[B-Greek] The limitation of PROSEUCOMAI in the New Testament

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Jul 16 05:17:49 EDT 2006


On Jul 16, 2006, at 2:16 AM, Marc Taylor wrote:

> Greetings,
>
>  In terms of the word proseuxomai Thayer says,
> "everywhere of prayers to the gods, or to God [cf.
> deesis fin.]". Not one time is this Greek word used
> for a false god in the New Testament but is so in
> Isaiah 44:17 and 45:20 in the LXX (Septuagint). Notice
> that Thayer wrote "cf. deesis" showing these words are
> synonymous. In fact, under "deesis" it reads that
> deesis, proseuxomai and enteuxis are all synonyms. The
> definition he gives for enteuxis is "used of prayer to
> God". For deesis he writes "in the N.T. requests
> addressed by men to God". Also in the definition of
> deesis the noted linguist Professor Grimm wrote
> concerning proseuxomai that it "is a word of sacred
> character, being limited to the prayer of God."
>  And finally W.E. Vine states in his Expository
> Dictionary of New Testament Words concerning
> proseuxomia that "in the NT is always addressed to
> God."
>
>  Two things I am curious about:
>  1. What do Moulton and Milligan say concerning
> proseuxomai in their lexicon "The Vocabulary of the
> Greek Testament".
>  2. Do other lexicons state anything along the lines
> of what was written above?
>
>  Thanks
>         - Naigogaiju

(Please observe B-Greek protocol and sign with an authentic full-name  
signature, in accordance with the BG FAQ (http://metalab.unc.edu/ 
bgreek/faq.txt).

You would do better, I think, to use BDAG (A Greek - English Lexicon  
of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, Third  
Editionrev. and ed. by Fredrick William Danker,  University of  
Chicago Press, 2000)  and L&N (reek-English Lexicon of the New  
Testament Based on Semantic Domains,  Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A.  
Nida, Editorsk, c 1988, 1989 Second Edition) as your primary lexical  
resources for NT Greek than the considerably older resources that you  
have cited. It is also worthwhile to consult LSJ for a sense of the  
range of meanings of a word or words such as these in extra-biblical  
literature.

PROSEUCOMAI seems to be used consistently of prayer to a deity  
(deities), generally with a dative of the deity addressed but also  
with an accusative of the deity addressed;it is also used with an  
accusative of the thing prayed for.

ENTEUXIS (ENTUGCANW), according to BDAG, is (1) a formal request put  
to a high official or official body,  petition, request, and then (2)  
prayer, intercessionary, thanksgiving.

The verb DEOMAI, according to BDAG is In our lit. only w. the mng. to  
ask for something pleadingly, ask, request -- generally of address to  
humans, but also of petitions to God (with AITEOMAI). The derivative  
noun DEHSIS is " that which is asked with urgency based on presumed  
need — ‘request, plea, prayer.’" (L&N), but, acc. to BDAG, "urgent  
request to meet a need, exclusively addressed to God, prayer"




Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





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