes sense remains unchanged. Mourning/repentance and red-heifer purification both pass cleanly through the Hebrew-LXX-Greek chain.

What shifts: NT usage is sparse and concentrates in two inherited settings: repentance symbolism and Numbers 19 purification language.