to blow: what wind does as it moves across land or sea
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This is the plain Greek verb for what the wind does. All seven New Testament uses describe air on the move outdoors, never a person breathing:
the storm winds that beat against two houses built on different ground (Matthew 7:25, 7:27)
the strong wind that stirs up the lake while the disciples are rowing (John 6:18)
the south wind that tells a crowd hot weather is coming (Luke 12:55)
the breeze a ship's crew turns the sail into as they run for the beach (Acts 27:40)
the winds four angels hold back from land, sea, and tree (Revelation 7:1)
In Greek more widely the verb also covers a person or an animal breathing, and it is the root of the everyday noun for spirit and breath (πνεῦμα) and of the noun for a gust or a breath of air (πνοή). New Testament writers keep this verb for the weather and leave breathing to longer verbs built from it. Five of its seven appearances sit right beside the ordinary noun for wind (ἄνεμος), which is the thing doing the blowing.
That family tie is what makes John 3:8 work. The noun in that sentence, πνεῦμα, can mean either "wind" or "Spirit", and this verb fits both, so "the wind blows where it wishes" is heard at the same time as "the Spirit breathes where he wills". English has to choose one word or the other and cannot hold both at once.
Mat 7:25Mat 7:27Luk 12:55Jhn 3:8*Jhn 6:18Act 27:40*Rev 7:1
belongs to the same word family as the Greek noun that means both wind and Spirit, so it can quietly do double dutyJhn 3:8
can stand alone as a naming phrase, "the one blowing", meaning the breeze a ship sails intoAct 27:40
Both
both name air moving of its own accord over land and water, in any strength from a breeze to a galeMat 7:25Jhn 6:18
Only blow
English "blow" has a crowd of unrelated everyday uses, from blowing out a candle to blowing money to taking a blow to the head, none of which this Greek word carries
“blew”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“blowing”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How pneō differs from similar Greek words
ἄνεμοςthe wind itself, the moving air as a thing; this word is what that wind does
Puts the movement itself in the foreground, so whatever is doing the blowing need not be called wind at all: a south wind, or, on shipboard, just the breeze that happens to be blowing as the crew hoists sail for the beach.Luk 12:55Act 27:40
Describes something happening right now, which makes it a sign to read off the weather: people see a south wind blowing and know that scorching heat is on the way.Luk 12:55
Fits what cannot be seen or traced, only heard and felt. Jesus builds his picture of new birth on it: it blows where it wants, and you hear the sound without knowing where it comes from or where it is going.Jhn 3:8
Both
Both belong to the same storm picture and often stand side by side, one naming the moving air and the other what it does: the winds blew and struck the house.Mat 7:25Mat 7:27
Both belong to the language of rough water, where a strong wind blowing hard is what whips the sea up under a boat.Jhn 6:18
Both are shown as forces held on a leash by God: angels grip the four winds of the earth so that no wind blows on land, on sea, or on any tree.Rev 7:1
Names the wind as a thing in its own right, solid enough to be addressed and told to stop. Jesus speaks to it directly and it drops away into calm.Mat 8:26Mrk 4:39Luk 8:24
Because it names a thing, it can be counted, and "the four winds" becomes a way of saying every direction there is, from one end of the sky to the other.Mat 24:31Mrk 13:27
Serves as a picture of any force that shoves people and things around: ships driven along, a reed rocked back and forth in the desert, waterless clouds carried off, and teachings that toss immature believers about.Jas 3:4Mat 11:7Jud 1:12Eph 4:14
Belongs to the working vocabulary of sailors, where a wind is a condition you plan around: it can be against you, it can carry a proper name, and it can seize a ship so the crew simply gives way to it.Act 27:4Act 27:14Act 27:15
πνεῦμαthe noun grown from this verb, covering breath, spirit, and occasionally wind; the verb stayed with the weather while the noun took on almost all the theology
This word never leaves the weather. Every time it appears it is ordinary moving air acting on something physical: rain and wind battering a house, or a wind that must be held back from touching land or sea.Mat 7:25Mat 7:27Rev 7:1
