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G4157 πνοή (pnoḗ)
Greek
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Quick Definition

πνοή, ῆς, ἡ n.f. breath, wind

Strong's Definition

from 4154; respiration, a breeze

KJV Usage: breath, wind

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament

noun, f. | -ῆς | πνέω

14.4 · Physical Events and States · Wind

wind, blowing, to blow air in relatively rapid movement, but without specification as to the force of the movement As in the case of English (which has, for example, such terms as breeze, zephyr, gust, storm, whirlwind, cyclone, tornado, etc.), other languages likewise normally have a number of different terms depending upon the strength of the wind and whether the wind may be carrying substances such as sand or dust. In some languages there may also be a problem involved in the use of terms for ‘wind,’ since some of these may have meanings of malicious or malevolent spirits, or they may imply a disease-bringing event.

ACT 2:2

23.187 · Physiological Processes and States · Breathe, Breath

breath, capacity to breathe the process of breathing Rather than rendering ACT 17:25 as ‘gives life and breath to all people,’ it may be better to say ‘causes all people to live and breathe.’ In some languages, however, ‘to breathe’ is synonymous with ‘life,’ and therefore to say ‘to live and to breathe’ is to be both redundant and repetitious. One may therefore translate ‘who causes all people to live.’

ACT 17:25

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament © United Bible Societies, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

πνοή, -ῆς, ἡ, (πνέω), fr. Hom. down, Sept. for Ww); 1. breath, the breath of life: Acts xvii. 25 (Gen. ii. 7; Prov. xxiv. 12; Sir. xxx. 29 (21); 2 Mace. iii. 313 vii. 9). 2. wind: Acts ii. 2 (Job xxxvii. 9). [(Cf. πνεῦμα, 1 b.]

Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary

πνοή pnoē 2x

breath, respiration, Acts 17:25; a wind, a blast of wind, breeze, Acts 2:2*

Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon

πνοή, -ῆς, ἡ

(< πνέω), [in LXX chiefly for נְשָׁמָה;]

a blowing, blast, wind: Ac 2:2.

