All: The inner life in Scripture's own words

The inner life in Scripture's own words

pneuma: wind and Spirit in one sentence

What the lexicon says. πνεῦμα (pneuma) is introduced "[in LXX chiefly and very frequently for רוּחַ]" and its first sense is "of air in motion", subdivided into "(a) wind: Jhn.3:8" and "(b) breath". Further senses run through the human spirit, disposition, incorporeal beings, and the Holy Spirit.

The lexicon names John 3:8 in the definition itself.

The verse. "The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8, ASV). The tagged text carries G4151H at both "wind" and "Spirit", the same word with the same sense letter, printed as two different English words in one sentence, because English has no single word that does both jobs.

The counts, split. G4151 divides two ways: the sense glossed "spirit" (G4151G) in 346 verses, and the sense glossed "breath/wind" (G4151H) in 5, 351 in all. The five are where the physical sense is in view, and John 3:8 is one of them.

A note the lexicon adds itself. Abbott-Smith's synonym note distinguishes the three: nous is "the action of the understanding in man" as against "the spiritual or ecstatic impulse"; and psyche "expresses man as apart from God, a separate individual", while pneuma "expresses man as drawing his life from God", both quotations from a Bible dictionary he cites, and both his summary rather than a neutral consensus.

Sources: John 3:8; John 4:24; TBESG entries G4151G and G4151H (Abbott-Smith); Strong's Greek Dictionary (1890), entry G4151.

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  • John 3:8bsb

    The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

  • John 4:24bsb

    God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

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pneuma: wind and Spirit in one sentence · Bubble Bible