Bible Words: GNT – CEV – Combined

FULL PQS – Mini PQs

Even in the “easy-to-read” GNT, the New Testament contains dozens of words that are conceptually foreign and phonetically challenging for readers at or below a Grade 6 level. These words often occur hundreds of times (law, sin, disciple, faith, kingdom), meaning a low-literacy reader will be repeatedly blocked by them. Even though the GNT is already one of the most accessible Bible versions, it still contains words that are unusual outside of church/religious settings. In the new testament, within the GNT bible, these are the top 50 words most likely to be the most unfamiliar and difficult for a low literacy level person to read. “Difficult” here means low-literacy barrier words: multisyllabic, uncommon in everyday spoken English, or conceptually foreign (religious / cultural terms).

50 most difficult words (alphabetical order):

Abraham
apostle
baptism
begotten
Bethlehem
blasphemy
centurion
covenant
crucify / crucifixion
demon
disciple
Elijah
eternal
faith
Galilee
Gentile
glory
gospel
Herod
Holy
hypocrite
idol
Israel
Jerusalem
John the Baptist
Judea
kingdom
law (Torah context)
leprosy
manna
Messiah
miracle
Moses
Nazareth
parable
Passover
Pharisee
prophet
resurrection
Sabbath
sacrifice
Samaritan
Satan
scripture
sin
synagogue
temple
testimony
transfiguration
zealot

Ranked by approximate frequency of occurrence in the NT (GNT) (highest → lowest)

law
sin
Israel
disciple
faith
kingdom
temple
prophet
scripture
Moses
Abraham
Jerusalem
eternal
glory
covenant
gospel
Pharisee
resurrection
Satan
miracle
baptism
Holy (Spirit, Holy One)
testimony
sacrifice
hypocrite
Gentile
Elijah
John the Baptist
Herod
Galilee
Nazareth
Samaritan
synagogue
zealot
Passover
Sabbath
demon
Messiah
idol
centurion
leprosy
manna
crucifixion / crucify
blasphemy
parable
Judea
Bethlehem
begotten
transfiguration
disciple (plural and singular counted above; included again if distinguishing forms)