The "knee"
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
The Greek noun γόνυ (góny) names the knee, a concrete part of the human body. New Testament writers use it in scenes where people fall at someone's knees, kneel in prayer, bend in homage, mimic homage in mockery, or speak metaphorically of weakened knees.
Reader summary
Full entry for γόνυ (G1119) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek noun γόνυ (góny) names the knee, a concrete part of the human body. New Testament writers use it in scenes where people fall at someone's knees, kneel in prayer, bend in homage, mimic homage in mockery, or speak metaphorically of weakened knees.
The BSB source-word alignment has 12 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (5), knees (4), knee (2), [the] knee (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 15:19. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (4), Luke (2), Romans (2), Ephesians (1).
The Greek noun γόνυ (góny) names the knee, a concrete part of the human body. New Testament writers use it in scenes where people fall at someone's knees, kneel in prayer, bend in homage, mimic homage in mockery, or speak metaphorically of weakened knees. The noun itself does not certify the sincerity, virtue, or spiritual meaning of the posture. Luke 5:8 describes Peter falling at Jesus' knees after the extraordinary catch of fish, confessing his sinfulness in astonished awareness of Jesus' authority.
Luke 22:41 depicts Jesus kneeling in Gethsemane as he prays to the Father in anguish and willing obedience. Mark 15:19 uses the same bodily posture in the soldiers' cruel mockery: they kneel before Jesus while striking and ridiculing him. Their bent knees expose the danger of reading external posture as automatic worship. Philippians 2:10 places every knee within the universal acknowledgment of the exalted Jesus, and Hebrews 12:12 uses weak knees metaphorically in an exhortation toward endurance.
Each context supplies its own action and theological force. Scripture also portrays faithful prayer in other postures, so this lexeme cannot make kneeling a universal requirement or a ranking of devotion. Some people cannot kneel safely because of disability, injury, age, trauma, pain, pregnancy, or circumstance. Their bodily limits do not diminish access to God, sincerity in prayer, or membership in Christ's people.
Teachers may therefore explain the expressive power of kneeling while refusing forced posture, public shaming, simplistic symbolism, or any claim that a body must perform submission before a human leader to prove spiritual loyalty.
G1119 appears in prayer, awe, mockery, confession, and exhortation. Peter falls at Jesus' knees in Luke 5, and Jesus kneels before the Father in Luke 22. The soldiers in Mark 15 also bend their knees, but their action is contemptuous theater rather than faith. Acts portrays believers kneeling together in prayer and farewell, while Ephesians, Philippians, and Romans use the knee in statements about prayer, worship, and universal acknowledgment before God.
Hebrews 12 draws on weak knees as a bodily metaphor for faltering endurance. The range demonstrates that posture receives meaning from the actor, action, object, and narrative setting.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”
Peter falls at Jesus' knees after the great catch and confesses his sinfulness, responding to Jesus with awe rather than performing a prescribed ritual.
And He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, where He knelt down and prayed,
Jesus withdraws a short distance, kneels, and prays in Gethsemane, joining embodied anguish with obedient address to the Father.
They kept striking His head with a staff and spitting on Him. And they knelt down and bowed before Him.
Roman soldiers kneel before Jesus as part of violent mockery, proving that a bowed knee does not by itself demonstrate sincere worship.
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
Paul declares that every knee will bow at Jesus' name within a hymn-shaped account of his humiliation, death, exaltation, and lordship.
Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees.
The exhortation to strengthen weak knees uses bodily imagery for renewed endurance and is followed by concern that the lame be healed rather than disabled.
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. the "knee"
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
12 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a knee
Read versea knee
Read versea knee
Read versea knee
Read versea knee
Read versea knee
Read versea knee
Read versea knee
Read versea knee
Read versea knee
Read versea knee
Read versea knee
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 this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
γόνυ is of uncertain origin - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Luke 22:41 anchors the word in Jesus' prayer at Gethsemane. Jesus withdraws from the disciples, kneels, and addresses the Father as the cup of suffering stands before him. His posture belongs to a larger scene of anguish, petition, obedience, and the disciples' struggle to remain awake. The text allows teachers to honor kneeling as a meaningful embodied expression without turning it into a mechanical technique or universal rule.
Jesus' faithful prayer is not produced by the angle of his body, and the New Testament records prayer in other postures and settings. The contrast with Mark 15 is especially important: soldiers also kneel before Jesus, yet their posture accompanies blows and mockery. A bent knee can express humility, grief, supplication, homage, ridicule, or compelled behavior depending on context.
Philippians 2 directs universal bowing toward the crucified and exalted Lord, not toward a minister, institution, or abusive demand for submission. Hebrews 12's weak-knee metaphor should likewise strengthen people in hardship rather than stigmatize those with chronic pain or impaired mobility. A person who prays seated, standing, lying down, or using a mobility aid is not less welcome before God.
The lexical lesson is therefore both embodied and protective: bodies can truthfully participate in prayer and worship, but no single bodily capacity guarantees the heart, and no leader may force a posture to manufacture reverence.
Luke.22.41
G1119 is a neuter Greek noun for the knee. Its inflected forms show the stem in patterns such as gonat-, while case and number identify the noun's role in a sentence. Verbs around it establish whether someone falls near the knees, bends the knee, kneels, or has weak knees; the noun alone does not encode prayer, sincerity, worship, or submission.
The bowing of knees in Philippians 2:10 and Romans 14:11 draws on Isaiah's declaration that every knee will bow before the Lord, directing the canonical claim to divine lordship. Hebrews 12 echoes prophetic strengthening language for weak knees. These links deepen the New Testament scenes without making physical kneeling a condition of saving faith or a mandate that disregards bodily capacity.