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1 Thessalonians 5:25 — Word Study

Depth

N1904Ἀδελφοί, προσεύχεσθε καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν.¶

BSABrothers,adelphos [fellow believers, brethren] do prayproseuchomai [to worship, petition] also forperi us.egō

Word
Listen & take away1 Thessalonians 5
English ↓ Download MP3 The Berean Standard Bible chapter audio already hosted for the site's Bible section — verse 25 is in this chapter.
Say the word Each Greek word carries its transliteration (egō) — no per-word recordings of the Greek exist to link to.
Take it away
1 Thessalonians 5:25quick helps
In a sentencePaul asks the Thessalonians to pray for him and his companions.
Who is speakingThe Apostle Paul, addressing fellow believers.
Where we areThis verse is part of Paul's concluding exhortations in his letter.
The hard wordπροσεύχομαι
Take awayPrayer is a communal activity, emphasizing the support among believers.
8 commentators on this verse Gill, Jamieson, Poole, Trapp & more — read them › clause verbπροσεύχομαι The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
How rare are these words?in the New Testament

Every word here is used elsewhere in the New Testament.

Bars are logarithmic — , the commonest word in the Greek New Testament, stands 19,867 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.

Deep Study — 1 Thessalonians 5:25

Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.

Context — Final Exhortations in 1 Thessaloniansgenerated

24The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.
25Brothers, pray for us as well.
26Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.
27I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

1 Thessalonians 5:25 is part of Paul's final instructions to the church in Thessalonica. He emphasizes the importance of prayer and mutual support among believers. This verse is a straightforward request for prayer, showing Paul's reliance on the Thessalonians' spiritual support as he carries out his ministry.


Cross References

ReferenceText (BSB)
1Romans 15:30Now I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.
22 Corinthians 1:11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the favor shown us in answer to their prayers.
3Ephesians 6:18–20Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.
4Philippians 1:19because I know that through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, my distress will turn out for my deliverance.
5Colossians 4:3as you pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 8 references, hung on the phrase they belong to


The Key Word προσεύχομαι, proseuchomaigenerated

The verb προσεύχομαι means to pray, specifically directed towards God. It is a present imperative, indicating an ongoing action that Paul encourages the Thessalonians to continue doing. This highlights the importance of prayer in the life of the church and the need for believers to intercede for one another.

The imperative form suggests urgency and importance, as Paul is not merely making a suggestion but rather a strong request for their prayers. This reflects the communal nature of faith, where believers support each other through prayer.


How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated

The verse is rendered as Brothers, pray for us as well. in the Berean Standard Bible, which aligns closely with the KJV and ASV: both use Brethren, pray for us.

The BBE translates it as Brothers, keep us in mind in your prayers., which adds a nuance of remembrance in prayer, while the WEB and others maintain a direct request for prayer.


Sentence Structuregenerated

The main verb of the verse is προσεύχεσθε, do pray, which governs the request made to the Thessalonians. The structure is straightforward, with the subject implied as 'you' (the Thessalonians) and the direct object being the action of prayer directed towards Paul and his companions.

The sentence is simple in structure, consisting of a main clause that expresses a clear and direct request for prayer, demonstrating Paul's reliance on the support of the church.


Septuagint Backgroundgenerated

In 1 Thessalonians 5:25, the word Ἀδελφοί (adelphos), meaning 'Brothers,' corresponds to the Hebrew word אָח (ach), which also means 'brother.' This connection emphasizes the communal bond among believers, highlighting the familial aspect of the Christian community.

The verb προσεύχεσθε (proseuchomai), meaning 'do pray,' relates to the Hebrew פָּלַל (palal), which can imply intervening or interceding. This choice underscores the importance of prayer as a means of support and intercession within the community.


In plain words — the whole versegenerated

1 Thessalonians 5:25 shows Paul asking the Thessalonians to pray for him and his team. This reflects the importance of prayer in the Christian community, as believers support one another in their spiritual journeys.


Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated

Why does Paul ask for prayer from the Thessalonians?

Paul asks for prayer to seek the support and intercession of the Thessalonian believers, emphasizing the communal aspect of faith.

What does it mean to pray for someone?

To pray for someone means to bring their needs and concerns before God, asking for His help and guidance in their lives.

How can I pray for others effectively?

Effective prayer for others involves being specific about their needs, seeking God's will for their lives, and being persistent in prayer.

Is it important for Christians to pray for each other?

Yes, praying for each other is vital in the Christian community as it fosters unity, support, and spiritual growth among believers.


Reflection Questionsgenerated

  1. How can I support my fellow believers through prayer in my community?
  2. What specific needs can I bring before God for others this week?
  3. In what ways can I encourage others to pray for me and my needs?
  4. How does prayer strengthen the bond between members of the church?

The early church on this verse — how the Fathers read it

John Chrysostom comments on Paul's humility in asking for prayer, highlighting the importance of mutual support in the Christian community.

John ChrysostomHomily on 1 Thessalonians 11 c. 347–407
"Brethren, pray for us also." Strange! what humility is here! But he indeed said this for the sake of humility, but we, not from humility, but for the sake of great benefit, and wishing to gain some great profit from you, say,

John Chrysostom notes that Paul's request for prayer reflects humility and the desire for spiritual benefit from the Thessalonians.

Early Church Fathers on 1 Thessalonians 5 →

Commentators on this verse — 8 expositors, verse by verse

Each of these wrote on 1 Thessalonians 5:25 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.

John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Brethren, pray for us. Which is added with great beauty and propriety, after the apostle had so earnestly and affectionately prayed for them; and this is directed, not to the pastors of the church

Read John Gill on 1 Thessalonians 5 →
Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary

Brethren, pray for us. B Delta read 'Pray ye also for [ peri (G4012), concerning] us,' even as we have been just praying for you (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Read Robert Jamieson on 1 Thessalonians 5 →
Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The apostle a little before had prayed for them, now he begs prayers of them, as he doth of other churches, . Ministers and people need each others’ prayers, and it is a mutual duty they owe to one another. Ministers are obliged by special office, people by common duty, with respect to the success of the gospel in general, , and their own edification by their labours. The apostle, as he did not think it below him to call these Thessalonians brethren, so neither to beg their prayers. Those that stand highest in the church may stand in need of the meanest and lowest; the head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee. Those that preach not the gospel, may yet promote it by their prayers…

Read Matthew Poole on 1 Thessalonians 5 →
John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

25 Brethren, pray for us. Ver. 25. Brethren, pray for us] The best may need the prayers of the meanest. God will have us beholden herein one to another, 1 Corinthians 12:21-22. How earnest is that great apostle in begging prayers, Romans 15:30. Pray for me, I say, pray for me, I say (quoth father Latimer), for I am sometimes so fearful that I could creep into a mouse hole; sometimes God doth visit me again with his comfort. (Acts and Mon.)

Read John Trapp on 1 Thessalonians 5 →
Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) Pray for us.—Taken in conjunction with what follows, this probably is a petition for remembrance in the great public service.

Read Charles John Ellicott on 1 Thessalonians 5 →
AdamClarkeAdam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

Verse 25. Pray for me.] Even apostles, while acting under an extraordinary mission, and enjoying the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, felt the necessity of the prayers of the faithful. God requires that his people should pray for his ministers; and it is not to be wondered at, if they who pray not for their preachers should receive no benefit from their teaching. How can they expect God to send a message by him, for whom they, who are the most interested, have not prayed? If the grace and Spirit of Christ be not worth the most earnest prayers which a man can offer, they, and the heaven to which they lead, are not worth having.

Read AdamClarke on 1 Thessalonians 5 →
CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The Conclusion1 Thessalonians 5:25-28 The conclusion of the Epistle is very brief. It contains no reference to the autograph signature, which St Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3:17 and in subsequent letters is careful to notify. The urgent request “that the Epistle be read to all the brethren,” is its notable feature.

Read Cambridge on 1 Thessalonians 5 →
Albert Barnes1798–1870Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Brethren, pray for us - A request which the apostle often makes; notes on Hebrews 13:18.