a breathing, breath: Ac 17:25 (Ge 2:7, al.).†

Trench — Synonyms of the New Testament

From the words into comparison with which πνεῦμα is here brought, it will be evident that it is proposed to deal with it in its natural and earthly, not in its supernatural and heavenly, meaning. Only I will observe, that on the relations between πνοή and πνεῦμα in this its higher sense there is a discussion in Augustine, De Civ. Dei, xiii. 22; cf. De Anim. et huj. Orig. i. 14, 19. The first three words of this group, as they designate not things heavenly but things earthly, differ from one another exactly as, according to Seneca, do in the Latin ‘aér,’ ‘spiritus,’ ‘ ventus’ (Nat. Qu. v. 13) : ‘Spiritum a vento motus' separat; vehementior enim spiritus ventus est; invicem spiritus leviter fluens aer.’ Πνοή and πνεῦμα occur not seldom together, as at Isai. xlii. 5; lvii. 16; πνοή conveying the impression of a lighter, gentler, motion of the air than πνεῦμα, as ‘aura’ than ‘ventus.’ Compare Aristotle (De Mundo, iv. 10): τὰ ἐν ἀέρι πνέοντα πνεύματα καλοῦμεν ἀνέμους, αὔρας δὲ τὰς ἐξ ὑγροῦ + So quoted byDéderlein; but the edition of Seneca before me reads *modus.’ τὸ 276 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. § xxi. φερομένας éxtrvods. Pliny (Hp. v. 6) recognizes a similar distinction: ‘ Semper aér spiritu aliquo movetur ; frequentius tamen auras quam ventos habet’; Philo no less (Leg. Alleg. i. 13): πνοὴν δέ, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ πνεῦμα εἴρηκεν, ὡς διαφορᾶς ovens’ τὸ μὲν γὰρ πνεῦμα νενόηται κατὰ τὴν ἰσχὺν καὶ εὐτονίαν καὶ δύναμιν" ἡ δὲ πνοὴ ws ἂν αὖὗρά τίς ἐστι καὶ ἀναθυμίασις ἠρεμαία καὶ πραεῖα. Against this may be urged, that in one of the two places where πνοὴ occurs in the N. T., namely Acts ii. 2, the epithet βιαία is attached to it, and it plainly is used of a strong and vehement wind (ef. Job xxxvii. 9). But, as De Wette has observed, this may be sufficiently accounted for by the fact that on that occasion it was necessary to reserve πνεῦμα for the higher spiritual gift, whereof this πνοὴ was the sign and symbol ; and it would have introduced a perplexing repetition to have already employed πνεῦμα here. Πνεῦμα is seldom used in the N. T.—indeed only at John iii: 8; Heb.i. 7 (in this last place not certainly)— for wind; but in the Septuagint often, as at Gen. viii. 1 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 9; Eccles. xi. 5. The rendering of ΠῚ in this last passage by ‘spirit,’ and not, as so often, by ‘wind’ (Job i. 19; Ps. cxlviii. 8), in our English Version is to be regretted, obscuring as it does the remarkable connexion between this saying of the Preacher and our Lord’s words to Nicodemus (John iii. 8). He, who ever loves to move in the sphere and region of the O.T., in those words of his, ‘‘ The wind bloweth where it listeth,” takes up words of Heclesiastes, “Thou knowest not what is the way of the wind ;” the Preacher having thus already indicated of what higher mysteries these courses of the winds, not to be traced by man, were the symbol. Πνεῦμα is found often in the Septuagint in connexion with πνοή, but generally in a figurative sense (Job xxxiii. 4; Isai. xlii. 5; lvii. 16; and at 2 Sam. xxii. 16: πνοὴ πνεύματοϑ)͵ Of ἄνεμος Aristotle (De Mund. 4) gives this account: οὐδὲν yap ἐστιν ἄνεμος πλὴν ἀὴρ πολὺς ῥέων Kal ἄθροος, ὅστις ἅμα καὶ πνεῦμα λέγεται : we may compare Hippocrates: ἄνεμος γάρ ἐστι ἠέρος ῥεῦμα καὶ χεῦμα. Like ‘ventus’ and ‘ wind,’ ἄνεμος is usually the strong, oftentimes the tempestuous, wind (1 Kin. xix. 11; Jobi. 19; Matt. vii. 25; John vi. 18; Acts xxvii. 14; Jam. iii. 4; Plutarch, Prec. Conj. 12). It is interesting and instructive to observe that our Lord, or rather the inspired reporter of his conversation with Nicodemus, which itself no doubt took place in Aramaic, uses not ἄνεμος, but πνεῦμα, as has been noted already, when he would seek analogies in the natural world for the mysterious movements, not to be traced by human eye, of the Holy Spirit; and this, doubtless, because there is nothing fierce or violent, but all measured in his operation ; while on the other hand, when St. Paul would describe men violently blown about and tempested on a sea of error, he speaks of them as κλυδωνιζόμενοι καὶ περιφερόμενοι παντὶ ἀνέμῳ τῆς διδασκαλίας (Ephes. iv. 14: cf. Jude 12 with 2 Pet. ii. 17). Λαῖλαψ' is a word of uncertain derivation. It is probably formed by reduplication, and is meant to be imitative in sound of that which it designates. We meet it three times in the N. T. (Mark iv. 37; Luke viii. 23; 2 Pet. ii. 17); oftener, but not often, in the Septuagint. It is our ‘squall’; but with something more formidable about it than we commonly ascribe to the squall. Thus J. H. H. Schmidt, who, in his Synonymik, vol. ii. p. 218 sqq., has a very careful and full discussion on the whole group of words having to do with wind and weather, and the phenomena which these present, words in which the Greek language, as might be expected, is singularly rich, writes on Aatray thus: ‘Die Alten verstanden darunter ganz allgemein den unstiten, aus finsterem Gewolk hervorbrechenden mit Regengiissen verbundenen hin und her tobenden Sturm.’ And examples which he gives quite bear out this statement; it is, as Hesychius explains it, ἀνέμου συστροφὴ μεθ᾽ ὑετοῦ : or as Suidas, who brings in the fur278 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. ϑ8ιχχιν. ther notion of darkness, μετ᾽ ἀνέμων ὄμβρος καὶ σκότος: the constant association in Homer of the epithets κελαινή and ἐρεμνή with λαΐλαψ' certainly implying that this feature of it, namely the darkness which goes along with it, should not be passed over (Il. xi. 747; xvi. 384; xx. 51). Θύελλα, joined with γνόφος whenever it occurs in the Septuagint, namely at Deut. iv. 11; v. 22; Exod. x. 22, is found in the N. T. only at Heb. xii. 18, and sounds there rather as a reminiscence from the Septuagint, than a word which the writer would have otherwise employed. Schmidt is at much pains to distinguish it from the Homeric ἄελλα, but with the difference between these we have nothing to do. It is sufficient to say that in the θύελλα, which is often a natural phenomenon wilder and fiercer, as it would seem, than the Aairay itself, there is not seldom the mingling in conflict of many opposing winds (Homer, Od. V. 3173 xii. 288-9), something of the turbulent cyclone.

Moulton & Milligan — Vocabulary of the Greek NT

πνοή, in the sense of ‘‘ gust, wind,” as in Ac 22, occurs in the sundial inscr. Pretsigke 3581° (iii/B.c.) τ]ὸ ἄκρον τῆς σκιᾶς... ἐπὶ τῶν ἰῶτα φερόμενον [σ]ημαίνει ἵεφύρου πνοήν : cf. Bacchylides v. 28 σὺν ζεφύρου πνοιαῖσιν. 3) ἐς

Liddell-Scott-Jones — Greek-English Lexicon

πνοή (pnoē) — wind/breath. πνοή, ῆς, ἡ, Epic dialect πνοιή, always in [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Doric dialect πνοά (see. below); Lyric poetry πνοιά [Refs 5th c.BC+]: (πνέω):— blowing, blast, πνοιαὶ παντοίων ἀνέμων [Refs 8th c.BC+]:absolutely, blast, breeze, [Refs], etc.; ὀλίγη π. a light breeze, [Refs 2nd c.AD+]; π. βιαία a stiff breeze,[Refs 3rd c.AD+]; especially to denote excessive swiftness, ἅμα πνοιῇς ἀνέμοιο along with, i.e.swift as, blasts of wind, [Refs 8th c.BC+], ἅμ᾽ ἀνέμων πνοαῖσι βαίη; frequently in Trag., ταχύπτεροι πνοαί [Refs 5th c.BC+]; blast of bellows, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

II. breathing hard, panting, of horses, [Refs 8th c.BC+]

II.2. generally, breath, ἔμπνους μέν εἰμι.. καὶ πνοὰς.. πνέω [Refs 5th c.BC+] the breath of Hephaestus, i.e. flame, [Refs 8th c.BC+]

III. vapour, exhalation, σποδὸς προπέμπει πλούτου πνοάς, of a burning city, [Refs 4th c.BC+]

IV. breath of a wind-instrument, Αἰολῇσιν ἐν πνοαῖσιν αὐλῶν [Refs 5th c.BC+]

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