TR: rob → plēthos (Abundance/Multitude)¶
The Chain¶
Hebrew OT LXX (Greek OT) Greek NT
─────────── ─────────────── ────────
רֹב (rob) → πλῆθος (plēthos) → πλῆθος (plēthos)
H7230, 144x 95x as translation 32x in NT
"abundance" of rob "multitude"
OT Usage (Hebrew)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| H7230 | רֹב (rob) | 144 | abundance, multitude, greatness |
| H7227 | רַב (rab) | 458 | much, many, great (adjective from same root) |
| H7235 | רָבָה (rabah) | 222 | to multiply, to increase (verb from same root) |
Key OT passages: - Gen 16:10 — "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude (rob)" - Deut 1:10 — "ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude (rob)" - 1 Kings 3:8 — "a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude (rob)"
Library: TODO(need H7230 study)
LXX Bridge¶
| Hebrew | Greek Translation | Co-occurrences | PMI Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| rob (H7230) | πλῆθος (G4128) | 95x | 29.62 |
| rob (H7230) | πολύς (G4183) | 40x | 13.55 |
| rob (H7230) | πληθύνω (G4129) | 9x | 7.58 |
Semantic profile in translation: The LXX strongly favors plēthos as the primary rendering of rob (95 of 144 OT verses, ~66%). The Hebrew rob is abstract — "abundance in any respect" (quantity, size, extent). Greek plēthos concretizes this toward "a group, a body, a mass of people." The shift is from uncountable abundance to a collective noun that can serve as a grammatical subject. This is why NT plēthos typically denotes a gathered body of persons rather than abstract quantity.
Competing Greek renderings: πολύς (polys, "much/many") captures the adjectival sense of rob where plēthos captures the nominal/collective sense. The LXX thus splits rob's semantic range: plēthos for "the multitude of X" and polys for "many X."
NT Usage (Greek)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| G4128 | πλῆθος (plēthos) | 32 | multitude, large number, throng |
| G4129 | πληθύνω (plēthynō) | 12 | multiply, increase |
| G4130 | πλήθω (plēthō) | 24 | fill, be filled |
Key NT passages: - Acts 4:32 — "the multitude (plēthos) of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul" - Heb 11:12 — "as the stars of the sky in multitude (plēthei)" — directly echoing Gen 16:10 / Deut 1:10 - 1 Pet 4:8 — "charity shall cover the multitude (plēthos) of sins" — echoing Prov 10:12
Direct OT→NT Quotations¶
| NT Verse | Echoes OT | Shared Concept | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heb 11:12 | Gen 16:10, Deut 1:10 | rob → plēthei | "stars in multitude" — Abrahamic-promise innumerability formula transmitted through LXX |
| 1 Pet 4:8 | Prov 10:12 | rob → plēthos | "cover a multitude of sins" — Proverbs wisdom tradition carried into apostolic paraenesis |
| James 5:20 | Prov 10:12 | rob → plēthos | Same Proverbs allusion — "hide a multitude of sins" |
Continuity and Shifts¶
What stays the same across testaments: - The core quantitative sense of "large number, abundance" carries through intact from Hebrew rob to Greek plēthos - The divine-promise formula ("innumerable as stars/sand for multitude") bridges directly from OT to Hebrews 11:12 - The wisdom-tradition maxim about covering sins (Prov 10:12) carries through to James and 1 Peter unchanged
What shifts: - OT rob is predominantly abstract and inanimate ("abundance of wealth/years/sins/chariots"); NT plēthos is predominantly concrete and personal ("the multitude of believers/disciples/people") - NT plēthos acquires a technical ecclesial sense absent from the OT: the gathered believing community as a decision-making body (Acts 6:2, 5; 15:12, 30) — this reflects Lukan usage of the LXX word in a new institutional context - The grammatical shift from masculine rob to neuter plēthos creates the NT constructio ad sensum pattern where a neuter singular collective takes plural verbs (Luke 19:37, Acts 4:32, Acts 21:36)
Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup, --lexicon) Last updated: 2026-04-29