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HOW

Represents various Hebrew and Greek words, interrogative, interjectional and relative. Its different uses refer to (1) the manner or way, e.g. Gen 44:34, "How shall I go up to my father?" ('ekh); Mt 6:28, "how they grow" (pos); 1 Cor 15:35, "How are the dead raised?"; (2) degree, extent, frequently, "how great" (Dan 4:3, mah; Mk 5:19, hosos, "how much"); "how many" (Mt 27:13, posos); "how much" (Acts 9:13, hosos); "how much more" (Mt 7:11, posos; 1 Sam 14:30, 'aph ki); "how oft" (Ps 78:40, kammah; Mt 18:21, posakis); "how long" (Job 7:19, kammah; Mt 17:17, heos pote), etc.; (3) the reason, wherefore, etc. (Mt 18:12; Lk 12:49, tis); (4) means--by what means? (Jn 3:4,9, pos); (5) cause (Jn 12:34; Acts 2:8; 4:21, pos); (6) condition, in what state, etc. (Lk 23:55, hos; Acts 15:36, pos; Eph 6:21, tis); "how" is sometimes used to emphasize a statement or exclamation (2 Sam 1:19,25,27, "How are the mighty fallen!"); "how" is also used for "that" (Gen 30:29, 'eth 'asher, frequently "how that"; Ex 9:29, ki most frequently, in the New Testament, hoti, Mt 12:5; 16:12,21; Acts 7:25; Rom 7:1, etc., in the King James Version).
The Revised Version (British and American) has "wherefore" for "how" (Gen 38:29, margin "how"); has "what" (Jdg 13:12; 1 Ki 12:6; Job 13; 1 Cor 14:26), omits (2 Cor 13:5); has "how that" (1 Sam 2:22); "that" (1 Ch 18:9; Lk 1:58; Gal 4:13; Jas 2:22; Rev 2:2); has "that even" for "how that" (Heb 12:17);" What is this?" for "How is it that?" (Lk 16:2); omits" How is it ?" (Mk 2:16, different text); has "Do ye not yet," for "How is it that?" (Mk 8:21); "Have ye not yet" (Mk 4:40, different text); "what" for "how much" (Lk 19:15, different text); omits "how that" (Lk 7:22); "then how" (Jas 2:24); has "cannot" for "How can he" (1 Jn 4:20); omits "How hast thou" (Job 26:3), "how is" (Jer 51:41); has "how" for "the fashion which" (Gen 6:15), for "and" (Ex 18:1), for "what" (Jdg 18:24; 1 Sam 4:16; 1 Cor 7:16), for "why" (Job 19:28; 31:1; Jer 2:33; Gal 2:14), for "when" (Job 37:15), for "for" (Ps 42:4), for "but God" (Prov 21:12), for "whereunto" (Mk 4:30); for "by what means" (Lk 8:36; Jn 9:21), for "how greatly" (Phil 1:8); "how that" for "because" (Ezek 6:9; 1 Thess 1:5), for "and how" (Acts 20:20); "know how to" for "can" (Mt 16:3); "how" for "by whom" (Am 7:2,5).
"How" in compounds gives us Howbeit (how be it). It is the translation of 'ulam, "but," "truly," "yet" (Jdg 18:29); of 'akh, "certainly," "only" (1 Sam 8:9); of 'ephes, "moreover," etc. (2 Sam 12:14); of ken, "so," "thus" (2 Ch 32:31); of rak, "only," "surely" "nevertheless" (1 Ki 11:13); of alla, "but," etc. (Jn 7:27; Acts 7:48; 1 Cor 8:7, etc.); of de, "but," etc. (Jn 6:23); of mentoi (Jn 7:13 the King James Version); many other instances.
For "howbeit," the Revised Version (British and American) has frequently "but" (2 Ki 12:13, etc.), "and" (2 Ch 21:20; Mk 5:19), "surely" (ERV) (Job 30:24), "now" (Jn 11:13), "yet" (2 Cor 11:21), "nay, did" (Heb 3:16); omits (Mt 17:21, different text); it has "howbeit" for "but" (2 Ki 12:3; Lk 19:27; Jn 5:34, etc.), for "also" (Lev 23:27,39), for "nevertheless" (Nu 13:28; 1 Ki 22:43; Mk 14:36; Lk 13:33 the English Revised Version; 18:8; 2 Tim 2:19), for "notwithstanding" (Josh 22:19; Lk 10:20 the English Revised Version, "nevertheless" the American Standard Revised Version; Phil (4:14), for "nay" (Rom 7:7).
Howsoever (in what manner soever, although, however) is the translation of kol 'asher, "all that which," etc. (Zeph 3:7, "howsoever I punished them," the Revised Version (British and American) "according to all that I have appointed concerning her," margin "howsoever I have punished her"; the English Revised Version omits "have"); of raq, "only," "surely," "nevertheless" (Jdg 19:20); of yehi-mah, "let be what" (2 Sam 18:22,23, the Revised Version (British and American) "but come what may"); in 2 Sam 24:3 "how" and "soever" are separated (kahem), "how many soever they may be," literally, "as they and as they."
W. L. Walker Bibliography Information
Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Definition for 'how'". "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". bible-history.com - ISBE; 1915.

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