teaching/sermons/col-1-15-20/expansion/bp_methods/10_word_studies.md

10 — BP-Style Word Studies on Col 1:15-20

The BP method

BP has a distinctive way of doing word studies. Not the dictionary-flip approach (look up the Greek lexicon entry, paraphrase the gloss). BP's approach is narrative-tracking word studies:

  1. Identify the Hebrew or Greek lemma.
  2. Trace its first significant appearance in the biblical canon.
  3. Track how the word develops across narratives.
  4. Notice where else BP names this word as theologically loaded.
  5. Watch what English translation defaults flatten.

This is the methodology behind BP's video series like Yahweh-Saves Gospel of Matthew, Chesed Loyal Love, Ruach Spirit, Shalom Peace, Anointing, Avon Iniquity, Avraham Father of Many, etc. Each is a single-word video that traces the word across the canon.

"BP traces the chain: Hebrew bekor → LXX prōtotokos → New Testament titles for Jesus..." — Dictionary entry prototokos-as-greek-firstborn

The implicit BP doctrine of word studies: words carry their canonical history. When Paul writes prōtotokos, he's not using a generic Greek word. He's using a word with a 1500-year backstory in Hebrew Bible thought. To read him, you have to know the backstory.

Demonstrating BP-style word studies on the hymn's load-bearing lexemes

The verse-by-verse files (../verse_by_verse/) already do most of this lexical work. This file demonstrates what BP-style word studies look like — picking 5 of the most theologically loaded words and showing the BP method end to end.

For each word: lemma → etymology → LXX → canonical narrative trail → BP-named territory → what English flattens.

Word 1: εἰκών (eikōn) — image

Lemma: εἰκών (eikōn). Greek noun, feminine. From eikō "to be like, to resemble."

LXX background: eikōn in the LXX translates several Hebrew words, most importantly צֶלֶם (tselem) — image, statue, idol. Tselem is the standard ANE term for a cult-statue installed in a temple to mediate the presence of the deity.

Canonical narrative trail (BP-style):

BP-named territory (dictionary entries):

Tim's gloss:

"He doesn't say Jesus is in the image of God. He is the image. ... When he reads Genesis one, he sees the pre-human Jesus as being the image that humans are the image of." — [podcast:firstborn-creation]

What English flattens:

(See ../01_image_of_god.md and ../verse_by_verse/v15_* for full development.)

Word 2: πρωτότοκος (prōtotokos) — firstborn

Lemma: πρωτότοκος (prōtotokos). Compound: prōtos (first) + tokos (one who is born). Adjective used substantively.

LXX background: translates בְּכוֹר (bekor) — firstborn. Hebrew also has the noun בְּכוֹרָה (bekorah) — birthright/firstborn-status.

Canonical narrative trail (BP-style):

BP-named territory:

Tim's gloss:

"His firstborn here is describing a status or an identity. ... His superiority is in view more than temporality. His status is superior, because he's before all things. Hierarchically, he is above all things. And ontologically, that means in terms of essence or being, he sustains all things." — [podcast:firstborn-creation]

What English flattens:

(See ../02_firstborn.md and ../verse_by_verse/v15_* and v18_*.)

Word 3: πλήρωμα (plērōma) — fullness

Lemma: πλήρωμα (plērōma). Greek noun, neuter. From plēroō (to fill) + -ma suffix (the result of an action). "That which fills / fullness / completeness."

LXX background: Used in Ps 24:1 ("the earth is the Lord's and its plērōma"), some other places. Not heavily used in LXX in the technical sense Paul develops.

Hebrew Bible conceptual roots (BP-style): the kavod (glory) cycle and shekinah (dwelling) cycle:

BP-named territory:

Tim's gloss:

"In him, God's fullness — and here he's alluding to all the temple glory filling the temple, the fiery glory cloud that dwells in the temple. That's the fullness. Yep, so the son was that fullness in a human." — [podcast:firstborn-creation]

What English flattens:

(See ../05_pleroma.md and ../verse_by_verse/v19_*.)

Word 4: συνίστημι (synistēmi) — hold together

Lemma: συνίστημι (synistēmi). Compound: sun- (with, together) + histēmi (to stand, to set up). "To stand-with, to cohere, to consist."

LXX background: Used a few dozen times, mostly in commendation/proof contexts. Cosmic-cohering use is mostly in Wisdom of Solomon and intertestamental literature.

Greek philosophical-cosmological background: Stoic and Platonic philosophers used both synistēmi and the cognate synechō (cf. 2 Cor 5:14) for the cohering principle of the universe.

Conceptual canon trail:

BP-named territory:

Tim's gloss:

"He is the rationale. ... 'You know where we agree? Where we agree is that all reality is being held together. And you think it's through an impersonal force or energy or ideal — and I'm telling you that that energy is a person.'" — [podcast:firstborn-creation]

What English flattens:

(See ../04_holds_together.md and ../verse_by_verse/v17_*.)

Word 5: ἀποκαταλλάσσω (apokatallassō) — to reconcile thoroughly

Lemma: ἀποκαταλλάσσω (apokatallassō). Triple compound: apo- (intensive) + kata- (intensive / "down") + allassō (to change, exchange). Verb meaning "to reconcile thoroughly / to bring back to a different state through transformation."

LXX background: Apokatallassō is not in the LXX. It's almost certainly Paul's own coinage for the prison-letter Christology. The base verb katallassō (single prefix) is what's used elsewhere — including 2 Cor 5:18-19 (the parallel passage your May 3 voice memo worked).

Pauline distribution:

That's it. Three uses. All Paul. All prison letters. The triple prefix is doing distinctive Pauline theological work.

