where: points back to a place already in view, the spot in, at, or toward which something happens
This little word is the everyday "where" that ties a sentence back to a place already named. It never asks a question; it points. A star stops over the place "where" the child was; a synagogue is the place "where" someone grew up; an upper room is "where" the friends were staying. In each case the word simply reaches back to a spot the sentence has already mentioned and pins the action to it.
The same word stretches naturally in two directions. When the sentence involves someone moving, it shifts from "where something is" to "where someone is headed," which older translations render "whither": the towns "to which" Jesus was about to come, the village "to which" the travelers were walking. And when there is no physical place at all, it marks a situation instead: "where" there is no law, "where" sin increased, "where" the Spirit of the Lord is. Here it means less "in this location" than "in this case," pairing naturally with a following "there."
Greek has a more common all-purpose word for "where," ὅπου; this one is a bit more formal and far less frequent in the New Testament. It should not be confused with the question word ποῦ, "where?", which does ask.