Read Albert Barnes on 1 Thessalonians 5 →

The verse in English, compared — 16 translations, and where they part company

Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.

Modern formal

BSBBerean Standard Bible2020

Brothers, pray for us as well.

WEBWorld English Bible2000

Brothers, pray for us.

MSBMajority Standard Bible2022

Brothers, pray for us.

NETBNew English Translation2006

Brothers and sisters, pray for us too.

Tyndale line

KJVKing James Version1611

Brethren, pray for us.

ASVAmerican Standard Version1901

Brethren, pray for us.

RVARevised Version, American1894

Brethren, pray for us.

NWBWebster's Bible1833

Brethren, pray for us.

GNVGeneva Bible1599

Brethren, pray for vs.

Strictly literal

DBYDarby Translation1890

Brethren, pray for us.

YLTYoung's Literal Translation1862

Brethren, pray for us;

LSVLiteral Standard Version2020

Brothers, pray for us.

ULBUnlocked Literal Bible2017

Brothers, pray also for us.

From the Latin

DRADouay-Rheims (Challoner)1899

Brethren, pray for us.

Simplified

FBVFree Bible Version2020

Brothers and sisters, pray for us.

BBEBible in Basic English1949

Brothers, keep us in mind in your prayers.

Word by word, the decisions they made

Ἀδελφοί,adelphos Brothers, G80 2 different renderings
brethrenASV DBY DRA GNV KJV NWB RVA YLT
brothersBBE BSB FBV LSV MSB NETB ULB WEB

Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.


The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the Nestle 1904 treebank

This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.

clauseclauseἈδελφοίBrothersclauseverbπροσεύχεσθεprayprepositional phrase · adverbialπερὶforἡμῶνus

Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.


The earliest translations — Latin and Syriac

Every translation is an argument about meaning made by someone who had to commit to one. These two were made while the Greek was still a living language, and they are the oldest opinions we have about what this verse says.

Latin VulgateAD 382–405

Fratres, orate pro nobis.

Jerome revised the Old Latin against the Greek from AD 382; the Latin west read this text for a thousand years.

Syriac Peshittaby AD 400

ܐܚܝ ܨܠܘ ܥܠܝܢ

The Bible of the Syriac-speaking church, in the language nearest to the Aramaic Jesus spoke.

Shown verse by verse rather than word by word: aligning a Greek word to its Latin or Syriac counterpart automatically would be guesswork, and a wrong alignment is worse than none.


The Greek editions compared — what the manuscripts actually say

Eight printed editions of the Greek New Testament, side by side. Where they agree the wording is settled; where a word is missing from an edition it is marked, so you can see the difference rather than take it on trust.

Nestle-Aland 28th edition2012 · Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft

Ἀδελφοί, προσεύχεσθε καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν.¶

The standard critical text of the New Testament.

Nestle-Aland 27th edition1993 · Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft

Ἀδελφοί, προσεύχεσθε καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν.¶

The previous edition, still widely cited.

SBL Greek New Testament2010 · Michael Holmes

Ἀδελφοί, προσεύχεσθε περὶ ἡμῶν.¶

The Society of Biblical Literature edition, freely licensed.

Westcott–Hort1881 · Westcott and Hort

Ἀδελφοί, προσεύχεσθε καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν.¶

The edition that turned scholarship toward the earliest manuscripts.

Tregelles1857–1879 · Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

Ἀδελφοί, προσεύχεσθε περὶ ἡμῶν.¶

An independent critical text built from the oldest witnesses then known.

Tyndale House Greek NT2017 · Tyndale House, Cambridge

Ἀδελφοί, προσεύχεσθε περὶ ἡμῶν.¶

A recent critical edition following documentary evidence closely.

Byzantine majority text2018 · Robinson–Pierpont

Ἀδελφοί, προσεύχεσθε περὶ ἡμῶν.¶

The reading of the majority of surviving manuscripts.

Textus Receptus1550/1894 lineage

Ἀδελφοί, προσεύχεσθε περὶ ἡμῶν.¶

The printed tradition behind the King James Version.

Every witness on this verse they differ
Critical editions
Nestle-Aland 28th edition2012Nestle-Aland 27th edition1993SBL Greek New Testament2010Westcott–Hort1881Tregelles1857–1879Tyndale House Greek NT2017
Byzantine / Majority
Byzantine majority text2018
Received Text
Textus Receptus1550/1894

A witness that read differently would show its variant word here, marked.

Word by word, across the editions

WordEditions carrying itMissing from
καὶ alsoNA28, NA27, WHSBL, Treg, Tyn, TR, Byz

The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with

This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Greek New Testament — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.

1 Thessalonians 5:25ἀδελφόςBrothers,Brothers,ἀδελφόςπροσεύχομαιdo praydo prayπροσεύχομαικαίalsoalsoκαίπερίforforπερίημωνus.us.ημωνἄλφαletter theletter the firsἄλφαπρόςPrep. to, Prep. to, towarπρόςπέρανAdv over, Adv over, beyonπέρανἈνδρέαςn.m. Andren.m. AndrewἈνδρέαςἀδελφήn.f. a sisn.f. a sisterἀδελφήἐπιτίθημιv. I put, v. I put, placeἐπιτίθημιὄροςn.n. a moun.n. a mountainὄροςἀκριβῶς(Comp.)adv(Comp.)adv. carἀκριβῶςμέλειv. it is av. it is a careμέλει
meets it a little oftener than chancemeets it far oftener than chancebuilt from the same roottwo words of the verse share ita word of this versea related word

Lexicons — every word in 1 Thessalonians 5:25

One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Greek lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.

Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. Imported from the CrossWire SWORD modules — Abbott-Smith, the full Liddell-Scott-Jones, Strong's, Dodson, the Intermediate LSJ, Robinson and Packard on the Greek, Webster and Cawdrey on the English the translators were using. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.

Brothers, do pray also for us.
Ἀδελφοί,adelphos Brothers, G80 Noun · vocative · plural · masculine
343× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Thessalonians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The Greek word for brother refers to a male sibling or a fellow Christian, as seen in Matthew 1:2 and 1 Corinthians 1:1. It implies a close relationship.
Amplified meaning
fellow believers, brethren
Tyndale gloss
brother
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

ἀδελφός is built from a copulative particle and δελφύς, meaning 'womb.' It primarily refers to a brother, either by birth or in a broader sense, such as a fellow Christian or a member of the same nation. In the New Testament, it appears in various contexts, including familial and spiritual relationships, as seen in Matthew 1:2 and 1 Corinthians 1:1.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἀδελφός, -οῦ, ὁ

(< ἀ- copul., δελφύς, womb),

in cl., a brother, born of the same parent or parents. [In LXX (Hort, Ja., 102 f.), for אָח;]

lit. of a brother (Ge 4:2, al.).

Of a neighbour (Le 19:17).

Of a member of the same nation (Ex 2:14, De 15:3). In NT in each of these senses (1. Mt 1:2, al.; 2. Mt 7:3; 3. Ro 9:3) and also,

of a fellow-Christian: I Co 1:1, Ac 9:30. This usage finds…

Read the full entry →
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

ἀδελφός, -οῦ, ὁ, (fr. a copulative and δελφύς, from the same womb; cf. ἀγάστωρ), [fr. Hom. down]; 1. a brother (whether born of the same two parents, or only of the same father or the same mother): Mt. i. 2; iv. 18, and often. That ‘the brethren of Jesus,’ Mt. xii. 46, 47 [but WH only in mrg.]; xiii. 55 sq.; Mk. vi. 3 (in the last two passages also sisters); Lk. viii. 19 sq.; Jn. ii. 12; vii. 8; Acts i. 14; Gal. i. 19; 1 Co. 1. 5, are neither sons of Joseph by a wife married before Mary (which is the account in the Apocryphal Gospels [ef. Thilo, Cod. Apocr. N. T. i. 8362 sq.]), nor cousins, the children of Alpheus or Cleophas [i. 6. Clopas] and Mary a sister of the mother of Jesus (the current opinion among the doctors of the church since Jerome and Ausustine [ef. Bp. Lghtft. Com. on Gal., diss. ii.]), according to that use of language by which ἀδελφός like the Hebr. τὶ denotes any…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

ἀδελφός. For the literal and the more general derived sense we may quote Sy// 474° ἀδελφοὶ ols κοινὰ τὰ πατρῷα, and 276" διὰ τὸ Μεσσαλιήτας εἶναι ἡμῖν ἀδελφούς]. In P Lond 421 (B.C. 168) (= I. p. 30, Selections p. 9) ᾿Ισίας Ἡφαιστίωνι τῶι ἀδελφῶ[ι χαί(ρειν)], it seems probable that Isias is

Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

ἀδελφός (adelphos) — brother.

