yādaʿ

Semantic range

1. 1to know a fact
2. 2to know a person intimately
3. 3to acknowledge, to recognise covenantally
4. 4used euphemistically of marital relations

Hebrew knowing is relational and experiential rather than merely cognitive. God's "I have known thee" to Jeremiah (1:5) is election, not information. Amos 3:2, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth," plainly cannot mean God was unaware of other nations; it means covenant acknowledgement.

This is the sense that makes John 17:3 intelligible — "this is life eternal, that they might know thee" — and that stands behind the Book of Mormon's insistence that one can come to know, not merely believe (Alma 32:34; Moroni 10:4–5).

See also

• שָׁמַעšāmaʿ
• לֵבlēb / lēbāb
• ἐπίγνωσιςepignōsis