a river: a natural channel of flowing water, whether a steady stream or a rushing flood
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
At its core this word names any natural body of moving water. In the Gospels it is the Jordan, where crowds come to be baptized; in Revelation it is the great Euphrates, and the crystal-clear river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God. For most of its uses plain English "river" fits with no loss.
The same word can also name that water when it is violent. When Jesus pictures a storm striking two houses, the floods that beat against them are not rain falling from the sky but the sudden torrents that fill a dry streambed and tear at anything built too shallow. The same rushing-water sense appears when the dragon spews a flood after the woman. This matches the older picture of a valley stream (נַחַל) that roars in the rains and lies dry in summer.
Once the word turns figurative. Jesus promises that "rivers of living water" will flow out of the believer, using the image of an overflowing stream to picture the abundant outpouring of the Spirit.
A river is not its source: the spring or fountain that feeds it is a separate word (πηγή).
Nuances
1aa river or stream: a natural, flowing watercourse
Names a large, permanent river that stands as a fixed geographic landmark, such as the Jordan where crowds came to be baptized or the great Euphrates.Mat 3:6Rev 9:14Rev 16:12
Carries a figurative, life-giving sense: rivers of living water flowing out of the believer, and the river of the water of life streaming from God's throne.Jhn 7:38Rev 22:1Rev 22:2
Pictures a violent surge of floodwater that batters a house or is spewed to sweep someone away, the destructive side of a swollen stream.Mat 7:25Luk 6:48Rev 12:15
Both
Both name a real channel of running water that people meet as a physical feature of the land, gathering at it or crossing over it.Mat 3:6Jhn 18:1
Names a winter torrent, a ravine whose streambed runs with water in the rainy season and can be crossed on foot, used of the Kidron gully Jesus went over.Jhn 18:1
potamos in the other biblical languages
נָהָרHebrew“river”the ordinary Hebrew word for a great, perennial river such as the Euphrates
Carries living, life-giving water as a figure of the Spirit and of salvation: streams flowing from the believer and the river of the water of life from God's throne.Jhn 7:38Rev 22:1
Names a sudden, violent torrent or flood whose force tests and sweeps away whatever it strikes, an image of destruction rather than supply.Mat 7:25Mat 7:27
Both
Both name a literal flowing river where ordinary events of the story unfold, the Greek word standing in the New Testament where the Hebrew word stands in the Old.Num 22:5Mat 3:6
Both serve as a poetic image of God's reign and blessing flowing to the world, rivers clapping or gladdening the city of God.Psa 98:8Rev 22:1
Used as a title for one specific great river, the Euphrates, called simply "the River" and marking the ideal boundary of the promised land.Gen 15:18Jos 1:4
Names the four rivers that watered the garden of Eden, the primal source-streams of the created world.Gen 2:10Gen 2:14
נַחַלHebrew“torrent: river”a Hebrew word for a valley stream that floods in the rains and dries in summer, matching the torrent sense
It readily means a surging torrent that threatens, the floodwater that beats against a house until it falls or stands. This destructive sense is one of its most common uses.Mat 7:25Luk 6:48
It names an ordinary river as a real setting for human life, the Jordan where crowds were baptized and a riverside spot where people gathered to pray.Mat 3:6Act 16:13
It carries the image of life-giving water pouring out in abundance, rivers of living water flowing from within the believer.Jhn 7:38
Both
Both stand for the Euphrates, the great boundary river of the ancient world. The Greek word names it directly as "the great river Euphrates"; the Aramaic word lies behind the province called Beyond the River, the lands across that same Euphrates.Rev 9:14Ezr 6:6
Both can picture a river issuing from before God's throne. The Greek word describes a river of the water of life flowing from the throne; the Aramaic word describes a river of fire streaming out before the Ancient of Days in judgment.Rev 22:1Dan 7:10
It hardens into a fixed geographic and administrative label rather than a flowing stream: Beyond the River is the standing name of a Persian imperial province, the whole region west of the Euphrates, used repeatedly in official correspondence. The Greek word never becomes a place-name this way.Ezr 4:10Ezr 5:6Ezr 7:21
Names an actual, permanent river as a geographic landmark: the Jordan where John baptized, or the Euphrates in the visions of Revelation.Mat 3:6Mrk 1:5Rev 9:14
Pictures the ever-flowing river of the water of life streaming from God's throne, and the rivers of living water Jesus promises to the believer.Rev 22:1Rev 22:2Jhn 7:38
Both
Both name a rush of flowing water strong enough to sweep over a person or beat against a house: a flood or torrent.Psa 69:2Psa 69:15Mat 7:25Luk 6:48
Both can denote simply a moving stream or current of water.Isa 27:12Rev 22:1
The very same Hebrew word most often means something with no connection to water at all: an ear of grain standing on the stalk, as in Pharaoh's dream and the gleaner's field.Gen 41:5Rut 2:2
Even in its water sense it is a rare, poetic word for a rushing current, not Hebrew's ordinary everyday noun for a river.Psa 69:2Isa 27:12
What scholars say about potamos
Standard lexica (BDAG, LSJ) treat ποταμός as a flowing body of water covering the whole range from a perennial river (the Jordan, the Euphrates) to floodwater or a torrent in spate. BDAG separates the river sense from the flood/torrent sense attested at Matthew 7:25-27 and Luke 6:48-49, where the imagery is of a wadi filling suddenly. The figurative use at John 7:38 extends the image to the overflowing, life-giving stream.