About

Hearing Scripture is a reader’s companion to the Hebrew and Greek words behind familiar verses — written for Christians who love the Bible and want to hear, as nearly as possible, what its first audience heard.

The premise is simple. Every Sunday we hear words we think we understand — fear, helper, Lord, blessed. They sit in familiar verses like furniture in a room we’ve crossed a thousand times. But the words behind them, in the languages the writers actually used, carry things the English doesn’t quite hold. Yirah isn’t dread. Ezer isn’t junior help. Kyrios in the first century was the word for Caesar. Makarios is too big for “blessed” to carry.

Each chapter walks through one of those words — what it carried in its original language, what the first audience would have heard, and why the English-only reader can miss something real without ever knowing they missed it. The aim is not to argue with the English Bible. The aim is to read it with more of what’s there.

The book

The chapters published here are drawn from the book Hearing Scripture. The full book is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. If a chapter on this site is helpful, the full book carries the project further — more words, more verses, more of what the first audience heard.

About the author

Hearing Scripture is written and published by Hannah Whitcomb, an independent writer working with Hebrew and Greek scholarship. The project is published quietly — no speaking circuit, no public profile, no social media — so the attention stays on the text rather than the author. Editorial questions and corrections come through the contact page, which Hannah reads and answers personally.

Scripture quotations

Scripture quotations on the site are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide. NIV® is a registered trademark of Biblica, Inc.

Get in touch

Questions, corrections, or chapters you’d like to see? Send a note.