πῶς
pōs · G4459 · Greek · 118 occurrences
Meanings
-
how? by what means?
An interrogative reference to means
ExamplesMatthew 10:19 “But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given you in that hour.
Matthew 12:4 how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone?
Matthew 12:26 “And if Satan is casting out Satan, he has become divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?
How it’s used In 2 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
What is done to itIt is the object
8 occurrences in 5 groups
- φοβέωto fear, to be afraid, to show great reverence for 3
- μεριμνάωto be worried about 2
- πέμπωto send 1
- τίθημιto put 1
- βλέπωto see 1
What is said to be itIt is the predicate
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- εἰσέρχομαιto enter, to go into, to come into 1
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
In the other Testament 2 words
- אֵיךְ ʼêyk · H349 · how?
- Hebrew אֵיךְ and Greek πῶς both function as interrogative particles of manner, asking 'how?' or 'in what way?'; πῶς additionally extends to exclamatory use, 'how much!', while both function consistently as translation equivalents across direct and indirect questions.
- הֵיךְ hêyk · H1963 · how?
- πῶς (pōs, G4459) serves as the Greek interrogative equivalent of Aramaic הֵיךְ (hêyk, H1963), both functioning as manner/method interrogatives ('how?') in their respective languages.
Semantic domains 1 entry
- How? by what means?92.16
- The interrogative particle asks about manner or means. Nicodemus asks Jesus, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” (John 3:4).
Word family 6 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon (from the obsolete ΠΟΣ, whence ποῦ, ποῖ, etc. (cf. Curtius, § 631)), adverb (from Homer…
I. in interrogation; how? in what way? — in a direct question, followed by a. the indicative, it is the expression α. of one seeking information and desiring to be taught: Lk 1:34; Lk 10:26; Jn 3:9; Jn 9:26; 1 Cor 15:35 (cf. Winer's Grammar, 266 (250)); πῶς οὖν, Jn 9:10 Tdf. (but L WH brackets οὖν), Jn 9:19; Rom 4:10. β. of one about to controvert another, and emphatically deny that the thing inquired about has happened or been done: Mt 12:29; Mk 3:23; Lk 11:18; Jn 3:4, Jn 3:12; Jn 5:44, Jn 5:47; Jn 6:52; Jn 9:16; 1 Jn 3:17; 1 Jn 4:20; Rom 3:6; Rom 6:2; 1 Cor 14:7, 1 Cor 14:9, 1 Cor 14:16; 1 Tim 3:5; Heb 2:3; καί πῶς, Mk 4:13; Jn 14:5 (here L text Tr WH omit καί); πῶς οὖν, Mt 12:26; Rom 10:14 R G; πῶς δέ, Rom 10:14a R G L marginal reading, 14b R G T, 15 R G (on this see in b. below). where something is asserted and an affirmative answer is expected, πῶς οὐχί is used: Rom 8:32; 2 Cor 3:8. γ. of surprise, intimating that what has been done or is said could not have been done or said, or not rightly done or said — being equivalent to how is it, or how has it come to pass, that etc.: Gal 2:14 G L T Tr WH; Mt 22:12; Jn 4:9; Jn 6:52; Jn 7:15; πῶς λέγεις, λέγουσι, κτλ., Mk 12:35; Lk 20:41; Jn 8:38; καί πῶς, Lk 20:44; Acts 2:8; καί πῶς σύ λέγεις, Jn 12:34; Jn 14:9 (here L T WH omit; Tr brackets καί); πῶς οὖν, Jn 6:42 (here T WH Tr text πῶς νῦν); Mt 22:43; πῶς οὐ, how is it that... not, why not? Mt 16:11; Mk 8:21 R G L marginal reading; (R G T); Lk 12:56.
b. the deliberative subjunctive (where the question is, how that can be done which ought to be done): πῶς πληρωθῶσιν αἱ γραφαί, how are the Scriptures (which ought to be fulfilled) to be fulfilled? Mt 26:54; πῶς φύγητε, how shall ye (who wish to escape) escape etc. Mt 23:33; add, πῶς οὖν, Rom 10:14 L T Tr WH; πῶς δέ, Rom 10:14a L text T Tr WH; 14{b} L Tr WH; 15 L T Tr WH (Sir. 49:11); cf. Fritzsche on Romans, vol. ii., 405f c. followed by ἄν with the optative: πῶς γάρ ἄν δυναίμην; Acts 8:31 (on which see ἄν, III., p. 34b).
II. By a somewhat negligent use, occasionally met with, even in Attic writings, but more frequent in later authors, πῶς is found in indirect discourse, where regularly ὅπως ought to have stood; cf. Winers Grammar, § 57, 2 at the end; (Liddell and Scott, under the word, IV.).
a. with the indicative — present: Mt 6:28; Mk 12:41; Lk 12:27; Acts 15:36; 1 Cor 3:10; Eph 5:15; Col 4:6; 1 Tim 3:15; τό πῶς (on the article see ὁ, II. 10 a.); with the imperfect Lk 14:7; with the perfect, Rev 3:3; with the aorist, Mt 12:4; Mk 2:26 (here Tr WH brackets πῶς); Lk 8:36; Acts 9:27, etc.; after ἀναγινώσκειν, Mk 12:26 T Tr WH; how it came to pass that, etc. Jn 9:15; with the future: μέριμνα, πῶς ἀρέσει (because the direct question would be πῶς ἀρέσω;), 1 Cor 7:32-34 (but L T Tr WH ἀρέσῃ); ἐζήτουν πῶς αὐτόν ἀπολέσουσιν, how they shall destroy him (so that they were in no uncertainty respecting his destruction, but were only deliberating about the way in which they will accomplish it), Mk 11:18 R G (but the more correct reading here, according to the best manuscripts, including codex Siniaticus, is ἀπολέσωσιν 'how they should destroy him' (cf. Winers Grammar, § 41 b. 4 b.; Buttmann, § 139, 61; see the next entry)).
b. with the subjunctive, of the aorist and in deliberation: Mk 11:18 L T Tr WH; Mk 14:1, Mk 14:11 (R G); Mt 10:19; Lk 12:11; τό πῶς, Lk 22:2, Lk 22:4; Acts 4:21.
III. in exclamation, how: πῶς δύσκολόν ἐστιν, Mk 10:24; πῶς παραχρῆμα, Mt 21:20; πῶς δυσκόλως, Mk 10:23; Lk 18:24; with a verb, how (greatly): πῶς συνέχομαι, Lk 12:50; πῶς ἐφίλει αὐτόν, Jn 11:36.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain
Topical studies with this word 1 entry
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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