TR: shâmaʻ → akouō (Hearing/Obedience)

The Chain

Hebrew OT           LXX (Greek OT)          Greek NT
───────────         ───────────────          ────────
שָׁמַע (shâmaʻ)  →  ἀκούω (akouō)        →  ἀκούω (akouō)
H8085, 1072x         750x as translation      402x in NT
"hear/obey"          of shama                 "hear/listen"

OT Usage (Hebrew)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H8085	שָׁמַע (shâmaʻ)	1072v	hear intelligently, obey, hearken, understand
H8088	שֵׁמַע (shêmaʻ)	17v	report, hearing, fame (noun derivative)
H8086	שְׁמַע (shᵉmaʻ)	9v	hear, obey (Aramaic cognate)

Key OT passages: - Deut 6:4 — "Hear (shema), O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD" — the foundational confession - Deut 28:1 — "if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God" — covenant-blessings conditional - 1 Sam 15:22 — "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice" — hearing-as-obedience over ritual

See: H8085-shama.md

LXX Bridge

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Co-occurrences	PMI	Notes
shâmaʻ (H8085)	ἀκούω (akouō) G191	750	28.75	Dominant equivalent — covers full semantic range
shâmaʻ (H8085)	εἰσακούω (eisakouō) G1522	173	21.43	Compound "listen into" — esp. God hearing prayer
shâmaʻ (H8085)	ὑπακούω (hupakouō) G5219	25	11.26	"Hear under" — specifically the obedience sense

Reverse mapping — Hebrew words behind G191 akouō:

Hebrew	Co-occurrences	PMI
שָׁמַע shâmaʻ (H8085)	750	28.75
קוֹל qôwl (H6963)	151	16.86
אֹזֶן ʼôzen (H241)	61	13.77
אָזַן ʼâzan (H238)	20	11.56
קָשַׁב qâshab (H7181)	20	11.25

Semantic mapping in translation: The LXX translators preserved the hear-obey duality of shama through akouō, which in classical Greek already carried both "perceive with the ear" and "give heed to" senses. However, the LXX also disambiguated: when shama specifically means "obey," the compound ὑπακούω (hupakouō, literally "hear under") was sometimes used, making the subordination explicit. When God is the hearer of prayer, εἰσακούω (eisakouō, "hear into") was preferred, adding the nuance of favorable reception.

NT Usage (Greek)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G191	ἀκούω (akouō)	402v	hear, listen, understand
G189	ἀκοή (akoē)	24v	hearing, report, ear (noun)
G5219	ὑπακούω (hupakouō)	21v	obey (hear under)
G5218	ὑπακοή (hupakoē)	15v	obedience (noun)
G1522	εἰσακούω (eisakouō)	5v	hear favorably, answer prayer
G3878	παρακούω (parakouō)	3v	refuse to hear, disobey

Key NT passages: - Rom 10:14 — "how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" — the hearing-faith chain - Matt 13:13-16 — "hearing they hear not, neither do they understand" — quoting Isa 6:9 (shama → akouō) - Rev 2:7 — "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith" — 7x refrain echoing the Shema - John 10:27 — "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" — hearing → following

See: TODO(need G191 study)

Direct OT→NT Quotations

NT Verse	Quotes OT	Shared Word	Significance
Matt 13:14	Isa 6:9	shama → akouō	"By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand" — judicial deafness
Acts 28:26	Isa 6:9	shama → akouō	Paul applies same judicial-hardening text to Jewish rejection
1 Cor 2:9	Isa 64:4	shama → akouō	"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard" — divine revelation beyond senses
Heb 3:7, 15	Ps 95:7	shama → akouō	"To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts"

Continuity and Shifts

What stays the same across testaments: - The fundamental hear-obey duality persists from Hebrew shama through Greek akouō. Both testaments treat genuine hearing as incomplete without responsive obedience. - The covenant formula "hear/obey the voice of the LORD" (Deut 28) maps directly onto NT patterns: "he that heareth my words and doeth them" (Matt 7:24), "my sheep hear my voice" (John 10:27). - Judicial deafness — hearing without understanding — carries across via the Isa 6:9 quotation chain (Matt 13:14; Acts 28:26). - The Shema pattern (Deut 6:4 "Hear, O Israel") finds echoes in the Revelation refrain "He that hath an ear, let him hear" (Rev 2:7, etc.).

What shifts: - Greek disambiguates what Hebrew holds together. NT writers have a richer vocabulary to separate the senses: akouō (basic hearing), hupakouō (obedient hearing), eisakouō (favorable hearing/answering prayer), parakouō (refusal to hear). Hebrew shama carries all these senses in a single word. - The hearing-faith nexus becomes explicit in Paul: "faith cometh by hearing (akoē), and hearing by the word of God" (Rom 10:17). The OT implies this link (Abraham "obeyed my voice," Gen 26:5) but Paul states it systematically. - In the NT, hearing becomes christologically focused — "hear him" (Matt 17:5, the Transfiguration voice from heaven) echoes the Deuteronomic prophet prophecy: "unto him ye shall hearken" (Deut 18:15).

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Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup, --lexicon) Last updated: 2026-05-03