TR: maveth → thanatos (Death)¶
The Chain¶
Hebrew OT LXX (Greek OT) Greek NT
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מָוֶת (maveth) → θάνατος (thanatos) → θάνατος (thanatos)
H4194, 153x 97x as translation 106x in NT
"death" of maveth "death"
OT Usage (Hebrew)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| H4194 | מָוֶת (maveth) | 153 | death (natural or violent); the dead, their state; figuratively: pestilence, ruin |
| H4191 | מוּת (muth) | ~150+ | root verb: to die, cause to die; qal/hiphil |
| H6757 | צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmaveth) | 18 | "shadow of death"; compound with maveth |
Key OT passages:
- Psa 23:4 — "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" (tsalmaveth; maveth embedded)
- Hos 13:14 — "O death (maveth), I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction" — direct source of Paul's taunt in 1 Cor 15
- Isa 25:8 — "He will swallow up death (maveth) in victory" — quoted in 1 Cor 15:54
- Psa 116:15 — "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death (maveth) of his saints"
LXX Bridge¶
| Hebrew | Greek Translation | Co-occurrences | PMI Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| maveth (H4194) | θάνατος (G2288) | 97x | 5.98 |
| maveth (H4194) | τελευτή (G5054) | 8x | 7.09 |
| maveth (H4194) | ᾅδης (G0086) | 17x | 5.30 |
| maveth (H4194) | ἀποθνῄσκω (G0599) | 35x | 3.66 |
Semantic continuity: The LXX translators chose θάνατος as the near-1:1 equivalent of מָוֶת with overwhelming consistency (97 of 153 occurrences). The occasional rendering as ᾅδης reflects those OT passages where maveth functions as the realm/place of the dead rather than the event or state — a theological nuance the translators respected.
NT Usage (Greek)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| G2288 | θάνατος (thanatos) | 106 | death (physical, spiritual, eschatological) |
| G2289 | θανατόω (thanatoo) | 11 | to put to death, mortify |
| G0086 | ᾅδης (hades) | 11 | realm of the dead (often paired with thanatos) |
Key NT passages:
- Rom 5:12 — "death by sin; and so death passed upon all men" — Adam's sin introduced maveth/thanatos universally
- 1 Cor 15:54–55 — "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?" — direct quotation of Isa 25:8 + Hos 13:14, thanatos substituting directly for maveth
- Heb 2:14 — "that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death" — Christ's thanatos destroys death's dominion
Direct OT→NT Quotations¶
| NT Verse | Quotes OT | Hebrew Word | Greek Word | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Cor 15:54 | Isa 25:8 | מָוֶת (maveth) | θάνατος | "Death is swallowed up in victory" — Paul's resurrection argument quotes the LXX directly |
| 1 Cor 15:55 | Hos 13:14 | מָוֶת (maveth) | θάνατος | "O death, where is thy sting?" — Hosea's divine taunt over death becomes Paul's resurrection anthem |
| Mat 4:16 | Isa 9:2 | צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmaveth) | θάνατος | "shadow of death" — NT borrows the compound; thanatos carries maveth's sense |
| Luke 1:79 | Isa 9:2 | צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmaveth) | θάνατος | Zechariah's canticle; same Isaianic allusion as Matt 4:16 |
Continuity and Shifts¶
What stays the same across testaments: - Core referent: the cessation of biological life — maveth and thanatos share this in all contexts - Death as cosmic power: the OT already personifies maveth as a force (Hos 13:14; Jer 9:21 "death come up into our windows") — NT continues this in Rev 6:8 and 1 Cor 15:26 - Death as consequence: Deut 21:22 (sin worthy of death) → Rom 6:23 (wages of sin is death) — the moral logic is identical - LXX continuity: NT writers quoting death-related OT texts use thanatos as the transparent equivalent of maveth with no semantic adjustment needed
What shifts: - Christological focus: The NT concentrates maveth/thanatos into a single decisive event — Christ's death — making θάνατος the noun around which atonement theology organizes. The OT scatters maveth across mortality in general. - Resurrection reversal: The OT knows victory over death as future hope (Isa 25:8; Hos 13:14). The NT announces it as accomplished fact (1 Cor 15:20; 2 Tim 1:10 — Christ "hath abolished death"). - Second death (eschatological): Rev 20:6, 14; 21:8 add a new category absent from OT usage — a final post-resurrection death, "the lake of fire," that has no direct maveth parallel. - Spiritual death: Rom 8:6 ("to be carnally minded is death") and 1 John 3:14 ("passed from death unto life") extend thanatos into a metaphysical present state — a development beyond OT maveth's primarily physical register.
Generated from: gather_word_data.py (H4194, G2288), search_strongs.py --lxx-map Last updated: 2026-04-01