TR: ḥēn → cháris (Grace / Favor)

The Chain

Hebrew OT              LXX (Greek OT)          Greek NT
──────────────         ──────────────────       ────────────────
חֵן (ḥēn)         →   χάρις (cháris)       →   χάρις (cháris)
H2580, 67x in OT       58x as translation        147x in NT
"favor, grace"         of ḥēn (PMI 33.09)        "grace, favor, thanks"

OT Usage (Hebrew — H2580 ḥēn)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H2580	חֵן (ḥēn)	67	favor, grace, goodwill, beauty

KJV Translation Distribution: grace (31), favour (23), of grace (3), gracious (2), Favour (1)

Key OT Passages: - Gen 6:8 — "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD" — the paradigmatic OT usage - Exo 3:21 — "I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians" - Jdg 6:17 — "If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign" - 1 Sam 1:18 — "Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight"

OT Idiom: ḥēn almost exclusively appears in the phrase "find grace/favor in the eyes of [someone]" — it is relational, situational goodwill from a superior toward a petitioner.

Library entry: TODO(need H2580 study)

LXX Bridge

Hebrew	Primary Greek Equivalent	LXX Co-occurrences	PMI Score
H2580 ḥēn	G5485 χάρις (cháris)	58x	33.09
H2580 ḥēn	G2147 εὑρίσκω (heurisko)	40x	18.92 — "find" (contextual)
H2580 ḥēn	G3788 ὀφθαλμός (ophthalmos)	12x	7.89 — "eyes" (contextual)

Semantic continuity: The LXX translators chose χάρις as the primary equivalent for ḥēn. This directly imports the OT "favor/grace" concept into the Greek religious vocabulary, establishing χάρις as the vessel for a concept already well-formed in Hebrew thought.

Reverse mapping — what Hebrew words G5485 also translates in LXX:

Hebrew	Co-occurrences	Notes
H2580 ḥēn	58	Primary — core "grace/favor" meaning
H4672 mâtsâʼ	38	"find" — the idiom "find grace" blurs into charis
H5869 ʻayin	44	"eye" — same idiom: "in the eyes of"
H7522 râtsôwn	4	"delight, favor" — semantic overlap in pleasurable goodwill

NT Usage (Greek — G5485 cháris)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G5485	χάρις (cháris)	147	grace, favor, thanks, gift
G5486	χάρισμα (charisma)	17	grace-gift, spiritual gift
G5487	χαριτόω (charitoo)	2	bestow grace upon, make highly favored
G5483	χαρίζομαι (charizomai)	19	grant as favor, forgive freely

Key NT Passages: - John 1:17 — "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" — charis now bound to the person of Christ - Rom 3:24 — "justified freely by his grace" — the Pauline theological center - Eph 2:8 — "by grace ye are saved through faith" — grace as the mode of salvation - Luke 1:30 — "thou hast found favour with God" — OT ḥēn idiom preserved in Luke

G5485-charis.md

Direct OT → NT Quotation

NT Verse	OT Source	Bridge
Luke 1:28	OT idiom (ḥēn)	"highly favoured" = κεχαριτωμένη (G5487, perfect ptc.) — LXX form of ḥēn language
Luke 1:30	ḥēn formula	"thou hast found favour (charin)" — verbatim LXX idiom preserved
Jas 4:6 / 1 Pet 5:5	Prov 3:34 LXX	"God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace (charin) to the humble" — direct LXX citation

Continuity and Shifts

What stays the same: - The word for grace in LXX = the word for grace in NT — seamless vocabulary transfer - The basic sense of undeserved divine goodwill toward a petitioner carries across - The Luke-Acts idiom ("found favour with") directly preserves OT ḥēn usage

What shifts: - OT ḥēn = primarily social/relational favor between persons (or from God); it is always situational - NT cháris = expanded to a cosmic theological concept: the divine disposition underlying all salvation, not merely situational favor - NT adds: grace as saving power (Eph 2:8), grace as ministerial appointment (Rom 1:5; 12:6), grace as thanksgiving (charis in the thanks idiom), grace as the content of the gospel (Acts 20:24: "the gospel of the grace of God") - NT charis becomes the standard opening and closing formula of letters — entirely absent from OT letter forms

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Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py --lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup Last updated: 2026-04-02