Mouth
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στόμα is the ordinary NT word for mouth, both the physical organ and, by extension, the speech it produces. The local Greek index currently counts about 78 NT occurrences across the Gospels, Acts, the letters, Hebrews, James, and Revelation.
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Full entry for στόμα (G4750) · Open the biblical lexicon
στόμα is the ordinary NT word for mouth, both the physical organ and, by extension, the speech it produces. The local Greek index currently counts about 78 NT occurrences across the Gospels, Acts, the letters, Hebrews, James, and Revelation.
The BSB source-word alignment has 78 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include mouth (31), mouths (10), . . . (7), - (4), [face] (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 4:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (22), Acts (12), Matthew (11), Luke (9).
This entry includes 2 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
στόμα is the ordinary NT word for mouth, both the physical organ and, by extension, the speech it produces. The local Greek index currently counts about 78 NT occurrences across the Gospels, Acts, the letters, Hebrews, James, and Revelation. The word can name ordinary bodily speech, the mouth of God from which His word comes, the believer's mouth in confession and praise, and symbolic images such as the sword from the risen Christ's mouth.
Matthew 12:34 places στόμα inside Jesus' diagnosis of the human heart: out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The mouth is not the originating problem; it reveals what fills the heart. This keeps pastoral application from stopping at speech manners alone. A changed mouth requires heart renewal, not merely better verbal discipline.
Romans 10:9-10 gives στόμα a redemptive role: the mouth confesses Jesus as Lord while the heart believes that God raised Him from the dead. The passage does not turn speech into a mechanical formula or detach confession from heart-belief. It shows that saving faith is not meant to remain hidden and private, but to confess Christ openly as the passage requires.
Matthew 4:4 cites Deuteronomy 8:3 to teach that human life depends on every word proceeding from God's mouth. Revelation 1:16 gives a symbolic vision of the risen Christ whose mouth bears the sharp double-edged sword. Together, these passages keep mouth-language tied to God's life-giving, exposing, and judging word, while each context governs the specific claim.
The local Greek index currently counts about 78 NT occurrences of στόμα. The term can refer to the physical mouth, to speech as the mouth's product, to the mouth of God as the source of His word, and to symbolic judgment imagery such as the sword from the risen Christ's mouth. The strongest teaching claims come from passages such as Matthew 12:34, Romans 10:9-10, Matthew 4:4, James 3:10, and Revelation 1:16, but each context must decide the precise claim.
You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
Στόμα as the revealer of the heart: what fills the heart overflows through the mouth. The mouth does not create character; it discloses it. Jesus's rebuke of the Pharisees is not primarily about their words but about their hearts — the words are evidence of what is already inside. This passage keeps all speech ethics from stopping at the mouth and drives it upstream to the question of the heart's content.
For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.
Confession as the mouth's saving function: the parallel structure of heart-belief/justification and mouth-confession/salvation makes the spoken acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus constitutive of saving faith, not merely expressive of it. Public confession with the mouth marks the crossing from private assent to the committed, community-accountable declaration that defines NT faith.
But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
The στόμα of God as the source of life-sustaining word: Jesus refuses bread from the devil not because bread is unimportant but because there is a more fundamental nourishment — the word from God's mouth. The citation of Deuteronomy 8:3 places this in the context of wilderness testing and Israel's lesson: dependence on God's word precedes and governs the satisfaction of all other needs.
Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, this should not be!
The inconsistency of the divided στόμα: blessing and cursing from the same source is a violation of the created order. Fresh water and salt water do not flow from the same spring; neither should praise and curse proceed from the mouth of those who belong to the God they praise. James's argument is an appeal to nature and consistency as well as to command — the new creation should produce a new consistency in the mouth.
Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will boldly make known the mystery of the gospel,
Στόμα as the instrument of gospel proclamation that requires divine supply: Paul asks for prayer not for his courage in the abstract but specifically that when he opens his mouth, words will be given him. The dependence is precise — not 'help me be bold' but 'give me words when I open my mouth.' Gospel proclamation through the στόμα is a charismatic act dependent on divine provision, not merely a human skill.
He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.
The mouth of the risen Christ as the source of the judging, penetrating word: the double-edged sword proceeding from Christ's mouth is the word of God in its eschatological authority — the same word that gives life (Matthew 4:4) is also the word that judges and divides (Hebrews 4:12). The image grounds Revelation's entire vision of Christ's authority in the power of his spoken word, not in physical weaponry.
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. Mouth as the organ of speech; emphasis on words spoken rather than physical opening.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 79 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
the mouth, speech
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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 6 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 4 selected witnesses from 78 lexical occurrence verses.
στόμα 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.
στόμα gives teachers a concrete way to speak about the relation between heart, speech, confession, blessing, harm, and God's own word. Matthew 12:34 locates the issue upstream: the mouth reveals what fills the heart. James 3 exposes the contradiction of blessing and cursing from the same mouth. Romans 10 connects heart-belief with public confession of Jesus as Lord without turning confession into a formula detached from faith.
Revelation 1:16 frames Christ's mouth as the source of the judging word in symbolic vision. Handled well, this word helps readers see that speech is spiritually revealing, confession is publicly accountable, and the mouth of God remains the source of the word by which people live.
Matt.12.34
Στόμα is the standard Greek word for 'mouth' (related to English 'stomach' through Latin stomachus). Abbott-Smith notes three primary NT uses: the physical mouth, the edge of a sword (Luke 21:24; Hebrews 11:34 — 'the mouth/edge of the sword'), and speech as the mouth's product. The LXX uses it to translate פֶּה (H6310, mouth) in almost all cases, preserving the Hebrew range from literal mouth to 'the mouth of the Lord' (e.
G. , Isaiah 1:20). The Revelation uses (sword from the mouth, white stone, etc.) extend the word into symbolic territory that carries the full prophetic weight of the OT mouth-of-God tradition.
The OT background of στόμα is extensive. The 'mouth of the Lord' (פִּי יְהוָה) as the source of authoritative divine speech runs through the prophets: Isaiah repeatedly frames his message as proceeding from God's mouth (Isaiah 1:20; 40:5; 45:23; 55:11). Psalm 33:6 establishes that the heavens themselves were made by the 'breath of His mouth' — the creative power of God's spoken word.
This is the tradition Jesus cites in Matthew 4:4 (Deuteronomy 8:3) and that Revelation 1:16 extends into the eschatological vision of Christ's authoritative word. The wisdom tradition also shaped the NT's understanding of human speech: Proverbs repeatedly connects the quality of speech to the quality of the heart and the character of the wise versus the foolish (Proverbs 10:11; 15:2; 18:21 — 'Death and life are in the power of the tongue').
James 3's extended treatment of the tongue draws directly on this tradition and applies it to the believing community.
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Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain