ποταμός
river
‘river’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Accusative-case word in the Greek New Testament →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Case
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
- Dative
- The case of the indirect object, means, or location — “to / for / with / in.”
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one.
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Accusative, Singular, Masculine 5 times (29%)
- Noun, Dative, Singular, Masculine 3 times (18%)
- Noun, Nominative, Plural, Masculine 3 times (18%)
- Noun, Genitive, Plural, Masculine 2 times (12%)
- Noun, Nominative, Singular, Masculine 2 times (12%)
- Noun, Accusative, Plural, Masculine 1 time (6%)
- Noun, Genitive, Singular, Masculine 1 time (6%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (Robinson–Tischendorf, public domain), counted across 17 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where G4215 appears — 17 distinct verses across 7 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Matthew 3 verses
- Matthew 3:6 ποταμῷ n dat sg masc They were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
- Matthew 7:25 ποταμοὶ n nom pl masc The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn't fall, for it was founded on the rock.
- Matthew 7:27 ποταμοὶ n nom pl masc The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell--and great was its fall."
Mark 1 verse
Luke 2 verses
- Luke 6:48 ποταμὸς n nom sg masc He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it was founded on the rock.
- Luke 6:49 ποταμός n nom sg masc But he who hears, and doesn't do, is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."
John 1 verse
Acts 1 verse
2 Corinthians 1 verse
Revelation 8 verses
- Revelation 8:10 ποταμῶν n gen pl masc The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on one third of the rivers, and on the springs of the waters.
- Revelation 9:14 ποταμῷ n dat sg masc saying to the sixth angel who had one trumpet, "Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!"
- Revelation 12:15 ποταμόν n acc sg masc The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream.
- Revelation 12:16 ποταμὸν n acc sg masc The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon spewed out of his mouth.
- Revelation 16:4 ποταμοὺς n acc pl masc The third poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.
- Revelation 16:12 ποταμὸν n acc sg masc The sixth poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. Its water was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sunrise.
- Revelation 22:1 ποταμὸν n acc sg masc He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
- Revelation 22:2 ποταμοῦ n gen sg masc in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
ποταμος (potamós) is a Greek noun most often rendered “river.” It first appears in Matthew 3:6. Spanning 17 verses in 7 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Greek New Testament. Revelation dominates its distribution — 8 of 17 verses. Its lexical range runs to 3 senses. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G4215 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 17
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 17 distinct verses.
- 7 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 7 of 27 New Testament books.
- #697
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Greek words (rank 697 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 17 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Revelation 8 verses 47%
- Matthew 3 verses 18%
- Luke 2 verses 12%
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 17 distinct verses.
- Johannine 9 verses · 53%
- Revelation 8 verses · 47%
- Gospels 7 verses · 41%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 3 verses · 18%
- Pauline corpus 1 verse · 6%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: River 5×, Rivers 3×, Flood 2×
- American Standard Version: River 6×, Rivers 4×, Floods 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: River 9×, Rivers 3×, Torrent 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: River 9×, Rivers 4×, Floods 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G4215 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G4215 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G4215 across 17 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G4215 across 17 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in Thayer's
The 3 senses Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- a stream, a river
- a torrent
- floods
Word origin
Derived from πινω (pínō) (G4095) — to drink.
Forms in the corpus
The 9 distinct written forms G4215 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| ποταμὸν potamòn | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Masculine | Acts 16:13 | 4 |
| ποταμοὶ potamoì | Noun, Nominative, Plural, Masculine | Matthew 7:25 | 3 |
| ποταμῷ potamō̂ | Noun, Dative, Singular, Masculine | Matthew 3:6 | 3 |
| ποταμῶν potamō̂n | Noun, Genitive, Plural, Masculine | 2 Corinthians 11:26 | 2 |
| ποταμοὺς potamoùs | Noun, Accusative, Plural, Masculine | Revelation 16:4 | 1 |
| ποταμοῦ potamoû | Noun, Genitive, Singular, Masculine | Revelation 22:2 | 1 |
| ποταμόν potamón | Noun, Accusative, Singular, Masculine | Revelation 12:15 | 1 |
| ποταμός potamós | Noun, Nominative, Singular, Masculine | Luke 6:49 | 1 |
| ποταμὸς potamòs | Noun, Nominative, Singular, Masculine | Luke 6:48 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G4215, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- πιοτης piótēs G4096 fatness
- πομα póma G4188 drink
- ποσις pósis G4213 drink
- ποτηριον potḗrion G4221 cup
- ποτιζω potízō G4222 to give drink
- ποτος pótos G4224 drinking
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 9 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word ποταμος appears 205 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 175 verses in 27 books.
- 205
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 175
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 27 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 27 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 2:10 ποταμός
- Exodus 1:22 ποταμός
- Numbers 13:29 ποταμός
- Deuteronomy 1:7 ποταμός
- Joshua 1:4 ποταμός
- Judges 3:8 ποταμός
- 2 Samuel 8:3 ποταμός
- 1 Kings 2:46 ποταμός
- 2 Kings 5:12 ποταμός
- 1 Chronicles 1:36 ποταμός
- 2 Chronicles 9:26 ποταμός
- Ezra 4:10 ποταμός
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G4215) appears in the Greek Septuagint — showing the first 50 of 175. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Genesis 2:10 ποταμός A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became four heads.