ἀδελφός [ᾰ],

(ἀ- copulative, δελφύς, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; compare ἀγάστωρ) properly, son of the same mother:

I. as substantive, ἀδελφός, ὁ, vocative ἄδελφ; Epic dialect, Ionic dialect, and Lyric poetry ἀδελφεός (genitive -ειοῦ in [Refs 8th c.BC+]:—brother, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἀδελφοί brother and sister, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; so of the Ptolemies, θεοὶ ἀδελφοί[Refs 3rd c.BC+]; ἀπ᾽ ἀμφοτέρων ἀδελφεός[LXX+5th c.BC+]

I.2. kinsman,[LXX]; tribesman, Ex.[Refs]

I.3. colleague, associate, [Refs]; member of a college, [Refs]

I.4. term of address, used by kings, [LXX+2nd c.BC+], etc.:—as a term of affection, applicable by wife to husband, [LXX+2nd c.BC+]

I.5. brother (as a fellow Christian), [NT]; of other religious communities, e.g. Serapeum, [Refs 2nd c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἀδελφός

adelphos

from 1 (as a connective particle) and delphus (the womb); a brother

(literally or figuratively) near or remote (much like 1):--brother.

see GREEK for 1

see GREEK for 1

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

ἀδελφός, οῦ, ὁ

n.m.

a brother

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἀδελφός adelphos 343x

a brother, near kinsman or relative; one of the same nation or nature; one of equal rank and dignity; an associate, a member of the Christian community

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

ἀδελφός α copul. , δελφύς; cf. Lat. couterinus ἀδελφοί are properly sons of the same mother:

as Subst., ἀδελφός, ὁ, voc. ἄδελφε (not -φέ), ionic ἀδελφεός, epic -ειός:—a brother, or generally, a near kinsman, ἀδελφοί brother and sister, like Lat. fratres, Eur.; ἀδελφεοὶ ἀπ᾽ ἀμφοτέρων brothers by both parents, i. e. not half-brothers, Hdt.

a brother (as a fellow Christian), NTest.

adj., ἀδελφός, ή, όν, brotherly or sisterly, Trag., Plat.

like Lat. geminus, gemellus, of anything in pairs, twin, Xen.:—then, just like, c. gen. or dat., ἀδελφὰ τῶνδε, ἀδελφὰ τούτοισι Soph.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Noun-VPM — Noun · vocative · plural · masculine
vocative — the one being addressed.
Agrees with anything else marked plural masculine.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

N-VPM Part of Speech: Noun Case: Vocative Number: Plural Gender: Masculine

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
64%brothers
brothers64% · 223×brother35% · 121×other renderings1% · 4×

348 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 5 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
subject25%object20%adverbial12%indirect object6%predicate4%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 343 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
Article the
καίand, even, also,ἸωάννηςJohnἈνδρέαςAndrew
σύ
δέbut, on the otheπερίἀδελφόςa brother
ἀνήρa male human being,
λέγωI say, speakποιέωI do, makeφημίI say
δέbut, on the other ha
σύἐγώπαραδίδωμιI hand over, del
οὖνtherefore, then
ἄραDisjἑπτάIndecλοιπόςleft, left behin
ἀδελφόςBrothers,343×
what comes after →
αὐτός
καίand, even, also,Article theἐν
ἐγώ
καίand, even, also,ἀγαπητόςloved, belovedArticle the
σύ
Article theκαίand, even, also,ὡςas, like as, how
Article the
κύριοςlord, Lord, mastἐκκλησίαan assembly, conεὐαγγέλιονthe good news, t
καίand, even, also, nam
Article theἀδελφήa sisterπατήρfather, Father,

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceἀδελφός · 343× in the New Testament
Acts 1 Corinthians Matthew Luke Mark 1 Thessalonians James Romans 1 John John 2 Corinthians Galatians

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament25 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 419 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Josephus Philo of Alexandria Clement of Rome The Shepherd of Hermas Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 12c. AD 40

ἀλλ’ ὅ γε μέγας Μωυσῆς ἀλλοτριώτατον τοῦ ὁρατοῦ νομίσας εἶναι τὸ ἀγένητον — πᾶν γὰρ τὸ αἰσθητὸν ἐν γενέσει καὶ μεταβολαῖς οὐδέποτε κατὰ ταὐτὰ ὄν — τῷ μὲν ἀοράτῳ καὶ νοητῷ προσένειμεν ὡς ἀδελφὸν καὶ συγγενὲς ἀιδιότητα, τῷ δ’ αἰσθητῷ γένεσιν οἰκεῖον…

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.53c. AD 75–95

οἱ μὲν οὖν ἀδελφοὶ διαφόροις ἔχαιρον ἐπιτηδεύμασιν·

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 2.10c. AD 100

ἀκριβεύεσθαι οὖν ὀφείλομεν, ἀδελφοί, περὶ τῆς σωτηρίας ἡμῶν, ἵνα μὴ ὁ πονηρὸς παρείσδυσιν πλάνης ποιήσας ἐν ἡμῖν ἐκσφενδονήσῃ ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 4th c. AD 3rd c. AD 1st c. AD 6th c. AD
P.Adl. 11Pathyris99 BC

1 ἔτους ιζ Θῶυθ κη ἀπέδοτο Πετεσοῦχος Φίβιος καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ τὸ ὕπαρχον αὐτοῖς ἥμισυ περιστερῶνος τοῦ ὄντος ἐν τῶι ἀπὸ βορρᾶ μέρει Παθύρεως χαλκοῦ

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

ν μέσος ἢ ἐλασσων μελίχρως μακροπρόσωπος εὐθύριν ὑπόσκνιφος, ἀπὸ τοῦ ὑπάρχοντος αὐτοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς παστοφορίου ὠκοδομημένου καὶ δεδοκωμένου καὶ τεθυρωμένου ἐν τῷ ἀπὸ νότου μέρει τοῦ ἐν Παθύρει

BGU 3 1000Pathyris99 BC

ἐτῶν ξ μέσος μελίχρως τετανὸς ἀναφάλακρος μακροπρόσωπος εὐθύριν ἀπὸ τῆς ὑπαρχούσης αὐτῷ καὶ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς γῆς ἠπείρου σιτοφόρου ἀδιαιρέτου ἐν τῷ ἀπὸ βορρᾶ πεδίωι Παθύρεως τὸ ἐπιβάλλον αὐτῷ μέρος

Brothers, do pray also for us.
προσεύχεσθεproseuchomai do pray G4336 Verb · present · no voice stated · imperative · second person · plural
86× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Thessalonians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
To pray to God, as Jesus did in Matthew 6:5-7 and Luke 1:10, or to worship Him
Amplified meaning
to worship, petition
Tyndale gloss
to pray
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

προσεύχομαι is a Greek verb meaning to pray, specifically directed towards God or gods. It is built from the roots meaning 'towards' and 'to vow.' The New Testament frequently uses this term in various contexts, including supplication and worship, as seen in verses like Matthew 6:5-7 and James 5:13. The entries do not present any significant disagreement.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

