In front of (in place (literally or figuratively) or time)
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Ἔμπροσθεν (émprosthen) locates someone or something before, in front of, or in the presence of another. The word can describe public visibility, physical position, movement ahead, or appearance before a judge.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἔμπροσθεν (G1715) · Open the biblical lexicon
Ἔμπροσθεν (émprosthen) locates someone or something before, in front of, or in the presence of another. The word can describe public visibility, physical position, movement ahead, or appearance before a judge.
The BSB source-word alignment has 47 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include before (25), ahead (3), in front of (3), ahead of (2), at (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (18), Luke (10), John (5), 1 Thessalonians (4).
Ἔμπροσθεν (émprosthen) locates someone or something before, in front of, or in the presence of another. The word can describe public visibility, physical position, movement ahead, or appearance before a judge. In Matthew 5, disciples' works are visible before people, yet the intended glory belongs to the Father. Luke uses the term for Zacchaeus running ahead, an ordinary spatial action within a personal encounter with Jesus.
Paul places every person before Christ's judgment seat, where hidden and visible deeds receive righteous assessment. Revelation depicts John's mistaken worship before the angel's feet and immediately corrects it. The term itself does not make visibility virtuous or shameful. The actor, observer, action, and governing passage decide whether being before another means witness, obstruction, anticipation, accountability, or misplaced devotion.
Ἔμπροσθεν marks position or action before someone: visible witness before people, movement ahead of a crowd, standing before Christ for judgment, and a posture before an angel. Context supplies the moral and theological weight.
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
The disciples' light shines before people through good works, but the sentence redirects observers beyond the disciples to their Father in heaven.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
The leaders shut the kingdom before others, so position becomes an image of culpable obstruction rather than faithful guidance.
So he ran on ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Him, since Jesus was about to pass that way.
Zacchaeus runs ahead and climbs for a clearer view, an ordinary spatial use that prepares for Jesus' gracious personal summons.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.
All must appear before Christ's judgment seat; the prepositionally framed position underscores universal and personal accountability.
And I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had shown me these things.
John falls before the angel's feet, but the angel refuses worship and directs him to worship God, making posture subject to revealed truth.
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. in front of (in place (literally or figuratively) or time)
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 48 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
in front, before the face
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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 2 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.
ἔμπροσθεν is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Christian life is lived before witnesses, but never finally for their verdict. Jesus commands visible goodness whose destination is the Father's glory, not the disciple's reputation. The warning against leaders who close the way before others shows that public influence can also become an instrument of judgment. Zacchaeus running ahead reminds readers that the word can remain simply spatial and should not be spiritualized at every occurrence.
Paul then brings the deepest horizon into view: every person will appear before Christ, whose assessment exposes the poverty of reputation management. Revelation adds a worship boundary, since even an overwhelming angelic presence must not receive the devotion owed to God. Teachers can therefore use ἔμπροσθεν to join humble public witness, responsible leadership, sober accountability, and rightly ordered worship without pretending that the adverb itself proves those doctrines.
Matt.5.16
As an adverb and relational marker, ἔμπροσθεν can express location in front of someone, movement ahead, or presence before an authority. Complements and verbs identify the relation; the word does not by itself say whether the position is approved.
Scripture repeatedly describes life before the Lord, public testimony before peoples, and servants going ahead to prepare a way. The New Testament brings final accountability into focus before Christ while preserving worship for God alone.