Shepherd – a word shaped by flocks and centuries

‘And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.’ Luke 2:8 (NIV)

The word ‘shepherd’ looks simple on the surface, yet its history reaches deep into the oldest layers of English, Greek, and Latin. I took this photo at Cuckmere Haven in 2019, where the landscape still holds the patterns of pastoral life that shaped the word’s meaning.

Tracing ‘shepherd’ leads from Old English ‘sceaphierde’ to Greek ‘ποιμήν’ and Latin ‘pastor’, and from literal fields to the long tradition of using flock-language for guidance and care. The blog explores how these strands developed, why different European Bibles choose different terms, and how French ended up with the unexpected ‘berger’.

Each word card set begins with an image that captures the theme of the word. The following cards trace its story: a main word card (or two, if extended), a junior version with a paler border, an etymological breakdown showing how the word travelled through time, and a list of sources. Some sets also include cards for related words or translations across other languages. Together they show where each word came from, how it changed, and what it still carries with it.