Skip to content

TR: riyb → krisis (Legal Contention/Judgment)

The Chain

Hebrew OT              LXX (Greek OT)           Greek NT
──────────────        ──────────────────        ────────────
רִיב (riyb)        →  κρίσις (krisis)       →  κρίσις (krisis)
H7379, 59x             29x as translation        47x in NT
"contention/case"      of riyb                   "judgment"

OT Usage (Hebrew)

Strong's Word Occurrences Primary Meaning
H7379 רִיב (riyb) 59 legal contention, lawsuit, cause, strife
H7378 רִיב (riyb) 59 to contend, plead, strive (cognate verb)

Key OT passages: - Mic 6:2 — "Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD'S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants thereof" - Psa 43:1 — "Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation" - Deu 25:1 — "If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment"

H7379-riyb.md

LXX Bridge

Hebrew Greek Translation Co-occurrences PMI Score Notes
riyb (H7379) κρίσις (G2920) 29 20.28 Primary equivalent
riyb (H7379) ἀντιλογία (G485) 9 17.35 "Dispute" — preserves contention sense
riyb (H7379) μάχη (G3163) 8 16.53 "Fight/controversy"
riyb (H7379) κρίνω (G2919) 15 14.26 Verbal rendering
riyb (H7379) δίκη (G1349) 6 13.83 "Justice/right"
riyb (H7379) ἀντίδικος (G476) 4 12.56 "Adversary in a lawsuit"

Other Hebrew words also rendered as krisis in LXX:

Hebrew Co-occurrences Score Notes
mishpat (H4941) 132 26.33 Dominant Hebrew source — "verdict, ordinance"
riyb (H7379) 29 20.28 Second-ranked — "contention, case"
diyn (H1779) 9 13.92 "Judgment, cause"
tsedaqah (H6666) 17 11.10 "Righteousness"
shaphat (H8199) 18 10.67 "To judge"

Semantic shift in translation: The LXX collapses Hebrew's distinction between the dispute brought (riyb) and the verdict rendered (mishpat) into a single Greek term (krisis). Where Hebrew uses riyb for the contention and mishpat for the judicial decision, krisis covers both the process and the outcome. This merger carries into NT usage where krisis encompasses both God's lawsuit against humanity and the sentence pronounced.

NT Usage (Greek)

Strong's Word Occurrences Primary Meaning
G2920 κρίσις (krisis) 47 judgment, decision, condemnation
G2919 κρίνω (krino) 114 to judge, decide, condemn
G2917 κρίμα (krima) 28 verdict, sentence, condemnation

Key NT passages: - Mat 5:21 — "whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment (krisis)" - Jhn 3:19 — "And this is the condemnation (krisis), that light is come into the world" - Act 8:33 — "In his humiliation his judgment (krisis) was taken away" (quoting Isa 53:8) - Heb 9:27 — "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment (krisis)"

G2920-krisis.md

Continuity and Shifts

What stays the same across testaments: - The forensic/judicial framework persists: both riyb and krisis operate within a courtroom metaphor where parties contend, evidence is weighed, and a verdict follows - God as both plaintiff and judge: OT riyb YHWH (the LORD's controversy) corresponds to NT krisis as divine judgment - The advocacy pattern: OT "plead my cause" (riyb) maps onto NT vindication at the krisis

What shifts: - Hebrew distinguishes the dispute (riyb) from the verdict (mishpat); Greek krisis absorbs both - OT riyb frequently describes this-worldly legal proceedings between humans; NT krisis shifts predominantly toward eschatological final judgment - The prophetic covenant-lawsuit genre (riyb pattern in Hosea, Micah) has no direct NT structural equivalent, though the concept of divine prosecution continues in passages like Jude and Revelation


Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source) Last updated: 2026-05-11