προσ-εύχομαι,

[in LXX chiefly for פלל hith.;]

to pray (always of prayer to God, or in cl., to gods): absol., Mt 6:5-7, 9 14:23 19:13 26:36, 39, 41, 44, Mk 1:35 6:46 11:24, 25 13:33 (WH, R, txt., om.) Mk 14:32, 38, 39, Lk 1:10 3:21 5:16 6:12 9:18, 28, 29 11:1, 2 18:1, 10 22:44 (WH, R, mg., om.), Ac 1:24 6:6 9:11, 40 10:9, 30 11:5 12:12 13:3 14:23 16:25 20:36 21:5 22:17 28:8, I Co 11:4, 5 14:14, I Th 5:17, I Ti 2:8, Ja 5:13, 18; seq. λέγων, Read the full entry →

Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

προσ-εύχομαι; depon. mid.; impf. προσηυχόμην ; fut. προσεύξομαι; 1 aor. mpoonv&duny; [on the augm. see WH. App. p. 162; ef. Τὰ Proleg. p. 121]; fr. Aeschyl. and Hat. down ; Sept. for Sbann; to offer prayers, to pray, (everywhere of prayers to the gods, or to God [cf. δέησις, fin.]): absol., Mt. vi. 5-7, 9; xiv. 23; xxvi. 36,39, 44; Mk. i. 35; vi.46; xi. 24 sq.; xiii. 33 [ΠΤ WH om. Tr br. the el.]; xiv. [32], 39; Lk. i. 10; iii. 21; v.16; vi. 12; ix. 18, 28 sq-; xi. 1.54. : xviii. 1, 10; xxii. 44 [Τὸ br. WH reject the pass.]; Acts i. 24; vi. 6; ix 11. 40. χ 9.530. Kio ois xii. 12; xiii. 3; xiv. 23; xvi. 25; xx. 86; χχὶ. 5; xxii. 17; xxviii. 8; 1 Co. xi. 4 sq.3 xiv.14; 1 Th.v.17; 1 Tim. ii. 8; Jas. v. 13,18; foll. by λέγων and direct disc. containing the words of the prayer, Mt. xxvi. 39, 42; Lk. xxii.41; προσεύχ- with a dat. indicating the manner or instrument, 1 Co. xi.5 [W. $31, 7d.]…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

προσεύχομαι. An interesting ex. of this verb, which is always used of prayer to the gods or to God, is afforded by P Cairo Zen 59034 (B.C. 257). A certain Zoilos had been ordered by the god Sarapis to inform a high State official Apollonios that a temple should be erected to him. Zoilos neglected the charge and in consequence was thrown into a serious illness κινδυνεῦσαί [pe. But on praying to the god and promising to do his bidding he was healed—* προσευξάμενος δὲ] αὐ[τῶι, ἐ]άμ pe] ὑγιάσηι, διότι ὑπομενῶ τὴν ληιτοϊῃυρ)γίαν καὶ ποιή[σει]ν τὸ ὑφ᾽ αὑτοῦ προστασσόμενον (supply ὑγιάσθην). [An important commentary on the whole letter is supplied by Deissmann Zxf. VIII. xxiv. p. 420ff.J. Cf. Pretsigke 3740 (i/a.b.) ΓἌττηος προσεύχετα[ι] τοῖς ᾿Αβύτο “νὰ θεοῖς, ἵνα ὑγιαίνῃ. See also 5.2.…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

προσεύχομαι (proseuchomai) — to pray.

προσεύχομαι,

future -ξομαι[Refs 4th c.BC+]:—offer prayers or vows, θεοῖς [Refs 5th c.BC+]

2. with accusative, π. τὸν θεόν address him in prayer, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

3. absolutely, offer prayers, worship, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; π. γλώσσῃ, πνεύματι, νοΐ, [NT]

II. with accusative of things, pray for a thing, νίκην πολέμου [Refs 5th c.BC+]: c.infinitive, ἕλκειν τὸ βέδυ π. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ζῆσαι προσεύχου pray for life, [Refs] with infinitive, [NT]; π. ἵνα.., περί τινων ὅπως, [NT]

Strong's Greek Dictionary

προσεύχομαι

proseuchomai

from 4314 and 2172; to pray to God, i.e. supplicate, worship:--pray (X

earnestly, for), make prayer.

see GREEK for 4314

see GREEK for 2172

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

προσεύχομαι

v.

I pray, pray for

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

προσεύχομαι proseuchomai 85x

to pray, offer prayer, Mt. 5:44; 6:5, 6

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

προσεύχομαι fut. ξομαι Dep.:

to offer prayers or vows, Aesch., Eur., etc.

c. acc., πρ. τὸν θεόν to address him in prayer, Ar.

absol. to offer prayers, to worship, Hdt., Aesch., etc.

πρ. τι to pray for a thing, Xen.

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Verb-PNM-2P — Verb · present · no voice stated · imperative · second person · plural
present no voice stated imperative — an action in progress.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

V-PNM-2P Part of Speech: Verb Tense: Present Voice: middle or passive depoNent Mood: iMperative Person: second Number: Plural

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
28%praying
praying28% · 24×do pray17% · 15×pray13% · 11×having prayed8% · 7×he prayed8% · 7×he was praying5% · 4×you may pray3% · 3×he should pray2% · 2×other renderings16% · 14×

87 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 20 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
verb86%adverbial14%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 86 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
καίand, even, also, nam
γρηγορέωI am awake, am vσύαὐτός
σύ
θύραa door, opportunκαταράομαιI curseπερί
αὐτός
πρόσωπονthe face, counteεἰμίI am, existλέγωI say, speak
ὅτανwhen, whensoever
καίand, even, also,δέbut, on the otheαὐτός
ἀπέρχομαιI come or go away fr
πάλινagain, further, δεύτερος& Adv
προσεύχομαιdo pray86×
what comes after →
Article the
δέbut, on the otheπατήρfather, Father, αὐτός
καίand, even, also, nam
αἰτέωI ask, request, λέγωI say, speakεἰμίI am, exist
ἵναin order that, so th
μήNegεἰCondδιερμηνεύωI translate, int
περί
ἐγώArticle theαὐτός
δέbut, on the other ha
ἵναin order that, sμήNegκαίand, even, also,

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceπροσεύχομαι · 86× in the New Testament
Luke Acts Matthew Mark 1 Corinthians James Colossians 1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 1 Timothy Ephesians Hebrews
Across the New Testament15 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 44 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Ignatius of Antioch The Shepherd of Hermas The Didache Philo of Alexandria Josephus
Philo of AlexandriaOn Dreams 2.139c. AD 40

Ἆρ’ οὖν, φησίν, ἐλεύσομαι μὲν ὁ ὀρθὸς λόγος, ἐγώ, ἀφίξεται δὲ καὶ ἡ τοῦ φιλομαθοῦς θιάσου [ψυχὴ] μήτηρ ὁμοῦ καὶ τροφός, ἀρετῶσα παιδεία, συντενοῦσι δὲ καὶ οἱ ἀμφοτέρων ἡμῶν ἔγγονοι καὶ στάντες ἀντικρὺς οὕτω κατὰ στοῖχον ἐν κόσμῳ τὰς χεῖρας ἐξάραντες…

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 10.252c. AD 75–95

ὁρῶντες οὖν τὸν Δανίηλον τρὶς τῆς ἡμέρας προσευχόμενον τῷ θεῷ πρόφασιν ἔγνωσαν εὑρηκέναι, διʼ ἧς ἀπολέσουσιν αὐτόν.

Clement of RomeSecond Clement 16.4c. AD 96

καλὸν οὖν ἐλεημοσύνη ὡς μετάνοια ἁμαρτίας: κρείσσων νηστεία προσευχῆς, ἐλεημοσύνη δὲ ἀμφοτέρων: ἀγάπη δὲ καλύπτει πλῆθος ἁμαρτιῶν, προσευχὴ δὲ ἐκ καλῆς συνειδήσεως ἐκ θανάτου ῥύεται.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
4th c. AD 3rd c. BC undated
P.Lond. 7 2046Philadelphia (Arsinoites)276 BC–227 BC

μόνος, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἰκείους ἔχω ἵνα καὶ περὶ τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ τῆς σῆς ὑγιείας προσεύχωμαι. γέγραφα οὖν σοι ἵνα μὴ ἀλλότριος ἐμπέσηι, ἀλλʼ ἐγώ σοι ὑπάρχω. εὐτύχει.

