Spirit/breath: spirit
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πνεῦμα means spirit, breath, or wind, and in the Pastoral Epistles the word must be read with careful attention to context. The letters use it for the Spirit who vindicates Christ, speaks warning through apostolic truth, indwells believers, helps guard the entrusted deposit, renews sinners in salvation, and also for the human spirit and deceitful spirits.
Reader summary
Full entry for πνεῦμα (G4151) · Open the biblical lexicon
πνεῦμα means spirit, breath, or wind, and in the Pastoral Epistles the word must be read with careful attention to context. The letters use it for the Spirit who vindicates Christ, speaks warning through apostolic truth, indwells believers, helps guard the entrusted deposit, renews sinners in salvation, and also for the human spirit and deceitful spirits.
The BSB source-word alignment has 379 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Spirit (259), [the] Spirit (33), spirits (30), a spirit (10), in spirit (7).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 1:18. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (70), 1 Corinthians (40), Luke (36), Romans (34).
This entry includes 13 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
πνεῦμα means spirit, breath, or wind, and in the Pastoral Epistles the word must be read with careful attention to context. The letters use it for the Spirit who vindicates Christ, speaks warning through apostolic truth, indwells believers, helps guard the entrusted deposit, renews sinners in salvation, and also for the human spirit and deceitful spirits. That range matters.
Paul does not let readers treat all invisible influence as the work of the Holy Spirit, nor does he reduce the Christian life to human resolve. The same chapter that says the Spirit expressly warns about later deception also names deceitful spirits and demonic teachings. The same letter that tells Timothy God has not given a spirit of fear also commands him to guard the treasure by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
Titus anchors salvation not in righteous deeds, but in mercy, new birth, and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Thus πνεῦμα helps teachers keep discernment and dependence together. The church must reject deceptive spiritual claims, resist fear, guard the apostolic deposit by the indwelling Spirit, and proclaim salvation as Spirit-wrought renewal rather than moral self-repair.
In the Pastoral Epistles, πνεῦμα carries a disciplined range: the Holy Spirit vindicates Christ, speaks warning, indwells and helps guard the deposit, renews believers, and must be distinguished from human spirit, fear, and deceitful spirits.
By common confession, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the nations, was believed in throughout the world, was taken up in glory.
Christ is vindicated by the Spirit in the confession of godliness. The word belongs inside the gospel mystery, not merely later Christian experience.
Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,
The Spirit expressly speaks, while deceitful spirits lead people away from the faith. The verse requires both confidence in the Spirit's warning and discernment about false spiritual influence.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.
God has not given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. The word here concerns the disposition or gift shaping ministry courage.
Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
The entrusted treasure is guarded with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Faithful preservation of doctrine is Spirit-dependent, not merely institutional.
The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.
Paul prays for the Lord to be with Timothy's spirit. The word can name the inner life of the servant who needs the Lord's presence at the end of ministry.
He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
Salvation comes through washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the agent of mercy-applied regeneration and renewal.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Spirit as the immaterial dimension of human existence, or God's transformative power, distinct from soul and body.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 385 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
wind, breath, spirit
Read versewind, breath, spirit
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Read versewind, breath, spirit
Read versewind, breath, spirit
Read versewind, breath, spirit
Read versewind, breath, spirit
Read versewind, breath, spirit
Read versewind, breath, spirit
Read versewind, breath, spirit
Read versewind, breath, spirit
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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 8 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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 379 lexical occurrence verses.
πνεῦμα is built from this root:
The Spirit performs the inward circumcision that marks authentic covenant membership.1 John 3:19-24
The Spirit is the agent of freedom, life, and future resurrection.1 John 4:1-6
Indicates new covenant regeneration and empowerment.1 John 4:13-16
Illustrates sovereign, invisible work of regeneration.1 John 5:6-12
Indicates nature of true worship and regeneration.2 Timothy 4:19-22
Source of life and regeneration.Acts 19:1-7
Refers to promised indwelling Spirit after glorification.
Identifies the promised living water.
Illustrates that works are evidence of life within faith.
Marks the fullness of new covenant participation.
Paul's blessing asks that the Lord's presence strengthen Timothy inwardly at the deepest level of his being.
The Spirit confirms mutual abiding between God and the believer.
The Spirit confirms the truth of Christ’s mission and identity.
The Spirit’s indwelling presence confirms relationship and enables obedience.
Teaching is not neutral; it reflects a spiritual source.
The Spirit’s indwelling presence confirms genuine relationship with God.
Divine testimony confirms the identity and work of Christ.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The Pastoral Epistles use πνεῦμα to hold together two responsibilities that churches often separate: dependence on the Holy Spirit and discernment about spiritual deception. Paul does not present the Spirit as a vague religious mood. The Spirit vindicates Christ, speaks warning, dwells in believers, helps guard the entrusted treasure, and renews sinners according to God's mercy.
At the same time, not every spiritual influence is holy. Some abandon the faith by following deceitful spirits and demonic teachings. This makes πνεῦμα an important word for shepherding. Teachers must not become suspicious of the Spirit's work, as if faithful doctrine were maintained by human control alone. But they also must not baptize every inward impulse or public claim as spiritual authority.
The Spirit who renews and indwells also guards the apostolic deposit and keeps Christ's gospel at the center. Courage, doctrine, holiness, and renewal all depend on Him.
2Tim.1.14
πνεῦμα has a broad semantic range: wind, breath, human spirit, disposition, spiritual being, and the Holy Spirit. The Pastoral Epistles display that range in concentrated form. Capitalization in English translations helps readers, but the Greek form itself requires contextual judgment. The same verse can contrast the Spirit's truthful warning with deceitful spirits, so referent and moral quality must never be assumed from the word alone.
The biblical language of spirit reaches back to breath, life, prophetic speech, and new covenant renewal. The Pastoral Epistles stand within that stream, but apply it to Christ's vindication, the church's guarded teaching, and salvation by mercy through renewal. The result is neither impersonal force language nor uncontrolled spiritualism, but Trinitarian gospel dependence expressed in discernment and faithfulness.