qondio.com/XeO4

What is the most important word in the Bible?

By Franklyn Gallup of Biblefreeorg

At first, the question of what is the most important word in the Bible might seem to be an easy question. I woke up this morning with this question on my mind.

I am going to talk about some of the words I considered as possible answers to this question below and then about what I think is the most important word. You may agree or disagree with my conclusion and I welcome your thoughts.

I will be using the NIV Version of the Bible and a Concordance. Each word below in bold will link to the Concordance for that word. Consider these words:

God

Interestingly my Concordance tells me that the word God appears 4186 times in the Bible. God existed before the Bible existed and will exist long after the Bible is gone. The Bible isn't for His benefit.

Love

The word Love appears 551 times. I can admit that I was a little surprised at this. While this is a very important word I came to the conclusion that it is not the most important word.

Jesus

Jesus occurs 1275 times in the Bible and not surprisingly only in the New Testament. This is a very important word but is it the most important word?

You

The word You occurs 13741 times in the NIV Bible. I would say that without You the Bible is of no value to You at all.
Ponder on the verses that contain the word You

I would think that You are very important. You can try another word in the Concordance and tell me what You think is the most important word and why.

PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE

Bibles for Free - Sources to consider
Free Bibles and realated information
woodfloorist.com/Bible/Free/index.html

'You' may be the most used word in English versions but looking at translations into other languages in which 'you' can be split into several different forms, the results will vary.

The Bible is a boook. It has one purpose - to convey an idea and a belief system to ignorant ears. Without every word it contains, part of the message it is designed to carry will be lost or distorted.

In the past it was common for sections of the Bible to be learned by rote so that those who could not read could receive the message. Travellers spreading the word would recite parts of the Bible to enlighten and discipline their listeners.

It is a fascinating concept to consider that simply being used more often will elevate a particular word - I suppose 'and', 'it' and 'a' didn't get counted. If they did, what a fruitless exercise!

"it" appears only 5167 times so apparently it is not important whatever it is.

In answer to the title of this Intel "what" only appears 2507 times.

"a" only appears 9144 times.

However "and" occurs 29603 times

I see where you get your list, but I think that for me, the most important word in the Bible is "forgiven". :)

Very innterrressting! Unlike Karla, I don't see where you are getting this information. I believe "love" is another important word in the bible.

Scroll up and click the word Love in bold in the Intel. It is a link to the Concordance showing all the verses in the NIV that contain the word Love.

Once you are at the Concordance scroll down. You will see the verses where the word love appears and the word will be in red. The links at the bottom will show more verses.

I see how you might wish to choose a single word in the Bible as the most important. However, one word will not give the searcher information he or she needs to learn what God would have us to do. We must search through the whole Bible to see God's dealing with His people, through all the Old Testament and how He brought the Christ to the world. Then, how Jesus and the apostles taught, under the New Covenant. Only then, would we find what we must do to have forgiveness and be justified in the sight of God.

I agree. Only then, would we find

If we personalize what it teaches we will find what we are looking for. If we don't personalize the message then we will never find what it offers.

Okay... I don't personally believe that a word used most often makes that the most important.

Two words used in the Bible do seem to jump out to you as far as message is concerned. The "message" is the biggest reason that that book was written in the first place.

The first word is "love" -- which is on your list, and the second word is "forgive" which is not on your list because it didn't meet your search criteria for most used words.

I just think that the search criteria used didn't take the "message" into account, and simply finding the most popular words used has little to do with the importance of the words that you find.

If you go to a Christian book store you will see some Bibles are called "Life Application" Bibles. I believe ALL Bibles are life application bibles.

If You, the reader don't comprehend and apply what the Bible teaches none of the words will help.

For example, if You read the word Love or forgive and don't apply what these words mean in your life they are just words.

Understand that I am NOT saying that You is the most important word BECAUSE of it's frequency. I am saying that application of what the Bible teaches is important and personal. The frequency of the word seems to support the idea it is a personal instruction book to you the reader.

The most important activity you can do is to READ the Bible! If I had to choose a word that is important to me, the one word that matters most would be Jesus! God bless.....

that is important to me. That is exactly my point.

You have taken the spirit of what the Bible says and made it a personal message to You.

Sometimes we can't see the forest because of all the trees.

To me the most important word in the Bible is LOVE. Where would you be without love. God is LOVE

I am glad to hear a lot of people think that Love is an important word.

Too true, there is no most important word in the bible. Furthermore, it often worries me that the bible has been translated so often. There certainly are interpretations which might fall under a certain political correctness which were applied over the ages. I am under the impression that the understanding of the bible delivers no guaranties.

tozcal2008 May 26, 2010 13:05

Thanks for that interesting Intel.
Love is the word I would pick.
Love everyone and no hate, the world would be a perfect place.
Elsie

kiwinana May 26, 2010 17:18

"In the beginning God..." and Jesus is God and He loves me and you! :) Thanks Franklyn for this very cool intel!

Thanks. I discussed this Intel at my Bible class tonight. They thought it was pretty interesting too. My main thought was to get some interactive discussion going and I think I have accomplished that.

Hey, Coot came up with a good one there! Except the part about ignorant ears, which I take exception to because had not the protestants encouraged women to read the Bible there would have been a much lower literacy rate in Europe for those of us who hold up half of the sky. (Hey, I'll take any crumb they throw us, literacy-wise)

PS: When I first saw your username I thought it was against Bibles, lol, and I went "HUH????" -- as that did not make sense.

What can I say except when I was selecting a domain name for my web page about sources of free Bibles I found that FreeBibles.org was already taken.

Besides there is no rule that I have to make sense which is good thing for me.

Gracious, I did not mean that you did not make sense, but rather that my response to your name did not make sense. Does that make sense? LOL. It is true however that we do not have to make sense.

It is like the shopkeeper who spelled a word wrong in his window just to get people to come in and tell him about it. Then while they were in the store they might just buy something.

I am used to it. Occasionally, I find people who think a WoodFloorist delivers wooden flowers and that gives me a chance to explain what I do. A few days ago I had someone following my truck who called just to find out how I teach floors as if I taught the flooring. It's all OK marketing to me.

In some respects I am a lot like your shopkeeper. I realized when I selected that name there would be people who thought it meant to be Free from the Bible and went with it anyway.

I see the world through pun colored glasses.

The copyright for this content entitled "What is the most important word in the Bible?" has been specified by the contributor as:

This content may be copied, distributed, and modified, as long as a) it's for non-commercial purposes, b) the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page, and c) if the work is modified, the result is distributed with this same license. If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL: