What does ἀντλέω (antléō) mean in the Bible?
Antleo means to draw water. In the New Testament it appears in John's Gospel in two ordinary water scenes that become windows into Jesus' glory and gift.
Greek · G501
ἀντλέω
To draw
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ἀντλέω G501
Pronunciation antléō
What does ἀντλέω (antléō) mean in the Bible?
Antleo means to draw water. In the New Testament it appears in John's Gospel in two ordinary water scenes that become windows into Jesus' glory and gift.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀντλέω (G501) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G501?
The BSB source-word alignment has 4 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include draw [some] out (1), had drawn (1), to draw (1), to draw [water] (1).
Where does ἀντλέω (antléō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at John 2:8. Its strongest book concentrations include John (4).
What This Word Actually Means
Antleo means to draw water. In the New Testament it appears in John's Gospel in two ordinary water scenes that become windows into Jesus' glory and gift. At Cana, servants draw from the water jars and the master of the banquet tastes water turned to wine. At Jacob's well, a Samaritan woman comes to draw water, and Jesus asks her for a drink before speaking of living water.
The word itself does not mean miracle, salvation, or living water. It names the physical act of drawing water, but John places that ordinary action beside signs, thirst, revelation, and invitation. Antleo helps readers honor ordinary embodied need while seeing how Jesus meets it with greater grace.
How the Bible Uses It
Antleo names the act of drawing water. John uses it at Cana and Jacob's well, where ordinary water-drawing becomes the setting for Jesus' sign and living-water conversation.
- John.2.8
“Now draw some out,” He said, “and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so,
Jesus tells the servants to draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. The ordinary act stands inside the Cana sign.
- John.2.9
And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not know where it was from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside
The servants who had drawn the water know where it came from. Their ordinary labor becomes witness to the sign's hidden origin.
- John.4.7
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
The Samaritan woman comes to draw water, and Jesus asks for a drink. The word anchors the conversation in real thirst and daily labor.
- John.4.15
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
The woman asks for water so she will not keep coming to draw. Her request shows that she is still hearing Jesus through physical need.
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 draw [some] out 1× John 2:8
had drawn 1× John 2:9
to draw 1× John 4:7
to draw [water] 1× John 4:15
Show sample aligned rows
John 2:8 Ἀντλήσατε to draw [some] out Verb - Aorist Imperative Active - 2nd Person Plural John 2:9 ἠντληκότες to had drawn Verb - Perfect Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural John 4:7 ἀντλῆσαι to to draw Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active John 4:15 ἀντλεῖν to to draw [water] Verb - Present Infinitive Active
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row John 2:8
Aligned rows 4
Books represented 1
John 4
Source forms
ἀντλεῖν 1x antlein John 4:15
ἀντλῆσαι 1x antlēsai John 4:7
Ἀντλήσατε 1x Antlēsate John 2:8
ἠντληκότες 1x ēntlēkotes John 2:9
Parsing patterns
Verb - Aorist Imperative Active - 2nd Person Plural 1x John 2:8
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active 1x John 4:7
Verb - Perfect Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural 1x John 2:9
Verb - Present Infinitive Active 1x John 4:15
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Use ordinary water-drawing to ground the scene before moving to sign or living-water theology.
- Let Jesus' words define the deeper gift rather than making the verb carry it.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that antleo means salvation or living water.
- Do not claim that Cana and Samaria teach the same point simply because both include drawing water.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. to draw
Strong's G501
Lexical occurrences 4 verses Greek text appearances 4 times Word forms 3 forms 4 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
to draw
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
(ἄντλος, bilge-water in a hold), [in LXX for שָׁאַב, etc. ;]
1prop., to bale out.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
4 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
John 2:8 Verb Second Person Plural Aorist Active Imperative
Ἀντλήσατε antlhsate
I draw, draw out
Read verse John 2:9 Verb Perfect Active Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
ἠντληκότες hntlhkotev
I draw, draw out
Read verse John 4:7 Verb Aorist Active Infinitive
ἀντλῆσαι antlhsai
I draw, draw out
Read verse John 4:15 Verb Present Active Infinitive
ἀντλεῖν. antlein
I draw, draw out
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 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.
Form groups 3 Aligned forms 4 Tenses Aorist, Perfect, Present Voices Active
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Imperative command or strong request 1×
Aorist Active John 2:8 1×
Participle verbal adjective — the action as a modifying quality 1×
Perfect Active John 2:9 1×
Infinitive verbal noun — the action in abstract 2×
Aorist Active John 4:7 1×
Present Active John 4:15 1×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 4 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
aorist 2 perfect 1 present 1
Voice
active 4
Mood
infinitive 2 imperative 1 participle 1
NT Occurrences
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)
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
Antleo is a humble verb, and that is its value. It keeps the Cana sign and the Samaritan conversation attached to ordinary human life: servants handle jars, a woman comes to a well, thirst is real, and water must be drawn. John does not need the verb itself to carry the theology. Jesus' command, sign, request, and promise do that work. The word helps teachers resist floating above the scene.
The glory of Christ is revealed not by ignoring ordinary water, but by meeting embodied need and then opening a deeper gift that the water itself could never provide. Ordinary labor remains part of the witness.
Anchor passage
John.4.7
Doctrinal connections
- John 2:8: servants obey Jesus' command in the ordinary action that precedes the sign.
- John 2:9: the servants know the water's source and become quiet witnesses to the sign.
- John 4:7: Jesus enters the woman's daily water-drawing with a request for a drink.
- John 4:15: the woman initially understands Jesus' gift through the burden of repeated drawing.
- Cana and the well together show Jesus revealing glory in embodied, ordinary settings.
- The living-water conversation must be read as Jesus' promise, not as a hidden meaning inside antleo itself.
Antleo is specific and concrete: to draw water. It should not be inflated into every Johannine water theme, though John places the action near rich sign and living-water contexts.
From Old to New Testament
Wells, water, thirst, and provision run throughout Scripture, but antleo itself simply names drawing water in John. The broader water theology should be traced through the passages rather than loaded into the verb alone.
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