Flow
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G4077, pēgḗ, is a Greek noun that ordinarily names a spring or fountain, the source from which water emerges, and by extension a well supplied by such a source. The New Testament also uses it for the bodily source or flow of blood in Mark 5:29.
Reader summary
Full entry for πηγή (G4077) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4077, pēgḗ, is a Greek noun that ordinarily names a spring or fountain, the source from which water emerges, and by extension a well supplied by such a source. The New Testament also uses it for the bodily source or flow of blood in Mark 5:29.
The BSB source-word alignment has 11 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include springs (4), spring (2), well (2), [the] springs (1), a fount (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 5:29. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (5), John (3), 2 Peter (1), James (1).
G4077, pēgḗ, is a Greek noun that ordinarily names a spring or fountain, the source from which water emerges, and by extension a well supplied by such a source. The New Testament also uses it for the bodily source or flow of blood in Mark 5:29. The raw one-word gloss flow is therefore too narrow for readers because most contexts identify a concrete spring, fountain, or spring-fed well.
Grammar confirms the noun's feminine identity and its singular and plural forms; number and case locate it in each clause but do not create separate theological meanings. John 4:6 uses the noun for Jacob's well, where the weary Jesus speaks with a Samaritan woman. In John 4:14, the water He gives becomes a fount springing up to eternal life. The movement from a physical well to Jesus' promise is made by the conversation itself, not by a hidden meaning embedded in every spring.
James 3:11 appeals to the ordinary consistency of a spring to challenge divided speech. Second Peter 2:17 reverses the expectation by describing false teachers as waterless springs, a picture of promise without provision. Revelation places springs within creation, judgment, consolation, and final gift. Worship belongs to the Creator of the springs in Revelation 14:7; the trumpet and bowl visions include judgment affecting waters; Revelation 7:17 promises that the Lamb will shepherd His people to living-water springs; and Revelation 21:6 promises the water of life freely to the thirsty.
These scenes should be read within Revelation's vision and imagery. They do not authorize treating every natural spring, illness, water shortage, or disaster as a coded prophecy. G4077 helps teachers distinguish source from appearance. A spring may truly supply water, fail to supply it, picture the source of speech, or carry promised life within an explicitly redemptive scene.
Pastoral use should keep Christ and His gift central in John, test teaching by truth and fruit rather than refreshing language, and care for embodied thirst without pretending that spiritual metaphors replace safe drinking water, medical treatment, or public responsibility.
G4077 most often names a spring, fountain, or spring-fed well, while Mark applies the source idea to bleeding. Its figurative uses still depend on the concrete expectation that a source supplies what flows from it.
Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Mark uses the source or flow sense for the woman's bleeding, and the narrative centers her embodied healing through Jesus' power.
Since Jacob’s well was there, Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
The spring-fed well is a concrete meeting place where Jesus' weariness, the woman's arrival, and a boundary-crossing conversation become visible.
But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”
Jesus develops the well setting into His promise of life-giving water, with eternal life defining the gift beyond ordinary thirst.
Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?
James appeals to a spring's characteristic output to confront the contradiction of blessing God while cursing people made in His likeness.
These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
A waterless spring portrays teachers whose appearance raises expectation but whose conduct and message cannot provide what they promise.
For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. ‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’ and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”
The Lamb shepherds the gathered multitude to living-water springs, joining provision with God's tender removal of every tear.
And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.
The enthroned One gives the water of life freely to the thirsty within John's vision of all things made new.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. flow
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
12 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a fountain, spring, well
Read versea fountain, spring, well
Read versea fountain, spring, well
Read versea fountain, spring, well
Read versea fountain, spring, well
Read versea fountain, spring, well
Read versea fountain, spring, well
Read versea fountain, spring, well
Read versea fountain, spring, well
Read versea fountain, spring, well
Read versea fountain, spring, well
Read versea fountain, spring, well
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 5 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
πηγή is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
John 4:14 gives G4077 a strong teaching center because Jesus speaks beside a real well and then promises water that becomes a fount springing up to eternal life. The physical setting matters: Jesus is weary, the Samaritan woman comes for water, and their conversation crosses social and religious boundaries. Yet the passage itself moves beyond ordinary supply to the life Jesus gives.
That movement is Christ-centered rather than a license to spiritualize every spring. James uses a source to test divided speech; Second Peter exposes teachers who promise refreshment but are empty; Revelation shows the Lamb leading His people to living-water springs and the enthroned One giving the water of life freely. Mark's bodily use also keeps pastoral teaching grounded in suffering and healing.
G4077 therefore asks whether a source genuinely supplies what it appears to offer. Christian proclamation points to Christ's gift, Christian speech should accord with worship of God and love of neighbor, and Christian care should never use spiritual water language to dismiss physical thirst, illness, or public responsibility.
John.4.14
The feminine noun G4077 takes singular and plural forms across the nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative cases. John 4:6 uses two case forms in one verse, first naming Jacob's well and then locating Jesus at that same spring-fed well.
Hebrew Scripture uses several distinct nouns for springs, wells, fountains, streams, and sources, often associating water with provision, wisdom, cleansing, danger, and restoration. New Testament G4077 participates in that canonical field, but its meaning should not be equated mechanically with any single Hebrew term.