TR: neder → euche (The Vow)¶
The Chain¶
Hebrew OT LXX (Greek OT) Greek NT
─────────── ────────────── ────────
נֶדֶר (neder) → εὐχή (euchē) → εὐχή (euchē)
H5088, 57 verses 52x as translation 3 verses in NT
"vow, thing promised" of neder (PMI 32.61) "vow / prayer"
OT Usage (Hebrew)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| H5088 | נֶדֶר (neder) | 57 | vow, promise to God, thing promised |
| H5087 | נָדַר (nadar) | ~31 | to vow (cognate verb) |
| H5071 | נְדָבָה (nedabah) | — | freewill offering (contrastive partner) |
| H632 | אֱסָר (esar) | — | bond, binding prohibition |
Key OT passages: - Gen 28:20 — "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me..." - Num 6:2 — "to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD" - Num 30:2 — "If a man vow a vow unto the LORD... he shall not break his word" - Deut 23:21 — "thou shalt not slack to pay it" - Eccl 5:4 — "When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it"
→ Canonical study: H5088-neder.md
LXX Bridge¶
| Hebrew | Greek Translation | Co-occ | PMI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| neder (H5088) | εὐχή (G2171) | 52x | 32.61 | Primary equivalent — near one-to-one noun match |
| neder (H5088) | εὔχομαι (G2172) | 23x | 23.79 | Cognate verb renders nadar in the same verses |
| neder (H5088) | ὁρίζω (G3724) | 8x | 16.64 | "mark out / bind" — Num 30 annulment contexts |
| neder (H5088) | ἀποδίδωμι (G591) | 13x | 5.21 | "render / pay" — shalam-neder idiom |
| neder (H5088) | ἑκούσιον (G1595) | 5x | 7.28 | "voluntary" — pairs with nedabah |
| neder (H5088) | ὁμολογία (G3671) | 3x | 7.92 | "confession / pledge" |
| neder (H5088) | θυσία (G2378) | 10x | 3.80 | "sacrifice" — when the vow is the victim |
Reverse mapping — Hebrew words rendered as εὐχή:
| Hebrew | Strong's | Co-occ | PMI |
|---|---|---|---|
| neder | H5088 | 52 | 32.61 |
| nadar (verb) | H5087 | 19 | 23.25 |
| esar (bond) | H632 | 10 | 19.95 |
| nezer (consecration) | H5145 | 10 | 17.22 |
| shalam (pay) | H7999 | 14 | 14.73 |
| nedabah (freewill) | H5071 | 8 | 14.67 |
| asar (bind) | H631 | 10 | 13.69 |
| zebach (sacrifice) | H2077 | 12 | 11.99 |
Semantic shift in translation: Continuity is strong — εὐχή inherits the full Hebrew semantic field of vow-as-promise and vow-as-offering. The one expansion: classical Greek εὐχή already carried the sense "prayer / wish," so LXX translators adopted a word that naturally blurs "vow" and "prayer." This blur surfaces in Jas 5:15 (see below) where the same noun is rendered "prayer."
NT Usage (Greek)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| G2171 | εὐχή (euchē) | 3 | vow / prayer |
| G2172 | εὔχομαι (euchomai) | 7 | to pray, to wish |
| G3671 | ὁμολογία (homologia) | 6 | confession, pledge (partial echo) |
Key NT passages: - Acts 18:18 — "[Paul] having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow (εὐχήν)." The Nazirite frame of Num 6 carries directly into Paul's practice. - Acts 21:23 — "We have four men which have a vow (εὐχήν) on them" — temple-based Nazirite fulfillment, again a Num 6 echo. - Jas 5:15 — "the prayer (εὐχή) of faith shall save the sick" — the word's petitionary edge.
Direct OT → NT Continuities¶
| NT Passage | OT Background | Shared Word | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acts 18:18 | Num 6:2, 5, 18 | neder/nazir → euche | Nazirite-vow practice continues in apostolic era |
| Acts 21:23–26 | Num 6:13–21 | neder → euche | Temple completion rite matches Torah legislation |
| Jas 5:15 | Ps 65:1–2; 116:14, 17–19 | neder → euche | "prayer/vow" idiom of the Psalter surfaces in prayer theology |
Continuity and Shifts¶
What stays the same across testaments: - The vow is directed toward God, never toward humans. - Fulfillment ("pay the vow") remains the indispensable complement of making one. - The Nazirite category of Numbers 6 is preserved intact into Acts 18 and 21. - Voluntariness combined with binding obligation — the same paradox in both Testaments.
What shifts: - Frequency collapses: 57 OT verses → only 3 NT uses of εὐχή. Vowing recedes as a central piety. - εὐχή broadens to absorb "prayer" more fully (Jas 5:15), reflecting a general NT drift from cultic vow to inward petition. - In Paul's Acts usage the vow is personal and narrative, not legislated — the Torah's elaborate women's-vows framework (Num 30) has no NT counterpart. - ὁμολογία (confession / pledge) partly takes over the "public commitment to God" territory formerly held by neder (cf. Heb 3:1; 10:23).
Generated from: gather_trace_data.py (search_strongs.py --lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup, --lexicon) Last updated: 2026-04-16