To pray
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proseuchomai means to pray, to address God in worship, dependence, confession, petition, intercession, and watchful trust. The New Testament uses the verb for secret prayer before the Father, Jesus' own prayer, prayer under temptation, corporate prayer for discernment, Spirit-dependent perseverance, and healing or restorative prayer within the community.
Reader summary
Full entry for προσεύχομαι (G4336) · Open the biblical lexicon
proseuchomai means to pray, to address God in worship, dependence, confession, petition, intercession, and watchful trust. The New Testament uses the verb for secret prayer before the Father, Jesus' own prayer, prayer under temptation, corporate prayer for discernment, Spirit-dependent perseverance, and healing or restorative prayer within the community.
The BSB source-word alignment has 85 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include to pray (15), pray (13), [and] prayed (8), praying (8), you pray (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:44. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (19), Acts (16), Matthew (15), Mark (10).
Proseuchomai means to pray, to address God in worship, dependence, confession, petition, intercession, and watchful trust. The New Testament uses the verb for secret prayer before the Father, Jesus' own prayer, prayer under temptation, corporate prayer for discernment, Spirit-dependent perseverance, and healing or restorative prayer within the community. It is not a technique for controlling outcomes or a performance that displays spirituality.
Matthew 6:6 sends disciples to the unseen Father rather than public applause. Matthew 26:41 joins prayer to watchfulness in weakness. Ephesians 6:18 makes prayer continual and alert, while James 5:16 binds it to confession and righteousness. For pastoral teaching, proseuchomai opens prayer as filial, dependent, watchful communion with God that receives His will rather than mastering Him.
The selected passages present prayer as secret communion, watchful dependence, Jesus' own practice, communal discernment, persevering spiritual alertness, and restorative care. Prayer is relational and obedient before it is circumstantial.
But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Jesus directs disciples away from performance and toward the Father who sees in secret. Prayer is framed by the Father's presence, not by public religious display.
“Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
In Gethsemane, watchfulness and prayer are necessary because human weakness is real. Prayer is not denial of weakness; it is the way weakness turns to God under testing.
In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the night in prayer to God.
Jesus spends the night in prayer before choosing the Twelve. The scene shows prayer as dependence in mission and discernment, even in the life of the Son.
And they prayed, “Lord, You know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two You have chosen
The early believers pray for the Lord who knows hearts to show whom He has chosen. Corporate prayer acknowledges divine knowledge and guidance in decisions.
Pray 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.
Prayer is joined to spiritual alertness, perseverance, and concern for all the saints. It belongs to the church's endurance under spiritual pressure.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail.
James connects prayer with confession, healing, righteousness, and effective appeal to God. The passage resists both private isolation and mechanical formulas.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Prayer directed exclusively toward God, emphasizing the relational orientation of petition and intercession.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 87 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I pray, pray for
Read verseI pray, pray for
Read verseI pray, pray for
Read verseI pray, pray for
Read verseI pray, pray for
Read verseI pray, pray for
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Read verseI pray, pray for
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 74 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 7 selected witnesses from 85 lexical occurrence verses.
προσεύχομαι is built from these roots:
Shows sustained communion between Father and Son.
Emphasizes persistent dependence on God.
Reveals communion with the Father preceding revelation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Proseuchomai is not a spiritual performance word. Jesus teaches prayer as life before the Father who sees in secret, which means its first audience is God, not other people. In Gethsemane He teaches that prayer is watchful dependence when the body is weak and temptation is near. Luke 6 shows the incarnate Son praying through the night before a decisive mission moment, so prayer is not a substitute for obedience but the posture beneath it.
Acts 1 shows the gathered church asking the heart-knowing Lord for guidance. Ephesians 6 and James 5 widen the picture into persevering intercession, confession, and restorative care. The pastoral heart is simple and searching: prayer is how dependent children, weak disciples, and gathered churches turn toward God, receive His will, and remain alert in faith.
Matt.6.6
Proseuchomai is the common New Testament verb for praying. It is broader than petition alone and can include adoration, confession, intercession, dependence, and surrender. Context supplies the posture, object, and occasion; the verb itself should not be turned into a technique or promise of a fixed result.
Israel's prayers in the Psalms, temple dedication, exile, and lament teach God's people to bring praise, sin, fear, and need before the Lord. The New Testament continues that pattern under Jesus' instruction, through the Spirit, and within the community formed by the gospel.