Bible word study

Rhema (Strong’s G4487): Meaning in the Bible

Rhema (ῥῆμα) is the Greek word numbered G4487 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as an utterance (individually, collectively or specially),; by implication, a matter or topic (especially of narration, command or dispute); with a negative naught whatever. In the King James Bible it is translated + evil, + nothing, saying, word..

• Original wordῥῆμα
• Transliterationrhēma
• Pronunciationhray'-mah
• Strong’s numberG4487
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. from G4483;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Rhema appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Rhema (G4487) stands behind 70 English renderings in 65 verses across 13 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Luke (18), Acts (15), John (12).

How the King James Bible renders Rhema, by count

• words28 of 70 (40 percent)
• word25 of 70 (36 percent)
• saying6 of 70 (9 percent)
• sayings3 of 70 (4 percent)
• the words3 of 70 (4 percent)
• things2 of 70 (3 percent)

Three places to read Rhema

• Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
• Luke 20:26 And they could not take hold of his words before the people: and they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace.
• Acts 10:44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Rhema in the original Greek lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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