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anemos

ἄνεμος

GreekG0417wind, winds

Appears 31 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Mat 7:25Mat 7:27Mat 8:26Mat 8:27Mat 11:7Mat 14:24Mat 14:30Mat 14:32Mat 24:31Mrk 4:37Mrk 4:39 (2×)Mrk 4:41Mrk 6:48Mrk 6:51Mrk 13:27Luk 7:24Luk 8:23Luk 8:24Luk 8:25Jhn 6:18Act 27:4Act 27:7Act 27:14Act 27:15Eph 4:14Jas 3:4Jud 1:12Rev 6:13Rev 7:1 (2×)
Word studyAH-neh-mossnoun

What anemos means

wind: naturally moving air, from a light breeze to a driving gale

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

This is the ordinary Greek word for the wind you feel and see moving through the world: the air in motion. It covers the whole range, from the light breeze that stirs a reed by the water to the fierce gale that swamps a fishing boat. In the New Testament the violent end of that range dominates, because so many scenes take place on the Sea of Galilee, where sudden storms trap boats and where Jesus stills the wind and the waves with a word.

From that plain physical sense the word reaches into two familiar figures of speech. Because winds blow in from every quarter, the Bible speaks of "the four winds" as a way of naming all directions at once, so that gathering people from the four winds means gathering them from every corner of the earth. And because wind pushes whatever is loose wherever it will, the word can picture a person with no anchor being shoved back and forth by shifting ideas.

All of this is one word with one core: air on the move. Whether it names a storm, a compass point, or a current of teaching, it always pictures the same thing, moving air, and lets the setting decide the shade of meaning.

Nuances

1aa wind: moving air in the open sky, whether a breeze that shakes a reed or a gale that endangers a ship
Mat 7:25Mat 7:27Mat 8:26Mat 8:27Mat 11:7Mat 14:24Mat 14:30Mat 14:32Mrk 4:37Mrk 4:39 (2×)Mrk 4:41Mrk 6:48
1bthe four winds: the points of the compass, a set phrase for every direction, hence from all over the earth
Mat 24:31Mrk 13:27Rev 7:1 (2×)
1ca wind of teaching: a shifting current of ideas that pushes an unsettled person back and forth
Eph 4:14

What scholars say about anemos

Standard lexica treat ἄνεμος as the ordinary word for wind, moving air, with no semantic dispute (BDAG; LSJ). The predominant New Testament settings are the Galilean squalls of the Synoptic sea-crossings and the Adriatic gale of Acts 27, where ἄνεμος names the wind proper while λαῖλαψ names the storm as such. The plural idiom οἱ τέσσαρες ἄνεμοι, "the four winds," is a directional set phrase inherited from the Hebrew Scriptures (Zechariah 2:6; Daniel 7:2; Ezekiel 37:9) and denotes the four quarters of the compass, hence the whole earth (Matthew 24:31; Mark 13:27; Revelation 7:1). Ephesians 4:14 extends the noun metaphorically to a destabilizing current of doctrine. EDNT notes the word carries no independent theological weight in the New Testament, functioning within the biblical theme of God's sovereignty over the created elements.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. ἄνεμοςlexicon
  • LSJ, s.v. ἄνεμοςlexicon
  • EDNT, s.v. ἄνεμοςdictionary

All attested forms of ἄνεμος

nominative m s

ἄνεμος

Mat 14:24, Mat 14:32, Mrk 4:39, Mrk 4:41, Mrk 6:48, Mrk 6:51, Act 27:14, Rev 7:1

genitive m s

ἀνέμου

Mat 11:7, Mrk 4:37, Luk 7:24, Luk 8:23, Jhn 6:18, Act 27:7, Rev 6:13

dative m s

ἀνέμῳ

Mrk 4:39, Luk 8:24, Act 27:15, Eph 4:14

genitive m p

ἀνέμων

Mat 24:31, Mrk 13:27, Jas 3:4, Jud 1:12

nominative m p

ἄνεμοι

Mat 7:25, Mat 7:27, Mat 8:27

accusative m p

ἀνέμους

Act 27:4, Rev 7:1

dative m p

ἀνέμοις

Mat 8:26, Luk 8:25

accusative m s

ἄνεμον

Mat 14:30