TR: mayim → hudor (Water)¶
The Chain¶
Hebrew OT LXX (Greek OT) Greek NT
─────────── ─────────────── ────────
מַיִם (mayim) → ὕδωρ (hudōr) → ὕδωρ (hudōr)
H4325, 524x in OT co-occ: 465x (PMI 32.87) G5204, 70x in NT
"water(s)" primary bridge "water(s)"
OT Usage (Hebrew)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| H4325 | מַיִם (mayim) | 524 unique vv (631 tokens) | water, waters |
| H2416 חַי in phrase מַיִם חַיִּים | — | ~12x | "living (running) water" |
| H4726 | מָקוֹר (maqor) | 18 | spring, fountain, source |
| H4599 | מַעְיָן (maʻyan) | 23 | fountain, spring |
Key OT passages: - Gen 1:2 — "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" - Exod 17:6 — "thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it" - Num 20:8–11 — Meribah; water out of the rock - Jer 2:13 — "they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters" - Ezek 47:9 — "every thing shall live whither the river cometh" - Zech 14:8 — "living waters shall go out from Jerusalem"
LXX Bridge¶
| Hebrew | Greek Translation | Co-occ | PMI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| mayim (H4325) | ὕδωρ (G5204) | 465 | 32.87 | Primary — dominant rendering |
| mayim (H4325) | πίνω (G4095, drink) | 64 | 15.65 | verbal pairing |
| mayim (H4325) | ποταμός (G4215, river) | 40 | 12.57 | when riverine |
| mayim (H4325) | πηγή (G4077, fountain) | 33 | 15.30 | when source/spring |
| mayim (H4325) | λούω (G3068, bathe) | 30 | 16.98 | ritual washing |
| mayim (H4325) | πλύνω (G4150, wash) | 24 | 14.27 | laundry washing |
| mayim (H4325) | ποτίζω (G4222, give drink) | 19 | 11.70 | watering / giving drink |
| mayim (H4325) | διψάω (G1372, thirst) | 18 | 12.91 | co-context of lacking water |
| mayim (H4325) | ἄβυσσος (G12, deep) | 13 | 4.08 | cosmic primordial waters |
Reverse: G5204 hudor ← Hebrew:
| Hebrew | Co-occ | PMI |
|---|---|---|
| H4325 mayim | 465 | 32.87 |
| H7364 rachats (wash) | 42 | 18.13 |
| H8354 shathah (drink) | 60 | 15.72 |
| H3526 kabas (wash clothes) | 22 | 13.70 |
| H4599 maʻyan (spring) | 14 | 13.30 |
| H2975 yeʼor (Nile/river) | 17 | 11.55 |
| H7857 shataph (flood) | 13 | 11.45 |
| H6388 peleg (stream) | 8 | 11.37 |
Semantic continuity: ὕδωρ inherits the full Hebrew semantic range of mayim — drinking water, ritual washing water, riverine/oceanic water, cosmic/creation waters, figurative living water. The LXX translators used ὕδωρ as an almost one-to-one substitute. Where Hebrew specifies a body of water (river, spring, well, flood), Greek often disambiguates with ποταμός/πηγή/ἄβυσσος, but ὕδωρ remains the default.
NT Usage (Greek)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| G5204 | ὕδωρ (hudōr) | 70 in NT | water, waters |
| G4077 | πηγή (pēgē) | 11 | fountain, spring, source |
| G4215 | ποταμός (potamos) | 17 | river |
| G12 | ἄβυσσος (abyssos) | 9 | deep, abyss |
| G907 | βαπτίζω (baptizō) | 77 | dip, immerse, baptize (water-action verb) |
| G3068 | λούω (louō) | 5 | bathe |
| G1372 | διψάω (dipsaō) | 16 | thirst |
| G4095 | πίνω (pinō) | 73 | drink |
Key NT passages: - Matt 3:11 — "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance" - Mark 1:8 ‖ Luke 3:16 ‖ John 1:26 — synoptic/Johannine parallels on water baptism - John 2:7–9 — water turned to wine at Cana - John 3:5 — "born of water and of the Spirit" - John 4:10–15 — "living water" dialogue (Samaritan well) - John 7:37–38 — "if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" - John 19:34 — "forthwith came there out blood and water" - Eph 5:26 — "cleanse it with the washing of water by the word" - Heb 9:19; 10:22 — water in the Mosaic cleansing pattern - 1 John 5:6, 8 — "he that came by water and blood" - Rev 7:17; 21:6; 22:1, 17 — "fountain of the water of life"; "river of water of life"
Direct OT→NT Resonances¶
| NT Verse | OT Background | Shared Concept | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| John 4:10–14 | Jer 2:13; 17:13; Zech 14:8 | "living water" (מַיִם חַיִּים → ὕδωρ ζῶν) | Jesus takes up the OT prophetic image of YHWH as fountain of living waters |
| John 7:38 | Isa 12:3; 44:3; Ezek 47:1–12 | rivers of living water | Messianic water-from-the-temple fulfillment |
| Rev 7:17; 21:6 | Isa 49:10; 55:1 | fountains of water / no thirst | new-creation water-gift language |
| Rev 22:1 | Ezek 47; Zech 14:8; Gen 2:10 | river of water of life from the throne | Edenic + Ezekielian + Zecharian confluence |
| 1 Cor 10:4 | Exod 17:6; Num 20:11 | water from the rock | typology: "that Rock was Christ" |
| Heb 10:22 | Ezek 36:25; Num 19 | bodies washed with pure water | new-covenant cleansing application |
Continuity and Shifts¶
What stays the same across testaments: - Water as the default beverage for human sustenance — drunk, drawn, rationed, begged for (OT: Gen 24; 1 Kgs 13, 17, 22; Amos 4:8 / NT: Matt 10:42; Mark 9:41) - Water as ritual purifier (OT: Lev 14–15; Num 19; Ezek 36:25 / NT: Matt 3:11; Eph 5:26; Heb 10:22) - Water as cosmic/chaos agent (OT: Gen 1:2; flood; Exodus sea / NT: 2 Pet 3:5–6; Rev 12:15) - Water as figurative abundance, life, salvation (OT: Isa 12:3; 55:1; Jer 2:13 / NT: John 4; 7:38; Rev 22:1)
What shifts: - In the NT, water becomes heavily sacramentally loaded (baptism, eucharistic contrast to wine) in a way the OT only typologically anticipates - The OT "living waters" prophetic image becomes explicitly christologically and pneumatologically located (John 4:14; 7:38–39 glossed as "the Spirit") - Physical drinking water retreats as a named topic (the NT has far fewer narrative drinking-water scenes than the OT's pilgrim/siege/wilderness contexts), though it remains assumed as the default (John 4 at the well; Matt 10:42 cup of cold water)
Generated from: gather_trace_data.py (H4325 → G5204), search_strongs.py, LXX alignment (PMI-ranked) Last updated: 2026-04-19