P.Lond. 6 1926AD 326–AD 375

ἴασιν λαμβάνω. δέομαι τῷ θεῷ δέομαι καὶ σοι μνήσθητί μου ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ σου προσευχῇ. εἰ καὶ ἐν σώματι οὐκ ἧκα παρὰ τοὺς πόδας σου ἐν πνεύματι ἧκα πρὸς

P.Neph. 12Omboi ?AD 301–AD 400

Σεραπίωνα ἀ … … Ταϩμουρού· ἀσπάζομαι Καπίτωνα· ἀσπάζομαι ὑμᾶς πάντας τοὺς ἀδελφούς μου, ὅπως προσεύχησθε περὶ ἐμοῦ. γράφω σοι, Νεφερῶς, προνοήσῃς τὸ μικρὸν … … ον γῆς, ὡς ἔρχομαι,

Brothers, do pray also for us.
καὶ also G2532
8,978× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
about as common in 1 Thessalonians as anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
And or also, a connecting word used to join ideas or words, like in Matthew 2:18 and Hebrews 1:1.
Tyndale gloss
and
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

καί (kai) is a conjunction meaning 'and,' used to connect words, phrases, and clauses. It serves various functions, including copulative and adjunctive uses, and can express cumulative ideas like 'also' or 'even.' The New Testament frequently employs it to link terms and sentences, as seen in verses like Matthew 2:18 and John 10:3. Abbott-Smith notes its use in both simple and complex structures, while Thayer emphasizes its role as the most common particle in the New Testament.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

καί,

conj.,

and.

Copulative.

Connecting single words;

in general: Mt 2:18 16:1, Mk 2:15, Lk 8:15, He 1:1, al. mult.; repeated before each of the terms in a series, Mt 23:23, Lk 14:21, Ro 7:12 9:4, al.;

connecting numerals (WM, § 37, 4): Jo 2:20, Ac 13:20;

joining terms which are not mutually exclusive, as the part with the whole: Mt 8:33 26:59, Mk 16:17,

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

καί, a conj., and; the most freq. by far of all the particles in the N. T. [On its uses see W. § 53, 3sqq.; B. 361 (310) sqq., and ef. Ellicott on Phil. iv. 12; on the difference between it and τέ see 8. v. τέ ad init. ] I. It serves as a copulative i.e. to connect (Lat. et, atque, Germ. und) ; 1. it connects single words or terms: a. univ., as of Φαρισαῖοι καὶ Σαδδουκαῖοι, Mt. xvi. 1; ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατήρ, he who is God and Father (see θεός, 3); ἐν καρδίᾳ καλῇ καὶ ἀγαθῇ, Lk. viii. 15; πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως, ΗΘ}. 1. 1; it is repeated before single terms, to each of which its own force and weight is thus given: ἡ υἱοθεσία καὶ ἡ δόξα καὶ ai διαθῆκαι καὶ ἡ νομοθεσία καὶ ἡ λατρεία καὶ αἱ ἐπαγγελίαι, Ro. ix. 4 ; ἁγία καὶ δικαία καὶ ἀγαθή, Ro. vii. 12; add, Mt. xxiii. 23; Lk. xiv. 21; Jn. xvi. 8; Acts xv. 20, 29; xxi. 25; Heb. ix. 10; Rey. v. 12; xviii. 12 sq.; ef. W. 519 sq. (484). b. it…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

και. In LAE p. 129 ff. Deissmann discusses the thoroughly popular character of the Johannine style with its short paratactic sentences, introduced by kal. . . καί. To illustrate this, he cites amongst other exx. a Dream from the Serapeum, P Par 51 (B.C. 160) (= Selections, p. 18 ff. : see especially the amended readings in Archiv vi. p. 204), which runs—** ὦμ[ην] βατί -- δ)ίζειν pe [ἀπ]ὸ λειβὸς ἕως ἀ[ πηλι]ώτου, καὶ ἀναπίπτομαι ἐπ᾿ ἄχυρον" καὶ [ἄν]θρωπ[ος9] ἀπὸ λιβός μου, ἐχόμενός μου’ ἀναπίπτει καὶ αὐτός, καὶ ὥσπερ κεκλειμμ[évot] μου ἦσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου, καὶ ἐξαί[φνης] ἀνύγω τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς pov, καὶ ὁρῶ kTA., “ I dreamed that I was going from West to East, and I lie down upon chaff. And there | αὐτὸ (deleted in the original) Σεμφθεῖ. | ἐκ καινῆς ἐν Σομολ(ῶ)…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

καί (kai) — and.

καί,

conjunction, copulative, joining words and sentences,

__A and; also adverb, even, also, just, frequently expressing emphatic assertion or assent, corresponding as positive to the negative οὐ (μή) or οὐδέ (μηδέ). copulative, and,

__A.I joining words or sentences to those preceding, ἦ, καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ᾽ ὀφρύσινεῦσε Κρονίων [Refs 8th c.BC+]: repeated with two or more Nouns, αἱ δὲ ἔλαφοι κ. δορκάδες κ. οἱ ἄγριοι οἶες κ. οἱ ὄνοι οἱ ἄγριοι [Refs 5th c.BC+]; joining only the last pair, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; ὁ ὄχλος πλείων κ. πλείων ἐπέρρει more and more, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; to add epithets after πολύς, πολλὰ κ. ἐσθλά [Refs 8th c.BC+]

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

καί

kai

apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also

a cumulative force; and, also, even, so then, too, etc.; often used in

connection (or composition) with other particles or small words:--and,

also, both, but, even, for, if, or, so, that, then, therefore, when,

yet.

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

καί

Cj.

and, even, also, namely

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

καί kai 9x

(1) and, Mt. 2:2, 3, 11; 4:22; (2) καί ... καί, both ... and; (3) as a cumulative particle, also, too, Mt. 5:39; Jn. 8:19; 1 Cor. 11:6; (4) emphatic, even, also, Mt. 10:30; 1 Cor. 2:10; in NT adversative, but, Mt. 11:19; also introductory of the apodosis of a sentence, Gal. 3:28; Jas. 2:4

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ol'-so: In the Greek kai, when it is equivalent to "also" or "even," is always placed before the word or phrase which it is intended to emphasize (e.g. Ac 12:3; 1 Joh 4:21). Mt 6:14 should therefore read, "Your heavenly Father will forgive you also"; Lu 6:13, "Whom also he named apostles"; Heb 8:6, "The mediator of a better covenant also"; and 1Th 4:14, `If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also (we believe that) those who are fallen asleep in Jesus, God will bring with Him.'

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
89%and
and89% · 8448×also8% · 714×other renderings2% · 191×other renderings1% · 124×

9,477 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 42 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
adverbial16%subject13%object10%predicate3%verb2%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 8,978 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
αὐτός
ἐνἐπίπρός
σύ
χάριςgrace, favor, kiπρόςπατήρfather, Father,
ἐγώ
πατήρfather, Father, πρόςθεόςGod, a god
εἰμίI am, exist
αὐτόςArticle theἐγώ
θεόςGod, a god
Article theθέλημαwill, wish, desiδέbut, on the othe
καίalso8978×
what comes after →
Article the
ἀδελφόςa brotherπατήρfather, Father, μήτηρa mother
λέγωI say, speak
αὐτόςArticle theπρός
οὐNeg
εἰμίI am, existμήNegδύναμαιI am powerful, a
ὁράωI see, look upon, ex
Article theαὐτόςἀνήρa male human bei
ἐν
Article theπᾶςall, the whole, ὅλοςall, the whole,

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceκαί · 8,978× in the New Testament
Luke Matthew Revelation Acts Mark John 1 Corinthians Romans Hebrews 2 Corinthians Ephesians 1 John

3 inflected forms — one of the commonest words in the New Testament. Full distribution →

Across the New Testament27 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Josephus Philo of Alexandria The Shepherd of Hermas Clement of Rome Ignatius of Antioch
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 1c. AD 40

Τῶν ἄλλων νομοθετῶν οἱ μὲν ἀκαλλώπιστα καὶ γυμνὰ τὰ νομισθέντα παρ’ αὐτοῖς εἶναι δίκαια διετάξαντο, οἱ δὲ πολὺν ὄγκον τοῖς νοήμασι προσπεριβαλόντες ἐξετύφωσαν τὰ πλήθη μυθικοῖς πλάσμασι τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐπικρύψαντες.

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.argc. AD 75–95

ἡ τοῦ κόσμου σύστασις καὶ διάταξις τῶν στοιχείων.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 1.1c. AD 100

Χαίρετε, υἱοὶ καὶ θυγατέρες, ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντος ἡμᾶς, ἐν εἰρήνῃ.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 4th c. AD 1st c. AD 6th c. AD
P.Stras. 2 89Pathyris100 BC

r βασιλεύοντος Πτολεμαίου τοῦ ἐπικαλουμένου Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ Βερενίκης τῆς ἀδελφῆς θεῶν Φιλομητόρων ἔτους ιε, ἐφʼ ἱερέων καὶ ἱερειῶν καὶ κανηφόρου τῶν

P.Adl. 11Pathyris99 BC

1 ἔτους ιζ Θῶυθ κη ἀπέδοτο Πετεσοῦχος Φίβιος καὶ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ τὸ ὕπαρχον αὐτοῖς ἥμισυ περιστερῶνος τοῦ ὄντος ἐν τῶι ἀπὸ βορρᾶ μέρει

P.Grenf. 2 35Pathyris99 BC

βασιλευόντων Πτολεμαίου τοῦ ἐπικαλουμένου Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ Βερενίκης τῆς ἀδελφῆς θεῶν φιλομητόρων ἔτους ιϛ, ἐφʼ ἱερέων καὶ ἱερειῶν καὶ κανηφόρου τῶν

Brothers, do pray also for us.
περὶperi for G4012 Preposition
333× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
commoner in 1 Thessalonians than anywhere else in the New Testament
In plain English
Meaning
The Greek word for about or around, used in various contexts such as place, cause, or time. It is often translated as 'about' or 'concerning' in the KJV, and appears in many passages, including Matthew 2:8 and John 16:26.
Tyndale gloss
about
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Layman’s summary of all Lexicon entries.generated

One of the workhorse prepositions, standing 333 times. With the genitive it means about, concerning, with reference to. There is no hidden depth here, and it would be a mistake to look for one: its usefulness is that it marks the subject a sentence is circling. In this verse it points at what the earlier accounts were about.

Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

περί, prep. c. gen., acc. (in cl. also c. dat.; cf. M, Pr., 105f.),

with radical sense round about (as distinct from ἀμφί, on both sides).

C. gen.,

of place, about (poët.).

Causal, about, on account of, concerning, in reference to: Mt 2:8, Mk 1:44, Lk 4:38, Jo 16:26, Ac 28:21, al. mult.; τὰ περί, c. gen., the things concerning one, one's state or case: Mk 5:27, Ac 1:3 28:15, Eph 6:22, al.; at the beginning of a sentence, περί, regarding, as to, I Co 7:1, al.…

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

περί, (akin to πέρα. πέραν ; [Curtius § 359]), prep., joined in the N. T. with the gen. and the ace. (in class. Grk. also with the dat.), and indicating that the person or thing relative to which an act or state is predicated is as it were encompassed by this act or state ; Lat. circum, circa; around, about. I. with the GeniTIve it denotes that around which an act or state revolves ; about, concerning, as touching, ete., (Lat. de, quod attinet ad, causa w. a gen., propter) [ef. W. 372 sq. (349)]. a. about, concerning, (Lat. de; in later Lat. also circa): after verbs of speaking, teaching, writing, ete., see under ἀναγγέλλω, ἀπαγγέλλω, ἀπολογοῦμαι, γογγύζω, γράφω, Sydow, διαβεβαιοῦμαι, διαγνωρίζω, διαλέγομαι, διδάσκω. διηγοῦμαι (Heb. xi. 32), διήγησις, εἶπον and προεῖπον, ἐπερωτάω and ἐρωτάω, κατηχέω, λαλέω, λέγω, λόγον αἰτέω. λόγον ἀποδίδωμι, λόγον δίδωμι, μαρτυρέω, μνεία, μνημονεύω…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

περί τροπὴν δέδωκα, “1 have entrusted to him the care of the whole matter” (Edd.), 7. XII. 15831! (ii/A.D.) γράψον μοι περὶ τῶν ὄντων, ‘ write me revarding the present state of affairs,” and ΒΟῸΣ II. 63218 (ii/a.p.) (= ZAZ, p. 173) ο[ὐ]χ ὀκνῶ σοι γράψαι περὶ THs] σωτηρίας pov καὶ τῶν ἐμῶν, “T am not delaying to write you regarding the health of me and mine.” In P Par 488 (B.c. 153) (= Witkowski Zp.” p- 91) ἀκούσαντες... τὰ περὶ σου συνβεβηκότα, we have a mixture of ἀκούσαντες περὶ σοῦ and ἀκούσαντες τά (σοι) συνβεβηκότα ΠΕερί, ‘‘ with regard to,” at the beginning of a new clause (as in 1 Cor 71) may be illustrated from the headings in the Mysteries inscr, from Andania Sy// 653 (=*736)} (B.c. 91) περὶ ἱε]ρῶν Kal ἱερᾶν, α΄. See also P Eleph 134! (B.c, 223-2) περὶ δὲ τῶν εἴκοσι δραχμῶν οὔπω ἐκεκόμιστο Φίλων . περὶ δὲ τοῦ οἰναρίου ΤΙραξιάδης οὔπω εἰσελήλυθεν ἐξ ἀγροῦ, BGU IV. 1097° (time of…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

περί (peri) — about.

περί,

Thess., Delph. περ [Refs 5th c.BC+], also Aeolic dialect, see below [Refs 4th c.BC+] V; Elean παρ [Refs]: preposition with genitive, dative, and accusative:—round about, all round (properly different from ἀμφί, on both sides). (Cogn. with Sanskrit pári 'round about'.)

__A WITH GENITIVE,

__A.I of Place, sometimes in Poets, round about, around, τετάνυστο π. σπείους ἡμερίς [Refs 8th c.BC+], on both sides, see at {περιβαίνω} [Refs]

__A.I.2 about near, π. σοῦ πάντα γένοιτο ῥόδα [Refs]

__A.II to denote the object about or for which one does something:

__A.II.1 with Verbs of fighting or contending, π. τινός for an object—from the notion of the thing's lying in the middle to be fought about, π. τῶνδε for these prizes, [Refs 8th c.BC+]; δόλους καὶ μῆτιν ὕφαινον, ὥς τε π. ψυχῆς since it…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

περί

peri

from the base of 4008; properly, through (all over), i.e. around;

figuratively with respect to; used in various applications, of place,

cause or time (with the genitive case denoting the subject or occasion

or superlative point; with the accusative case the locality, circuit,

matter, circumstance or general period):--(there-)about, above,

against, at, on behalf of, X and his company, which concern, (as)

concerning, for, X how it will go with, ((there-, where-)) of, on,

over, pertaining (to), for sake, X (e-)state, (as) touching,

(where-)by (in), with. In comparative, it retains substantially the

same meaning of circuit (around), excess (beyond), or completeness

(through).

see GREEK for 4008

Dodson Greek-English Lexicon

περί

Prep.

about, concerning, around

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

περί peri 333x

pr. of place, (1) gen., about, around; about, concerning, respecting, Mt. 2:8; 11:10; 22:31; Jn. 8:18; Rom. 8:3, et al. freq.; (2) acc., of place, about, around, round about, Mt. 3:4; Mk. 3:34; Lk. 13:8; οἱ περί τινα, the companions of a person, Lk. 22:49; a person and his companions, Acts 13:13; simply a person, Jn. 11:19; τὰ περί τινα, the condition, circumstances of any one, Read the full entry →

Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones

περί around, round about with gen., dat., and acc.

prep. with gen., dat., and acc.: Radical sense, round about, all round, whereas ἀμφί properly means on both sides.

WITH GENITIVE:

of Place, round about, around, Lat. circum, Od.

about, near, ἑσδόμεναι περὶ σεῖο Mosch.

Causal, to denote the object about or for which one does something:

with Verbs of fighting or contending, μάχεσθαι περὶ πτόλιος Il.; περὶ Πατρόκλοιο θανόντος id. Il.; so, τρέχειν περὶ ἑωυτοῦ, περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς Hdt.

about, for, on account of, μερμηρίζειν περί τινος Il.; φροντίζειν περί τινος Hdt.

with Verbs of hearing, knowing, speaking, about, concerning, Lat. circa, de, περὶ νόστου ἄκουσα Od., etc.

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Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Prep — Preposition
preposition — its sense depends on the case of the word it governs.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

PREP PREPosition

Bible dictionarieson the English sense
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

for (ki (conjunction), le, from 'el (preposition), and various other words. In the New Testament also the words are various, chiefly gar, kai gar, hoti (conjunctions); anti apo eis dia (accusative), epi (dative and accusative), peri (genitive), pros (genitive and accusative), huper (genitive) (prepositions)): the English Revised Version and the American Standard Revised Version give in many cases more literal or more accurate renderings than those in the King James Version.

In the New Testament the most important preps. from a doctrinal point of view are anti, "face to face," "over against," "instead," "on behalf of," peri, "around," "about," "concerning," huper, "over," "on behalf of." The first has been claimed as stating the substitutionary nature of Christ's sacrifice as contrasted with huper and peri, more frequently used of it. But, although anti in the New Testament often means…

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
59%concerning
concerning59% · 199×about16% · 55×for13% · 45×around6% · 19×of3% · 9×other renderings3% · 9×

336 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 12 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

What it does in the sentencefrom the Nestle 1904 treebank
adverbial86%object8%subject4%

Parsing tells you the form; the treebank tells you the job. Counted over all 333 occurrences — a word inside a phrase counts towards whatever that phrase is doing.

The phrases it lives inwhat stands either side of it, across the New Testament
← what comes before
Article the
δέbut, on the otheκαίand, even, also,ἀκούωI hear, listen
αὐτός
λέγωI say, speakλαλέωI speak, sayἐρωτάωI ask, question,
καίand, even, also, nam
αὐτόςἁμαρτίαa sinἀλλάbut, except
μαρτυρέωI witness, testify
Article theἐγώἵναin order that, s
σύ
μέλειit is a care, itγράφωI writeΦαρισαῖοςa Pharisee
περίfor333×
what comes after →
Article the
ἸησοῦςJesusβασιλείαkingship, sovereτράχηλοςthe neck
αὐτός
καίand, even, also,ὅτιthat, since, becοὐαίindcl
ἐγώ
καίand, even, also,ἵναin order that, sArticle the
σύ
ὅτιthat, since, becἀδελφόςa brotherArticle the
πᾶςall, the whole, ever
ὅςArticle theοὗτος

branches are dictionary forms, so endings do not split one phrase into five; the number on a branch is how many times the New Testament takes that path

Concordanceπερί · 333× in the New Testament
Acts John Luke Matthew Hebrews Mark 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Thessalonians Romans 1 Peter Jude

Every reference is on the Strong's page.

Across the New Testament24 of 27 books
MtMkLkJnAcRo1Co2CoGaEphPhpCol1Th2Th1Ti2TiTitPhmHebJas1Pe2Pe1Jn2Jn3JnJudRev
The Hebrew behind itwhat the Septuagint translators were rendering

Counted over the 297 Old Testament verses where this Greek word stands: which Hebrew word keeps standing there too. A correspondence of verses rather than a word-by-word alignment, so read the percentage as strength of evidence, not as a claim about any single verse.

Outside the New Testamentthe same word in the Greek of its own century
Josephus Philo of Alexandria The Shepherd of Hermas The Epistle of Barnabas Clement of Rome
Philo of AlexandriaOn the Creation of the World 15c. AD 40

περιέχει γὰρ τὸν νοητὸν κόσμον ἐξαίρετον, ὡς ὁ περὶ αὐτῆς λόγος μηνύει.

JosephusAntiquities of the Jews 1.argc. AD 75–95

περὶ τοῦ γένους Ἀδάμου καὶ τῶν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ δέκα γενεῶν τῶν μέχρι τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ.

The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas 1.5c. AD 100

λογισάμενος οὖν τοῦτο, ὅτι ἐὰν μελήσῃ μοι περὶ ὑμῶν τοῦ μέρος τι μεταδοῦναι ἀφ̓ οὗ ἔλαβον, ὅτι ἔσται μοι τοιούτοις πνεύμασιν ὑπηρετήσαντι εἰς μισθόν, ἐσπούδασα κατὰ μικρὸν ὑμῖν πέμπειν, ἵνα μετὰ τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν τελείαν ἔχητε τὴν γνῶσιν.

In the everyday Greek (the secular world, not the church)letters, leases, receipts — nobody writing one is trying to sound biblical
2nd c. AD 3rd c. AD 3rd c. BC 4th c. AD 1st c. AD
P.Grenf. 2 33Pathyris101 BC

καὶ μὴ ἐπελεύσεσθαι μήτʼ αὐτὸν Ψενενοῦπιν ἐπὶ τὸν Ἁρσιῆσιν μήτʼ ἄλλον μηδένα ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ περὶ τοῦ διασαφουμένου μέρους γῆς τρόπῳ μηδενί. εἰ δὲ μή, ἀποτεισάτω Ἁρσιήσει ἐπίτιμον παραχρῆμα χαλκοῦ

P.Stras. 2 89Pathyris100 BC

ἐτῶν μ εὐμεγέθης μελίχρως μακροπρόσωπος εὐθύριν τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν αὐτῷ μερίδα γῆς σιτοφόρου ἐν τῷ περὶ Παθῦρειν πεδίωι σφραγίδων τεσσάρων , ἣν καὶ αὐτὸς ἐωνήσατο παρὰ Πανοβχούνιος τοῦ Τοτόηους ἐν

P.Lond. 3 p. 18 no. 678Krokodilopolis (Pathyrites)100 BC–99 BC

νδ ἐλάσσων μελίχρως μακροπρόσωπος εὐθύριν ἀδύνατος ὄμμασι τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν αὐτῶι ἐν τῶι ἄνω πεδίωι περὶ Πάθυριν γῆν ἤπειρον σιτοφόρον ἀρουρῶν … ἧς γείτονες νότουπλατεῖαὁδός, βορρᾶ … περίχωμα … προπεπρα

Brothers, do pray also for us.
ἡμῶν.¶egō us. G3165 Personal pronoun · first person · genitive · plural
1,872× in the NT scale is logarithmic — ὁ, the commonest word, appears 19,867×
In plain English
Tyndale gloss
I/we
Greek lexiconskeyed to Strong's numbers
Abbott-Smith, Manual Greek Lexicon of the NT

ἐγώ, gen, etc., ἐμοῦ, ἐμοί, ἐμέ (enclitic μου, μοι, με), pl. ἡμεῖς, -ῶν, -ῖν, -ᾶς,

pers. pron.

I.

The nom. is usually emphatic, when expressed as subjc, as in Mt 3:11, Mk 1:8, Lk 3:16, al. But often there is no apparent emphasis, as Mt 10:16, Jo 10:17; ἰδοὺ ἐ. (= Heb. הִנֵּנִי, cf. I Ki 3:8), Ac 9:10; ἐ. (like Heb. אֲנִי), I am, Jo 1:23 (LXX), Ac 7:32 (LXX).

