Greek word · G416

ἀνεμίζομαι

anemizomai

be wind-blown

Anemizō: to be driven or stirred by wind. It is extremely rare; this is one of its earliest known uses. Rhipizō: to fan (a fire), to blow upon, to toss to and fro.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ἀνεμίζω = Attic ἀνεμόω

(ἄνεμος);

pass.,

to be driven by the wind: James 1:6.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of James 1:6

Range of meaning

Anemizō: to be driven or stirred by wind. It is extremely rare; this is one of its earliest known uses. Rhipizō: to fan (a fire), to blow upon, to toss to and fro.

Against the English

Translations rightly give "blown/driven and tossed". Both verbs are passive: the water does nothing itself and everything is done to it. That point can be lost when English uses active-sounding wording.

Used elsewhere in the period

Both are New Testament hapax legomena (words found only once in the New Testament). Classical writers use rhipizō for fanning flames and for wind driving things about. Anemizō turns up mainly in later Greek, such as commentaries on Homer.

Where it appears

James · 1

  1. James 1:6 ἀνεμιζομένῳ being blown by the wind

    But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

    Here: Literally "wind-ed": pushed around by wind. The word appears only here in the New Testament and is very rare elsewhere. The water has no motion of its own; whatever wind blows decides its direction.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.