Lexicon

G4151 - pneuma

Strong's: G4151 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: pnyoo'-mah Part of speech: neuter noun Root: from G4154 - pneo (πνέω, "to blow, breathe") Hebrew equivalent (LXX): H7307 - ruach (רוּחַ, "spirit / wind / breath"), the standard rendering. NT occurrences: ~385

Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG)

A movement of air; wind, breath, physical/meteorological sense (John 3:8 "the pneuma blows where it wishes"; Acts 2:2 "a noise like a violent rushing wind").
The vital principle / breath of life, what animates a living body (James 2:26 "the body without the pneuma is dead"; Luke 8:55 "her spirit returned").
The human spirit / inner self, the rational, emotional, volitional self; near-synonym with psychē but with distinctive theological texture (1 Corinthians 2:11 "the spirit of the man which is in him"; Romans 8:16 "the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit").
A spirit-being, angel or demon, disembodied spiritual entity (Matthew 8:16 "many who were demon-possessed… cast out the pneumata"; Hebrews 1:14 "ministering pneumata").
God / Christ as Spirit; the divine nature, God's essential nature (John 4:24 "pneuma ho theos"; 2 Corinthians 3:17 "the Lord is the pneuma").
The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, with full personal agency.

Theological force

The word's range demands theological precision. Especially loaded:

(a) The Holy Spirit as personal. Despite being grammatically neuter (to pneuma), the NT consistently uses masculine personal pronouns for the Holy Spirit when referring to His personhood (John 14:26 ekeinos, "He"; John 16:13 ekeinos; despite to pneuma being neuter). This breaks normal Greek grammatical agreement deliberately, to indicate personhood across the grammatical gender mismatch. The Spirit is not a force or impersonal energy; He is a person, He teaches (John 14:26), grieves (Ephesians 4:30), intercedes (Romans 8:26), can be lied to (Acts 5:3), can be blasphemed (Matthew 12:31).

(b) Pneuma in Pauline anthropology. The contrast sarx (flesh) vs pneuma (Spirit / spiritual self) is not body-vs-soul but fallen-self vs Spirit-empowered-self. Romans 8:5-17 lays out the contrast: those who are according to the flesh vs those who are according to the Spirit. The believer is en pneumati, "in the Spirit", by virtue of indwelling.

(c) Pneuma as God's nature. John 4:24, pneuma ho theos (anarthrous predicate), "God is pneuma." This is qualitative: God's essential nature is spiritual / immaterial. He is not located, not visible to physical sight, not bound by spatial extension. This grounds the prohibition of idols (Exodus 20:4) and shapes worship as needing to be "in spirit and truth."

(d) Filioque controversy. Whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone (Eastern Orthodox) or from the Father and the Son (Western, Filioque) divides Christianity along East-West lines. The dispute centers on John 14:26 ("the Spirit, whom the Father will send") vs John 15:26 ("when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father"). The Western reading takes the Son as joint sender; the Eastern reading restricts processional origin to the Father alone, with the Son merely as temporal sender.

Notable verses

The Holy Spirit, promised and given

John 14.26, "the Helper, the Holy Pneuma, whom the Father will send in My name"
John 15:26, "the Helper… the Pneuma of truth who proceeds from the Father"
John 16:7-15, extended teaching on the Spirit's coming and work
Acts 1:8, "you will receive power when the Holy Pneuma has come upon you"
Acts 2:4, Pentecost: "they were all filled with the Holy Pneuma"
Matthew 28.19, "baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Pneuma"

Spirit's personal action

John 14:26, "He will teach you all things"
John 16:13, "the Pneuma of truth… will guide you"
Romans 8:26, "the Pneuma Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words"
Ephesians 4:30, "do not grieve the Holy Pneuma of God"
Acts 5:3, Ananias "lied to the Holy Pneuma"
Acts 13:2, "the Holy Pneuma said, 'Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul'"

Spirit and salvation / sanctification

Romans 8:9, "if anyone does not have the Pneuma of Christ, he does not belong to Him"
Romans 8:14, "all who are being led by the Pneuma of God, these are sons of God"
1 Corinthians 6:11, "you were sanctified… in the Pneuma of our God"
Galatians 5:22-23, "the fruit of the Pneuma is love, joy, peace…"
Ephesians 1:13-14, "you were sealed in Him with the Holy Pneuma of promise"
Titus 3:5, "the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Pneuma"

God's nature as pneuma

John 4:24, "God is pneuma; those who worship Him must worship in pneumati and truth"
2 Corinthians 3:17, "the Lord is the Pneuma"

Wind / breath (physical)

John 3:8, "the pneuma blows where it wishes"
Acts 2:2, "a noise like a violent rushing wind (pnoē, related noun)"
John 19:30, "He gave up His pneuma" (last breath)

Human spirit

1 Corinthians 2:11, "the pneuma of the man which is in him"
Romans 8:16, "His Spirit testifies with our pneuma"
1 Thessalonians 5:23, "your pneuma, soul, and body"

Spirit-beings (angelic / demonic)

Matthew 8:16, "He cast out the pneumata with a word"
Mark 1:23, "a man with an unclean pneuma"
Hebrews 1:14, "ministering pneumata" (angels)
1 Timothy 4:1, "deceitful pneumata and doctrines of demons"

Patristic / scholarly note

Athanasius (Letters to Serapion, c. AD 360) writes the foundational Christian treatment of the Holy Spirit's deity, against the Pneumatomachi ("Spirit-fighters") who denied the Spirit's full divinity. Basil of Caesarea (On the Holy Spirit, c. AD 375) develops the doctrine into the ecumenical confession that became the Council of Constantinople (AD 381) addition to the Nicene Creed: "the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke through the prophets."

The Filioque, "and from the Son", was added to the Latin creed in the 6th century and formally accepted at the Council of Toledo (AD 589); it became the lasting cause of the East-West schism (1054), continuing to divide Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Modern Reformed and evangelical pneumatology (Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit, 1996; Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology chs. 30, 39, 53) develops the personal-and-divine doctrine of the Spirit on the basis of these core Pauline and Johannine passages.

Verses in this codex

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