What does πλευρά (pleurá) mean in the Bible?
πλευρά (pleura) means the side of a body. John concentrates the noun around the crucified and risen body of Jesus.
Greek · G4125
πλευρά
Side
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πλευρά G4125
Pronunciation pleurá
What does πλευρά (pleurá) mean in the Bible?
πλευρά (pleura) means the side of a body. John concentrates the noun around the crucified and risen body of Jesus.
Reader summary
Full entry for πλευρά (G4125) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G4125?
The BSB source-word alignment has 5 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include side (5).
Where does πλευρά (pleurá) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 19:34. Its strongest book concentrations include John (4), Acts (1).
What This Word Actually Means
πλευρά (pleura) means the side of a body. John concentrates the noun around the crucified and risen body of Jesus. A soldier pierces His side after His death, blood and water flow out, and the narrator solemnly testifies that his witness is true so readers may believe. On the evening of the resurrection, Jesus shows the disciples His hands and side. Later He invites Thomas to reach toward His side and move from unbelief to belief.
The noun is concrete before it is symbolic. It binds the identity of the risen Lord to the One who was truly crucified and guards the Gospel against any attempt to make either death or resurrection disembodied. Blood and water have generated many theological readings, but responsible interpretation begins with John's eyewitness emphasis, Scripture fulfillment, and stated purpose of faith.
How the Bible Uses It
John's use of πλευρά binds the pierced body of Jesus to the risen Lord who shows His wounds. The concrete side belongs to eyewitness testimony, Scripture fulfillment, and the call to believe.
- John.19.34
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
The piercing occurs after Jesus' death and becomes part of the narrator's solemn eyewitness testimony and fulfillment account.
- John.20.20
After He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
The risen Jesus identifies Himself through the wounds of crucifixion, and the disciples' fear turns to joy in His presence.
- John.20.27
Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Jesus addresses Thomas's stated demand and directs the encounter toward belief in the crucified and risen Lord.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It side 5× John 19:34, John 20:20, John 20:25, John 20:27
Show sample aligned rows
John 19:34 πλευρὰν to side Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular John 20:20 πλευρὰν to side Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular John 20:25 πλευρὰν to side Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular John 20:27 πλευράν to side Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular Acts 12:7 πλευρὰν to side Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row John 19:34
Aligned rows 5
Books represented 2
John 4 Acts 1
Source forms
πλευρὰν 4x pleuran John 19:34, John 20:20, John 20:25, Acts 12:7
πλευράν 1x pleuran John 20:27
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular 5x John 19:34, John 20:20, John 20:25, John 20:27
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Keep the side bodily and historical before discussing possible symbolic or sacramental associations.
- Lead readers toward John's stated purpose of belief rather than fascination with speculative details.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that πλευρά by itself proves a complete sacramental or ecclesiological system.
- Do not claim that the wounds mean the resurrection body is merely a resuscitated or still-defeated body.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Anatomical side of body; notably Jesus' pierced side in resurrection appearances and crucifixion narratives.
Strong's G4125
Lexical occurrences 5 verses Greek text appearances 5 times Word forms 1 form 5 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
side
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
5 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
John 19:34 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
πλευρὰν pleuran
the side of the body
Read verse John 20:20 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
πλευρὰν pleuran
the side of the body
Read verse John 20:25 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
πλευρὰν pleuran
the side of the body
Read verse John 20:27 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
πλευράν pleuran
the side of the body
Read verse Acts 12:7 Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
πλευρὰν pleuran
the side of the body
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.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns 1 Aligned forms 5 Case pattern Accusative (5) Number pattern Singular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Accusative · Singular · Feminine John 19:34 · John 20:20 · John 20:25 · John 20:27 · Acts 12:7 5×
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Witnesses
John 19:31-42 Ϭλε...ά pleurá
side
Showing 1 selected witness from 5 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
πλευρά is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Why This Word Matters
Source of blood and water; symbol of sacrificial reality.
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
πλευρά keeps John's passion and resurrection witness bodily and continuous. In John 19, the soldier pierces Jesus' side because He is already dead. Blood and water flow, and the narrator interrupts the story to affirm the truth of his testimony and its purpose in producing belief. Scripture fulfillment surrounds the scene, but John does not pause to define every possible symbolism of the fluids.
In John 20, the risen Jesus appears among fearful disciples, speaks peace, and shows His hands and side. The wounds identify the risen Lord as the same Jesus who was crucified. Thomas's later encounter intensifies the point: Jesus meets his demand concerning the wounds and commands him to stop doubting and believe. The word therefore serves Christological continuity, embodied resurrection, and eyewitness faith.
Later theological reflection must remain accountable to those stated narrative claims.
Anchor passage
John.19.31-37
Doctrinal connections
- Zechariah 12:10 - John cites the pierced-one text within the passion witness
- John 19:28-37 - Jesus' death, pierced side, eyewitness testimony, and fulfillment
- John 20:19-23 - the wounded risen Lord brings peace and sends His disciples
- John 20:24-31 - Thomas is called from demanded sight to believing confession
- 1 John 1:1-4 - apostolic testimony concerns the embodied Word of life
The noun simply names the bodily side. Its theological importance comes from the Johannine scenes in which the side is pierced and later shown, not from a hidden meaning in the anatomy term. The same lexical simplicity strengthens the concrete bodily witness.
From Old to New Testament
John explicitly connects the piercing scene with Scripture concerning the righteous sufferer and the pierced one. The Gospel's use of those texts serves fulfillment and witness to Jesus' death. Later sacramental or ecclesial associations with blood and water should be presented as theological interpretation, not as meanings carried by πλευρά itself.
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain