Σήμ
Shem
Thayer's lists 2 entries for ‘Shem’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
Every verse where G4590 appears — 1 distinct verse across 1 book. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Luke 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, Σημ (Sḗm) means “Shem.” With only 1 verse it sits in the long tail of Greek New Testament vocabulary. The word gravitates to Luke (100%). Found nowhere else but Luke 3:36. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G4590 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 1
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 1 distinct verse.
- 1 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 1 of 27 New Testament books.
- #3,503
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Greek words (rank 3,503 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 1 occurrence in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Luke 1 verse 100%
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 1 distinct verse.
- Gospels 1 verse · 100%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 1 verse · 100%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Was the son of sem 1×
- American Standard Version: Son of shem 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: Shem 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Shem 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G4590 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G4590 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G4590 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G4590 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
Senses in Thayer's
The 2 senses Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- Shem meaning "name"
- the eldest son of Noah
Word origin
Derived from שם (Shêm) (H8035) — Shem.
Of hebrew origin [ H8035 ]; Sem (that is Shem ) a patriarch : - Sem.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Shem). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
A name; renown, the first mentioned of the sons of Noah (Gen. 5:32; 6:10). He was probably the eldest of Noah's sons. The words "brother of Japheth the elder" in Gen. 10:21 are more correctly rendered "the elder brother of Japheth," as in the Revised Version. Shem's name is generally mentioned first in the list of Noah's sons. He and his wife were saved in the ark (7:13). Noah foretold his preeminence over Canaan (9:23-27). He died at the age of six hundred years, having been for many years contemporary with Abraham, according to the usual chronology. The Israelitish nation sprang from him (Gen. 11:10-26; 1 Chr. 1:24-27).
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(name), the eldest son of Noah. (Genesis 5:32) He was 98 years old, married, and childless at the time of the flood. After it, he, with his father, brothers, sisters-in-law and wife, received the blessing of God, (Genesis 9:1) and entered into the covenant. With the help of his brother Japheth, he covered the nakedness of their father and received the first blessing. (Genesis 9:25-27) He died at the age of 630 years. The portion of the earth occupied by the descendants of Shem, (Genesis 10:21,31) begins at its northwestern extremity with Lydia, and includes Syria (Aram), Chaldaea (Arphaxad), parts Of Assyria (Asshur), of Persia (Elam), and of the Arabian peninsula (Joktan). Modern scholars have given the name of Shemitic or Semitic to the languages spoken by his real or supposed descendants. [Hebrew Language]
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
name; renown
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word Σημ appears 16 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 15 verses in 2 books.
- 16
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 15
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 2 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 2 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 5:32 σημ
- 1 Chronicles 1:4 σημ
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G4590) appears in the Greek Septuagint. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Genesis 5:32 σημ Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
- Genesis 6:10 σημ Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
- Genesis 7:13 σημ In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ark;
- Genesis 9:18 σημ The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham is the father of Canaan.
- Genesis 9:23 σημ Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn't see their father's nakedness.
- Genesis 9:26 σημ He said, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem; Let Canaan be his servant.
- Genesis 9:27 σημ God enlarge Japheth, Let him dwell in the tents of Shem; Let Canaan be his servant."
- Genesis 10:1 σημ Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.
- Genesis 10:21 σημ To Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, to him also were children born.
- Genesis 10:22 σημ The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.
- Genesis 10:31 σημ These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their languages, in their lands, after their nations.
- Genesis 11:10 σημ This is the history of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old, and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood.
- Genesis 11:11 σημ Shem lived after he became the father of Arpachshad five hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters.
- 1 Chronicles 1:4 σημ Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
- 1 Chronicles 1:11 σημ Mizraim became the father of Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G4590) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
