Much)¶

The Chain¶

Hebrew OT          LXX (Greek OT)         Greek NT
───────────        ───────────────         ────────
רַב (rab)       →  πολύς (polys)       →  πολύς (polys)
H7227, 443x        LXX co-occ: 317x       331x in NT
"many/great/much"  primary equivalent      "many/much/great"

OT Usage (Hebrew)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H7227	רַב (rab)	443	many, great, much, captain, enough
H7235	רָבָה (rabah)	209	to increase, multiply, become many
H7230	רֹב (rob)	149	abundance, multitude, greatness

Key OT passages: - Isa 52:15 — "So shall he sprinkle many (rab) nations" - Isa 53:11-12 — "my righteous servant justify many (rabbim)... he bare the sin of many (rabbim)" - Dan 12:2 — "many (rabbim) of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake" - Exo 34:6 — "longsuffering, and abundant (rab) in goodness and truth"

H7227-rab.md — canonical word study

LXX Bridge¶

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
rab (H7227)	πολύς (G4183)	317x	28.98	Primary equivalent — covers "many/much/great" senses
rab (H7227)	μέγας (G3173)	50x	8.84	When rab = "great" in magnitude
rab (H7227)	πλῆθος (G4128)	32x	11.59	When rab = "multitude"
rabah (H7235)	πολύς (G4183)	78x	17.55	Verb form "increase/multiply"
rob (H7230)	πολύς (G4183)	40x	13.55	Noun form "abundance"

Reverse direction — what Hebrew words does polys translate:

Hebrew	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI Score
rab	H7227	317x	28.98
rabah	H7235	78x	17.55
rob	H7230	40x	13.55
meʼod	H3966	47x	11.54
ʻatsuwm	H6099	16x	12.92
saggiyʼ	H7690	12x	13.72

Semantic continuity in translation: The LXX renders rab as polys with strong consistency. The Hebrew word's three major senses — numerical "many," qualitative "great," and quantitative "much" — all map cleanly onto the Greek polys, which carries the same range. The title/rank sense ("captain") is not transferred through polys; those instances use other Greek words. The bridge is remarkably stable: 317 of 443 OT occurrences (72%) use polys.

NT Usage (Greek)¶

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G4183	πολύς (polys)	331	many, much, great
G4119	πλείων (pleion)	55	more (comparative)
G4128	πλῆθος (plethos)	31	multitude, great number

Key NT passages: - Matt 26:28 — "my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many (pollon)" - Mark 10:45 — "to give his life a ransom for many (pollon)" - Rom 5:15 — "the grace of God, and the gift by grace... hath abounded unto many (pollous)" - Heb 9:28 — "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many (pollon)"

TODO(need G4183 study)

Direct OT to NT Quotations¶

NT Verse	Quotes OT	Shared Word	Significance
Matt 26:28	Isa 53:12	rabbim -> pollon	"shed for many" — Servant Song applied to the cup
Mark 10:45	Isa 53:11-12	rabbim -> pollon	"ransom for many" — Servant's vicarious work
Heb 9:28	Isa 53:12	rabbim -> pollon	"bear the sins of many" — priestly atonement language
Rom 5:15,19	Isa 53:11	rabbim -> polloi	"many be made righteous" — justification of the many

Continuity and Shifts¶

What stays the same across testaments: - The quantitative sense "many people/nations" carries directly from OT prophetic usage into NT fulfillment texts - The scope marker function persists — rab/polys signals the breadth of divine action (judgment or redemption) - The collocation with "nations" (goyim rabbim -> ethne polla) maintains the universal-scope formula

What shifts: - The OT title/rank sense ("captain," rab as a noun of office) does not carry into the NT through polys - The OT "enough/suffice" sense drops away; NT polys does not express sufficiency - The NT intensifies the soteriological application: while OT rab describes scope broadly (many people, many days, great waters), the NT concentrates polys heavily in atonement/justification contexts (Matt 26:28, Mark 10:45, Rom 5:15-19, Heb 9:28) — all echoing the Isaianic Servant's work "for many"

Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup) Last updated: 2026-05-05