Hebrew/Aramaic conceptual roots: the OT covenant-restoration vocabulary (Hebrew shuv — return; kapper — atone; salem — make peace) is the conceptual matrix Paul draws from, even though apokatallassō itself isn't an LXX word.

BP-named territory:

Tim's gloss:

"All things reconciled on earth and in heaven, on the land and the sky. And there's peace now with the union — means peace. ... A dying cosmos was reconciled to the living God." — [podcast:firstborn-creation]

What English flattens:

(See ../07_reconciliation.md and ../verse_by_verse/v20_*.)

How BP-style word studies change preaching

If you do BP-style word studies on the hymn's lexemes, you preach differently:

1. The word is a portal, not a definition

When you study eikōn, you're not saying "this Greek word means image." You're opening Genesis 1 → ANE temple practice → Caesar's coins → Wisdom of Solomon → 2 Cor 4 → Romans 8 → Colossians. The word opens the canon.

2. The English translation is the starting point, not the answer

The English translation is what the Spirit is using right now in 2026 Cleveland to address the hearer. Don't bypass it. But don't end with it. The Greek/Hebrew adds texture the English doesn't carry.

3. Don't multiply Greek words from the pulpit

You can do all this study and not drop more than 2-3 Greek words in the sermon. Most BP videos use 1-2 Greek/Hebrew words per video and build the sermon around the concept the word opens, not the word itself. Same for preaching.

4. Watch for what the English flattens

The most pastorally productive move is often: "In English we hear 'firstborn' as eldest sibling. But in Hebrew Bible thought, it means 'the one Yahweh chose for the inheritance.' That's a different claim." That sentence does pastoral work without belaboring the Greek.

5. Use the words BP has already studied

BP has video word studies for many of the hymn's adjacent terms — yahweh-saves, chesed, shalom, anointing, ahavah, agape, chara, and more. If you preach Col 1:15-20 alongside any of these BP word-study videos as a reference, the room gets a deeper lexical world without needing your private Greek work.

Cross-references

Classroom additions — Pass 2 (Voyage-enabled, 2026-05-06)

Art-of-Biblical-Words Session 3 — full skēnoō word study, demonstrated live

Voyage's strongest hit for word-study method: [class:art-of-biblical-words:3] (The Languages of the Bible) is Tim's complete skēnoō word study walked live in Logos software:

"Skēnoō is the root verb here. ... And then some basic definitions, live, take up residence, pitch tents, and encamp. Cool, that's cool. Does that strike you as a kind of a wide range of meaning? Live, take up residence, pitch tents, encamp. Do you see how it kind of goes from general to specific?" — [class:art-of-biblical-words:3]

"All of a sudden we're talking not just about any tent, but the sacred tent that is the tabernacle. Why would John say Jesus lived as a tent? Jesus was a tent. The Word became flesh and became a tent among us. ... in other words, a Greek word could mean a lot of things. But what I'm asking is, what does an Israelite who thinks in terms of the mental encyclopedia of the Hebrew Bible, even if they're writing in Greek, well that's what a Jewish author means when they say live in a tent. What they mean is God's physical presence among us in the sacred tabernacle. And all of a sudden, just a simple word study has opened up some of the most important ideas in the Bible." — [class:art-of-biblical-words:3]

Why this is decisive new material. This is the Tim classroom session demonstrating BP-style word-study method. Watch this once and you have the template for every word in Col 1:15-20: take the lexeme → look at general/specific range → ask what an Israelite would hear → trace through Hebrew Bible parallels → land theological weight. The method is replicable. Apply to eikōn, prōtotokos, synistēmi, kephalē, plērōma, eudokeō, katoikēsai, apokatallassō, eirēnopoieō, haima, stauros — the hymn's whole lexical inventory.

Art-of-Biblical-Words Session 4 — Logos software for word study

[class:art-of-biblical-words:4] adds a practical layer about which Bible-software tools carry the BP-style work:

"It's not like if it was in English, there wouldn't be this challenge, it would be the same set of issues. And then quick, I'm wondering if in Logos, there's a tool in the..." — [class:art-of-biblical-words:4]

Pulpit cargo: Tim works in Logos Bible Software. The user's word-study sessions on the hymn's vocabulary can be done in any tool that allows lemma-level concordance search — Logos, Accordance, BibleHub Greek tools, even free Strong's-tagged interlinears. The method is what matters; the software is interchangeable.

Introduction-to-Hebrew-Bible Session 22 — the lemma-vs-translation distinction

[class:introduction-to-the-hebrew-bible:22] adds the foundational distinction word-study method depends on:

"What I wanna do is actually study repetition of Hebrew words because that's what they're writing in and that's how they're linking things together in Hebrew. ... So most of your major Bible translations are going to have their own corresponding concordance." — [class:introduction-to-the-hebrew-bible:22]

Why this matters for Col 1:15-20. Paul's hymn was written in Greek. The English translations select different lexical choices ("hold together" vs. "consist" vs. "cohere"; "image" vs. "likeness"). Word study in Paul's vocabulary requires going to the Greek lemma, not the English translation. The verse-by-verse files (v15-v20) already do this. Tim's classroom session is the BP-method warrant.

Heaven-and-Earth Session 6 — concordance method, live demonstration on erets

[class:heaven-and-earth:6] (also cited in 04_hyperlinks_method.md) is Tim's live concordance demo on the Hebrew word erets:

"This is how you do it — find what's called a concordance that can allow you to search for other biblical passages that use the same word. And the more examples you look at, the better, 'cause it will help you build out a profile of what this word in Hebrew means." — [class:heaven-and-earth:6]

Method-cargo: the same approach applied to the Greek lexemes of Col 1:15-20 generates the lexical content already worked into the verse-by-verse files. The verse-by-verse work is BP-method-faithful, demonstrated by Tim's own pedagogy on erets.