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Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament from a scan

ἐγώ, gen. ἐμοῦ, enclitic pod; dat. ἐμοί, enclitic μοί; acc. ἐμέ, enclitic μέ; plur. ἡμεῖς, ete.; personal pronoun, J. 1. The nominatives ἐγώ and ἡμεῖς, when joined to a verb, generally have force and emphasis, or indicate antithesis, as Mt. iii. 11; Mk.i. 8; Lk. iii. 16 (ἐγὼ pev... ὁ δέ); Mt. iii. 14 (ἐγὼ... ἔχω, καὶ σύν ; V. 22, 28, 39, and often; ἡμεῖς, contrasted with God, Mt. vi. 12; ἡμεῖς x. of Φαρισαῖοι, Mt. ix. 14; cf. W. § 22,6. But sometimes they are used where there is no emphasis or antithesis in them, as Mt. x. 16; Jn. x. 17; and in many edd. in Mk. i. 2; Lk. vii. 27; οἵ. B. §129, 12. ἰδοὺ ἐγώ, 1397, behold me, hereamT: Acts ix.10 (1S. iii. 8). ἐγώ, like 38, Jam: Jn. i. 23; Acts vii. 32, [ef. W.585 (544); B. 125 (109)]. 2. The enclitic (and monosyllabic) gen., dat., and ace. are connected with nouns, verbs, adverbs, but not with prepositions: ἔμπροσθέν pov, Jn. i. 15; ὀπίσω…

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Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament from a scan

ἐγώ. Deissmann (ZAZ p. 134 ff.) has drawn attention to the parallels to the solemn use of the first personal pronoun in the Fourth Gospel that may be adduced from inscriptions and magical texts. Thus in an inscr. in honour of Isis from Ios, written in ii/iii A.p., the contents of which are preChristian, we find —Elows ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ τ[ύρανν]ος πάσης χόρας.. ἐγὼ νόμους ἀνθρώποις ἐθέμην . . ἐγώ εἰμι Kpdvov θυγάτηρ πρεσβυτάτη α΄. And similarly in the magical papyrus P Lond 4645 (iv/a.p.) (=I. p. 69) ἐγώ εἰμι ὃ ἀκέφαλος δαίμων . . ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἀλήθεια ὁ μεισῶν ἀδικήματα γείνεσθαι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ α΄. With the construction of the phrase τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί ; in Jn 24 we may compare BGU IV. 1141°8 (n.c. 14) ἐδίδουν αὐτῷ διαστολὰς μηδὲν αὐτῶι καὶ ἐκείνωι εἶναι : for its meaning see Ε΄. C. Burkitt in 77:5 xiii. p- 594f., where it is rendered, ‘‘ What have I and thou to do with that ?” On the difficult…

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Liddell-Scott-Jones, full edition

μέ (me) — me.

ἐγώ,

I: pronoun of the first person:—Epic dialect mostly ἐγών before vowels (so in Doric dialect, before consonants, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Boeotian dialect ἱών [Refs 2nd c.AD+]:— strengthened ἔγωγε, I at least, for my part, indeed, for myself (more frequently in Attic dialect than in [Refs 8th c.BC+]: Doric dialect ἐγώνγα [Refs 7th c.BC+]: Boeotian dialect ἱώνγα [Refs 6th c.BC+]; ἱώνει [Refs]; ἰώγα [Refs 5th c.BC+]: Laconian dialect and Tarentum dialect ἐγώνη, [Refs 2nd c.AD+]

II. oblique cases from a different root, genitive ἐμοῦ, enclitic μο; Ionic dialect and Epic dialect ἐμέο, ἐμεῦ, μευ, also ἐμέθεν [Refs 8th c.BC+]; Aeolic dialect ἔμεθεν [Refs 7th c.BC+]; Doric dialect ἐμέος, ἐμεῦς, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; Boeotian dialect ἐμοῦς [Refs 6th c.BC+] — _dative_ ἐμοί, enclitic μοι (which may be compared with Sanskrit…

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Strong's Greek Dictionary

ἐγώ

me

a shorter (and probably originally) from of 1691; me:--I, me, my.

see GREEK for 1691

Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary

ἐγώ egō 2x

I, gen., ἐμοῦ [μου], dat., ἐμοί [μοι], acc., ἐμέ [με]

Morphologythe parsing behind the code
Berean parsing
Pron-1GP — Personal pronoun · first person · genitive · plural
genitive — of, from, belonging to.
Agrees with anything else marked plural.
Robinson's Morphological Analysis Codes

P-1GP Part of Speech: Personal pronoun Person: first Case: Genitive Number: Plural

English usagewhat the translators’ English meant
Webster's Dictionary (1828), Webster's Unabridged (1913), Webster's Dictionary (1806)

US, pronoun objective case of we.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Us , pron. [OE. us, AS. s; akin to OFries. & OS. s, D. ons, G. uns, Icel. & Sw. oss, Dan. os, Goth. uns, L. nos we, us, Gr. we, Skr. nas us. . Cf. Nostrum, Our.] The persons speaking, regarded as an object; ourselves; — the objective case of we. See We. “Tell us a tale.” Chaucer.

Give us this day our daily bread. Matt. vi. 11.

Us, pron. oblique case of we

Into Englishhow translators actually render it
35%us
us35% · 717×me32% · 644×mine20% · 402×we ourselves6% · 124×my2% · 45×other renderings5% · 97×

2,029 occurrences in the New Testament, rendered 27 different ways. The commonest English word for it is not its meaning — it is one translator's decision, repeated.

Sources on this page. Lexicons and dictionaries imported from the CrossWire SWORD modules — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, Dodson, the Intermediate Liddell-Scott-Jones, Robinson and Packard, Webster and Cawdrey. Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Harper, 1889 — Grimm’s Wilke’s Clavis Novi Testamenti, translated, revised and enlarged by Joseph Henry Thayer) is public domain and is set here from the Internet Archive page scan greekenglishlex00grim; it is uncorrected OCR, marked as such on the entry itself, and the Strong’s numbers — which Thayer’s own edition does not carry — were matched by lemma against the other modules on this page. Trench’s Synonyms of the New Testament (Macmillan, 1880) and Moulton and Milligan’s Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Hodder & Stoughton, 1930, which entered the United States public domain on 1 January 2026) are set from Internet Archive page scans synonymsofnewtes00treniala and vocabularyofgree00mouluoft, and are likewise uncorrected OCR matched to Strong’s numbers by lemma. Trench treats a group of words at once, so the same essay stands on the page of each word it compares. The Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary is © 1993 and is used here by permission for non-commercial use, www.teknia.com/greek-dictionary. The full Liddell-Scott-Jones and the Hebrew word data (TAHOT) come from STEPBible.org, CC BY 4.0. Brown-Driver-Briggs is the OpenScriptures digitisation, public domain. Syntax analysis is the Nestle 1904 Lowfat treebank (biblicalhumanities.org); the concordance and morphology are built from the tagged Nestle 1904 text. Septuagint occurrences use the Open Scriptures Septuagint lemma index, derived from CCAT (University of Pennsylvania) and the Rahlfs 1935 dataset by Eliran Wong, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — used here on a non-commercial ministry site. Greek of Josephus and Barnabas from the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0. Commentaries and the Ante-Nicene Fathers are public-domain texts hosted on this site. Everyday Greek from the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, CC BY 3.0, with dates and provenance from the Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis. Philo and the Apostolic Fathers from Open Greek and Latin (First1KGreek), CC BY-SA 4.0. The apparatus and the fifth Greek column are the SBL Greek New Testament, © 2010 SBL and Logos Bible Software, CC BY 4.0. The Latin is the Clementine Vulgate (public domain); the Syriac New Testament is the ETCBC edition (MIT licence). The Hebrew behind the Greek is computed here from the Septuagint index and TAHOT, not taken from any aligned edition. The translation spread and the per-word edition marks come from the Translators Amalgamated Greek NT (STEPBible, CC BY 4.0); clause roles from the Nestle 1904 Lowfat treebank (CC BY-SA 4.0); place identifications and their confidence from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding (CC BY 4.0), with map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Gospel parallels are computed here from shared uncommon vocabulary, not taken from any printed harmony. Cross references are the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and the subject headings are Nave’s Topical Bible, both public domain. Works under Creative Commons licences are used unchanged apart from markup removal.

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