To blow
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pneo means to blow, especially of wind moving with force, direction, or unseen agency. The New Testament uses it for storms beating against houses, weather signs, the mysterious movement of the wind in Jesus' teaching on new birth, a strong wind on the sea, wind helping a ship toward shore, and apocalyptic restraint of the four winds.
Reader summary
Full entry for πνέω (G4154) · Open the biblical lexicon
pneo means to blow, especially of wind moving with force, direction, or unseen agency. The New Testament uses it for storms beating against houses, weather signs, the mysterious movement of the wind in Jesus' teaching on new birth, a strong wind on the sea, wind helping a ship toward shore, and apocalyptic restraint of the four winds.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include blew (2), blows (2), [wind] (1), was blowing (1), would blow (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 7:25. Its strongest book concentrations include John (2), Matthew (2), Acts (1), Luke (1).
Pneo means to blow, especially of wind moving with force, direction, or unseen agency. The New Testament uses it for storms beating against houses, weather signs, the mysterious movement of the wind in Jesus' teaching on new birth, a strong wind on the sea, wind helping a ship toward shore, and apocalyptic restraint of the four winds. The word itself is ordinary creation language, but several contexts use the wind's movement to reveal deeper realities: stability under trial, discernment of signs, the sovereign freedom of the Spirit, danger on the sea, providential movement, and God's command over creation.
Pastorally, pneo teaches that unseen power can be real, resisted, or governed by God.
Pneo describes wind blowing. These anchors show wind testing foundations, ordinary weather observation, Jesus' comparison between wind and the new birth, a storm on Galilee, wind filling a ship's sail, and the restraint of winds in Revelation.
The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.
Wind tests the house built on the rock. pneo belongs to Jesus' closing image of hearing and doing His words.
And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It will be hot,’ and it is.
Jesus points to ordinary skill in reading weather. The blowing wind exposes failure to discern the present spiritual moment.
The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Jesus uses the wind's unseen freedom to explain the mystery of those born of the Spirit.
A strong wind was blowing, and the sea grew agitated.
A strong wind agitates the sea before Jesus comes to His disciples. The word marks real danger in creation.
Cutting away the anchors, they left them in the sea as they loosened the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach.
The sailors use the wind to drive toward shore. pneo can describe creaturely means in God's providential preservation.
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back its four winds so that no wind would blow on land or sea or on any tree.
Revelation shows winds restrained by divine command. Creation's powers remain under God's sovereign rule.
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. to blow
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I blow
Read verseI blow
Read verseI blow
Read verseI blow
Read verseI blow
Read verseI blow
Read verseI blow
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 mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 7 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
πνέω is a primary word - no further derivation.
Pneo is ordinary enough to describe weather and vivid enough to carry theological force. Jesus can speak of winds beating against a house to expose whether hearers obey His words. He can point to a south wind to rebuke people who read weather better than God's moment of visitation. In John 3, wind becomes a living analogy for the Spirit's sovereign work: heard in effect, not mastered in origin or destination.
John 6 and Acts 27 keep the term grounded in real danger and practical action, while Revelation shows creation's winds under God's command. A preacher should let pneo keep both sides together: created wind is real, and God's unseen rule is more real still.
John.3.8
Pneo is a verb for blowing. It should not be confused with pneuma itself, though John 3 intentionally lets wind and Spirit imagery work together in Jesus' teaching.
Biblical wind imagery often moves between creation, judgment, breath, and God's sovereign action. New Testament pneo participates in that world while each passage supplies its own emphasis.