- Genesis 2:13 ποταμός The name of the second river is Gihon: the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.
- Genesis 2:14 ποταμός The name of the third river is Hiddekel: this is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
- Genesis 15:18 ποταμός In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
- Genesis 31:21 ποταμός So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.
- Genesis 36:37 ποταμός Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth by the river, reigned in his place.
- Genesis 41:1 ποταμός It happened at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
- Genesis 41:2 ποταμός Behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, well-favored and fat-fleshed, and they fed in the reed-grass.
- Genesis 41:3 ποταμός Behold, seven other cattle came up after them out of the river, ill-favored and lean-fleshed, and stood by the other cattle on the brink of the river.
- Genesis 41:17 ποταμός Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, "In my dream, behold, I stood on the brink of the river:
- Genesis 41:18 ποταμός and, behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, fat-fleshed and well-favored. They fed in the reed-grass,
- Genesis 41:19 ποταμός and, behold, seven other cattle came up after them, poor and very ill-favored and lean-fleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for ugliness.
- Exodus 1:22 ποταμός Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, "You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive."
- Exodus 2:3 ποταμός When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.
- Exodus 2:5 ποταμός Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her handmaid to get it.
- Exodus 4:9 ποταμός It will happen, if they will not believe even these two signs, neither listen to your voice, that you shall take of the water of the river, and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land."
- Exodus 7:15 ποταμός Go to Pharaoh in the morning. Behold, he goes out to the water; and you shall stand by the river's bank to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand.
- Exodus 7:17 ποταμός Thus says Yahweh, "In this you shall know that I am Yahweh. Behold, I will strike with the rod that is in my hand on the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.
- Exodus 7:18 ποταμός The fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall become foul; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink water from the river."'"
- Exodus 7:19 ποταμός Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your rod, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their ponds of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.'"
- Exodus 7:20 ποταμός Moses and Aaron did so, as Yahweh commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
- Exodus 7:21 ποταμός The fish that were in the river died; and the river became foul, and the Egyptians couldn't drink water from the river; and the blood was throughout all the land of Egypt.
- Exodus 7:24 ποταμός All the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink; for they couldn't drink of the water of the river.
- Exodus 7:25 ποταμός Seven days were fulfilled, after Yahweh had struck the river.
- Exodus 7:28 ποταμός
- Exodus 8:1 ποταμός Yahweh spoke to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh, and tell him, "This is what Yahweh says, 'Let my people go, that they may serve me.
- Exodus 8:5 ποταμός Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch forth your hand with your rod over the rivers, over the streams, and over the pools, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.'"
- Exodus 8:7 ποταμός The magicians did in like manner with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.
- Exodus 17:5 ποταμός Yahweh said to Moses, "Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go.
- Exodus 23:31 ποταμός I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
- Numbers 13:29 ποταμός Amalek dwells in the land of the South: and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, dwell in the hill-country; and the Canaanite dwells by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan.
- Numbers 22:5 ποταμός He sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the surface of the earth, and they abide over against me.
- Numbers 24:6 ποταμός As valleys are they spread forth, As gardens by the river-side, As lign-aloes which Yahweh has planted, As cedar trees beside the waters.
- Deuteronomy 1:7 ποταμός turn you, and take your journey, and go to the hill-country of the Amorites, and to all [the places] near thereunto, in the Arabah, in the hill-country, and in the lowland, and in the South, and by the sea-shore, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
- Deuteronomy 11:24 ποταμός Every place whereon the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the hinder sea shall be your border.
- Joshua 1:4 ποταμός From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.
- Joshua 4:7 ποταμός then you shall tell them, Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh; when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.
- Joshua 5:1 ποταμός It happened, when all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard how that Yahweh had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.
- Joshua 24:2 ποταμός Joshua said to all the people, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods.
- Joshua 24:3 ποταμός I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.
- Joshua 24:14 ποταμός Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt; and serve you Yahweh.
- Joshua 24:15 ποταμός If it seem evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.
- Judges 3:8 ποταμός Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Cushan Rishathaim eight years.
- Judges 3:10 ποταμός The Spirit of Yahweh came on him, and he judged Israel; and he went out to war, and Yahweh delivered Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand: and his hand prevailed against Cushan Rishathaim.
- 2 Samuel 8:3 ποταμός David struck also Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to recover his dominion at the River.
- 2 Samuel 10:16 ποταμός Hadarezer sent, and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the River: and they came to Helam, with Shobach the captain of the host of Hadarezer at their head.
- 1 Kings 2:46 ποταμός So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out, and fell on him, so that he died. The kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.
- 1 Kings 5:4 ποταμός But now Yahweh my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary, nor evil occurrence.
- 1 Kings 8:65 ποταμός So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Yahweh our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.
- 1 Kings 10:26 ποταμός Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, that he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G4215) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
