As adverb of place; at (by implication, to) what locality
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Pou often asks where. It may seek the location of the newborn King, the place where Jesus stays, the whereabouts of accusers, the Father, a tomb, the way Jesus is going, or even the location of boasting and death's victory.
Reader summary
Full entry for ποῦ (G4226) · Open the biblical lexicon
Pou often asks where. It may seek the location of the newborn King, the place where Jesus stays, the whereabouts of accusers, the Father, a tomb, the way Jesus is going, or even the location of boasting and death's victory.
The BSB source-word alignment has 46 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Where (35), . . . (3), What (2), Where [is] (2), [place] (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 2:2. Its strongest book concentrations include John (18), 1 Corinthians (8), Luke (7), Matthew (4).
Pou often asks where. It may seek the location of the newborn King, the place where Jesus stays, the whereabouts of accusers, the Father, a tomb, the way Jesus is going, or even the location of boasting and death's victory. The word is not always spiritually weighty; sometimes it is simply a question of place. Yet questions in Scripture can expose desire, ignorance, fear, misplaced confidence, and faith in formation.
Thomas's question in John 14:5 is honest: if the disciples do not know where Jesus is going, how can they know the way? Jesus answers not with a map but with Himself. Pou therefore helps teachers notice how questions about place can become openings for revelation, correction, comfort, or worship.
Pou asks where in scenes of search, confusion, faith, judgment, and triumph, with John 14 showing how a location question can open into Jesus' self-revelation as the way.
Asking, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
The Magi ask where the King of the Jews has been born, showing a search that leads toward worship.
Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
Jesus says the Son of Man has no place to lay His head, using place language to test expectations of discipleship.
“Where is your faith?” He asked. Frightened and amazed, they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him!”
Jesus asks where the disciples' faith is after calming the storm, exposing fear in the presence of His authority.
Jesus turned and saw them following. “What do you want?” He asked. They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are You staying?”
The first disciples ask where Jesus is staying, and the question opens a scene of abiding with Him.
“Where is Your Father?” they asked Him. “You do not know Me or My Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew Me, you would know My Father as well.”
The question about Jesus' Father exposes that His hearers do not know Him or the Father.
“Where have you put him?” He asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered.
Jesus asks where Lazarus has been laid, entering the grief of the mourners before raising him.
“Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?”
Thomas asks how the disciples can know the way when they do not know where Jesus is going.
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith.
Paul asks where boasting is and answers that it is excluded by the principle of faith.
“Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?”
Paul taunts Death by asking where its victory and sting are in light of resurrection.
“Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.”
Scoffers ask where the promise of His coming is, using a where question to voice unbelief.
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. as adverb of place; at (by implication, to) what locality
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 44 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
where, whither
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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 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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
ποῦ 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.
The core insight of pou is that a simple where question can reveal the heart of a scene. The Magi ask where the King is and move toward worship. Frightened disciples hear Jesus ask where their faith is. Thomas asks where Jesus is going because he cannot yet see the way. Paul asks where boasting is and where death's victory has gone because the gospel and resurrection have changed the answer.
The word itself remains a modest adverb, but the questions built with it expose whether people are seeking Christ, resisting Him, misunderstanding Him, or being led into deeper faith.
John.14.5
Pou functions as where in direct and indirect questions, and can also appear in idioms where English does not translate it as a simple location question.
Scripture often uses God's questions and human questions to expose the heart, as with Adam's hiding, Job's searching, and the Psalms' cries. Pou participates in that question-form pattern when the New Testament asks where.
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