It describes air in the act of moving, so people read it off its effects and act on it: a south wind starting up means the heat is coming, a hard one whips the lake into waves, and sailors hoist a sail to catch it.Luk 12:55Jhn 6:18Act 27:40
Both
Both stay with the same everyday picture of air on the move: something nobody can see, yet unmistakable by what it does and where it has been.Jhn 3:8
They are close enough in sound and sense that Jesus can put them in one sentence and let the wind that goes where it pleases stand for the Spirit's own freedom, a link that is plain in Greek and lost in most English translations.Jhn 3:8
Only this word names God's own Spirit, the one who comes down on Jesus, fills people at Pentecost, and testifies alongside a believer's own inner life.Mat 3:16Act 2:4Rom 8:16
It reaches inward to a person's own hidden self, the part that can be poor, provoked, or aware of what nobody else knows.Mat 5:3Act 17:161Co 2:11
It can mean the breath of life itself, the thing a dying man hands over and a revived girl gets back.Mat 27:50Luk 8:55Jas 2:26
It also names beings who have no body at all, both the unclean ones Jesus drives out and the serving spirits sent to help God's people.Mrk 1:23Mrk 5:8Heb 1:14
πνοήa single gust or a breath of air, the blowing as one event; this word is the ongoing action of blowing
This word is the blowing itself, the movement happening at a given moment. Winds beat against a house in a storm and either bring it down or fail to (Matthew 7:25,Matthew 7:27), and a hard wind whips the lake into waves while the disciples are rowing (John 6:18).Mat 7:25Mat 7:27Jhn 6:18
Because it names something in progress, it can be watched, worked with, or stopped. A south wind coming up is read as a sign that heat is on the way (Luke 12:55), sailors hoist a sail to whatever happens to be blowing (Acts 27:40), and angels hold the four winds so that not one of them blows over land, sea, or tree (Revelation 7:1).Luk 12:55Act 27:40Rev 7:1
Only this word carries the picture of wind that goes wherever it pleases, heard clearly yet impossible to trace to a source, which Jesus uses to describe anyone born of the Spirit (John 3:8).Jhn 3:8
Both
Both belong to the same picture of air on the move, strong enough to be heard and felt indoors: winds that hammer a house until it falls (Matthew 7:27) and a rush of wind loud enough to fill the room where the disciples were sitting (Acts 2:2).Mat 7:27Act 2:2
Both sit close to the work of God's Spirit, since in Greek the same everyday picture of wind stands behind the language for the Spirit. Jesus points to wind blowing where it wants in order to explain new birth (John 3:8), and the Spirit's arrival comes with a sound like a driving wind (Acts 2:2).Jhn 3:8Act 2:2
This word names the moving air as a thing in itself, something a writer can point at and compare. The sound that fills the house at Pentecost is described as being like a violent wind sweeping along (Acts 2:2).Act 2:2
It also reaches past weather to the breath in a living body, which is why Paul can say God hands out to everyone alike "life and breath and everything" (Acts 17:25). The word for blowing never covers a creature's breath this way.Act 17:25
pneō in the other biblical languages
נָשַׁבHebrew“to blow”the ordinary Hebrew verb for wind blowing, which unlike the Greek word is also used of God blowing on grass or on the sea
The wind itself is what blows, with nobody named as sending it, and it is simply the weather people live with. Storm winds beat against two houses, one that stands and one that falls (Matthew 7:25,Matthew 7:27), and a hard wind whips the water into waves under a boat (John 6:18).Mat 7:25Mat 7:27Jhn 6:18
A blowing wind can be read as a sign of what is coming next. When people see the south wind blowing they say the scorching heat is on its way, and it arrives (Luke 12:55).Luk 12:55
It reaches the mild, useful end of the range as well. Sailors raise the foresail to the wind that is blowing and let it carry the ship toward the beach (Acts 27:40).Act 27:40
It supplies a picture of something free and untraceable: the wind blows where it wants, you hear the sound of it, and still you cannot say where it came from or where it is going (John 3:8).Jhn 3:8
Both
Both are the plain word for air on the move, known by what it does rather than by anything you can see. The breath of the LORD blows over the grass and it withers (Isaiah 40:7), and the winds blow and beat against a house (Matthew 7:25).Isa 40:7Mat 7:25
The Greek word is the natural counterpart when this Hebrew verb is carried over into Greek, and both put the wind under God's hand. He makes his wind blow and the frozen water runs again (Psalm 147:18), and angels hold the four winds so that not one of them blows on land or sea (Revelation 7:1).Psa 147:18Rev 7:1
