TR: mitsvah → entolē (Commandment)

The Chain

Hebrew OT               LXX (Greek OT)          Greek NT
──────────────          ──────────────────       ────────────────
מִצְוָה (mitsvah)   →  ἐντολή (entolē)     →  ἐντολή (entolē)
H4687, 177 verses       153x as translation      71 occurrences
"commandment"           of mitsvah               "commandment"

OT Usage (Hebrew)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H4687	מִצְוָה (mitsvah)	177	commandment, specific enjoined directive
H6680	צָוָה (tsavah)	494	root verb: to command, charge, appoint

Key OT passages: - Deut 6:1 — "Now these [are] the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you" - Deut 7:9 — "the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations" - Psa 119:98 — "Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they [are] ever with me"

[Canonical word study: H4687-mitsvah.md]

LXX Bridge

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
mitsvah (H4687)	ἐντολή (G1785)	153x	6.75	Primary — dominant LXX rendering
mitsvah (H4687)	ἐντέλλομαι (G1781)	46x	4.05	Cognate verb used in verbal-context renderings
mitsvah (H4687)	δικαίωμα (G1345)	27x	4.84	In legal/statute contexts

Semantic continuity in translation: The LXX preserves the meaning precisely — ἐντολή (from ἐντέλλομαι, "to enjoin upon") matches mitsvah's sense of an authoritative directive. No semantic shift. The word family unity (noun ἐντολή ↔ verb ἐντέλλομαι) mirrors the Hebrew (noun מִצְוָה ↔ verb צָוָה).

NT Usage (Greek)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G1785	ἐντολή (entolē)	71	commandment, authoritative directive

Translation distribution (NT): commandment 36x (51%), commandments 24x (34%), a commandment 5x, precept 2x.

Key NT passages: - Matt 22:36-38 — "Master, which [is] the great commandment in the law?... This is the first and great commandment." (Cites Deut 6:5 — the mitsvah-dense passage) - John 13:34 — "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you" - John 14:15 — "If ye love me, keep my commandments." (Echo of Deut 7:9 — "keep his commandments") - 1 John 2:3 — "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." - Rev 12:17 — "which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ"

[Canonical word study: G1785-entole.md]

Direct OT→NT Quotations

NT Verse	Quotes OT	Context	Significance
Matt 22:37-38	Deut 6:5 ("love the LORD thy God")	Called "the great commandment"	Deut 6:1 frames the verse with mitsvah; Jesus identifies the heart of the commandment-system
Eph 6:2	Exod 20:12 (5th commandment)	"the first commandment with promise"	Paul explicitly calls the Decalogue item a "commandment" (entolē), maintaining Sinai terminology

Continuity and Shifts

What stays the same: - entolē carries the full range of mitsvah — single specific directive, collective law-code, king's decree - The collocation pattern holds: "keep the commandments" (tēreō + entolē) in the NT directly mirrors "keep the commandments" (shâmar + mitsvah) in Hebrew - The commandment-keeping formula remains the marker of covenant fidelity: Deut 7:9 → John 15:10 ("If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love")

What shifts: - John 13:34 introduces a "new commandment" (entolē kainē) — the commandment to love as Christ loved, grounding obedience in Christ's own example rather than Sinai - Paul in Romans 7 uses entolē analytically to describe the commandment's role in revealing sin — a usage absent from OT mitsvah - Revelation 12:17; 14:12 places "keeping the commandments of God" alongside "the testimony/faith of Jesus" — a dual covenant marker impossible in OT terms

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