Words that are crucial to the passage, words that are repeated, figures of speech, words that are unclear or puzzling, and words that are theologically loaded.

You cannot study every word, and most do not need it. Comparing translations is a quick way to find the right candidates: where they differ, something is going on.

The full range of meanings a word can have across its uses.

English "trunk" can be part of a tree, an elephant, a car, or a body. Nobody is confused in a sentence, because context picks the meaning. Greek and Hebrew words work the same way.

Use a concordance to find where else it occurs — first in the same writer, then more widely — and a lexicon or expository dictionary to see its range.

A concordance keyed to the original language, or Bible software that tags the Greek or Hebrew word, lets you do this without reading Greek. The writer's own usage elsewhere is the best guide.

Basing a word study on the English word instead of the Greek or Hebrew word behind it.

One English word can translate several different originals, and one original can be translated by several English words. Studying "love" in an English concordance mixes words that the writers kept distinct.

Assuming a word's real meaning is found in its root or its parts, regardless of how it was actually used.

"Butterfly" is not a fly made of butter. The classic Bible example is saying the gospel is "dynamite" because the Greek word for power, dunamis, is where "dynamite" comes from. Paul had never heard of dynamite.

Romans 1:16

Reading a word with a meaning from a different period — usually a later one — rather than the meaning it had when the text was written.

The dynamite example is also a time-frame error, reading an English word from the 1800s back into the first century. Words change; what matters is what this word meant to these readers.

Assuming a word carries all its possible meanings at once in a single passage.

A word usually means one thing in one place. Piling its whole semantic range onto a verse sounds rich, but it makes the writer say far more than he did.

Insisting a word means the same thing every time it appears; assuming that studying a word covers the whole concept; and citing only the evidence that supports the meaning you want.

The word-concept fallacy is worth keeping in mind: a study of the word "grace" will not tell you everything the Bible says about grace, because the idea shows up in passages where the word does not.

A concordance lists every place a word occurs. A lexicon is a dictionary of the original language that gives a word's range of meanings.

The concordance shows you the evidence; the lexicon gives you a scholar's summary of it. Using both lets you check the summary against the passages yourself.

Because different biblical writers can use the same word in different ways, and a writer's own usage is the best guide to what he means.

Paul says a person is justified by faith, not works. James says a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. They are using "justified" and "faith" in different senses to address different problems. Mixing their usage creates a contradiction that neither writer made.

James 2:24