Someone sends the blowing, and what matters is the change it works on whatever it touches. The LORD makes his wind blow and the ice melts into running water (Psalm 147:18), and when his breath blows over the grass it dries up (Isaiah 40:7).Psa 147:18Isa 40:7
A person, not only the weather, can be the one doing the blowing. Abram drives the birds of prey off the carcasses he has laid out (Genesis 15:11).Gen 15:11
נָשַׁףHebrew“to blow”a second Hebrew verb for blowing, used of a strong or destroying blast rather than of everyday weather
It names ordinary weather that people watch and reckon with: the storm wind that batters a house, the south wind that tells a farmer heat is coming, the breeze a ship's crew steers by.Mat 7:25Luk 12:55Act 27:40
Because the blowing can be heard but its source cannot be seen, the word becomes a picture of something real and powerful that no one can trace or control.Jhn 3:8Jhn 6:18
Both
Both are the plain word for air moving with enough force to strike what stands in its way, and the Greek verb is the natural New Testament word for the action the Hebrew verb names in the Old Testament.Isa 40:24Mat 7:25
In both languages the blowing is finally under God's hand: he sends the wind that drowns an army, and the winds hold still until heaven lets them loose.Exo 15:10Rev 7:1
The one who blows is God himself, not the weather. Both times, his own breath goes out against people who have set themselves against him.Exo 15:10Isa 40:24
One breath settles the matter, and what it touches is finished at once: an army vanishes under the sea, and rulers barely rooted in place dry up and are gone.Exo 15:10Isa 40:24
פּוּחַHebrew“to breathe”covers both weather and a person's breath, from the cool stirring of daybreak to a snort of contempt; this Greek word is used only of the wind
is the blowing of a weather system, a real wind in motion that strikes and beats against whatever stands in its path, as when the storm winds fall on the two houses.Mat 7:25Mat 7:27
names the particular winds sailors and farmers watch, whether the south wind that signals heat, the gale that whips up the lake, or the wind a ship steers into.Luk 12:55Jhn 6:18Act 27:40
carries the mystery of wind you cannot trace, held back by angels at the earth's corners or standing as the picture of the Spirit that blows where it wishes.Rev 7:1Jhn 3:8
Both
both name air set moving against a target, whether the north wind called to "blow upon" a garden or the winds that "blew and beat" against a house.Sng 4:16Mat 7:25
is the gentle stirring of the daytime breeze, the moment when "the day breathes" and the cool air rises so the night shadows flee.Sng 2:17Sng 4:6
is a breath sent onto something to carry it, the wind called to "blow upon" a garden so its spices waft out and spread.Sng 4:16
is breath blown to intensify a fire, as God "blows" the flame of his wrath hotter against those he judges.Ezk 21:31
is breath expelled in contempt at a person, the puffing or snorting of the wicked who despise their foes and their God.Psa 10:5Psa 12:5
What scholars say about pneō
BDAG glosses πνέω simply "to blow," of wind, and files all seven New Testament occurrences under that one sense, noting the substantival participle ἡ πνέουσα at Acts 27:40, where αὔρα (or ἄνεμος) is understood. LSJ documents the broader classical range, in which the verb also covers breathing, exhaling, and smelling of something; none of that range surfaces in the New Testament, which assigns breathing to the compounds ἐμπνέω (Acts 9:1) and ἐκπνέω (Mark 15:37, 39; Luke 23:46). Louw-Nida classifies it among physical events and states. Morphologically πνέω underlies both πνεῦμα (πνέω + -μα, "the result of blowing") and πνοή, and TDNT VI treats the whole group as a unit whose base sense is moving air. The single exegetical crux is John 3:8: τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ is taken by BDAG and by the major Johannine commentators (Barrett, Brown, Carson, Keener) as "the wind blows where it wishes," an analogy drawn from the weather and then applied to birth ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος, while a minority tradition reaching back to patristic exegesis renders it "the Spirit breathes where he wills." On either construal the verb itself denotes free, unmanaged motion of air, and commentators across the divide agree the wordplay on πνεῦμα is deliberate.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. πνέωlexicon
LSJ, s.v. πνέωlexicon
Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, s.v. πνέωlexicon