To rap
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G2925 is a Greek verb meaning to knock or rap, normally at a door. Jesus uses it with asking and seeking in teaching on prayer, in a readiness image about servants opening to a returning master, and in a warning about people knocking after a door is shut.
Reader summary
Full entry for κρούω (G2925) · Open the biblical lexicon
G2925 is a Greek verb meaning to knock or rap, normally at a door. Jesus uses it with asking and seeking in teaching on prayer, in a readiness image about servants opening to a returning master, and in a warning about people knocking after a door is shut.
The BSB source-word alignment has 9 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include knock (3), knocks (3), knocking (2), knocked (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 7:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (4), Acts (2), Matthew (2), Revelation (1).
G2925 is a Greek verb meaning to knock or rap, normally at a door. Jesus uses it with asking and seeking in teaching on prayer, in a readiness image about servants opening to a returning master, and in a warning about people knocking after a door is shut. Revelation 3 depicts the risen Christ knocking within his corrective address to the church in Laodicea. The action can express request, arrival, readiness, delayed appeal, or a call to renewed fellowship.
It does not guarantee that every desired door will open, teach persistence without consent, or reduce Revelation 3:20 to a context-free technique. G2925 helps teachers speak about dependent prayer, timely response, repentance, hospitality, and boundaries while rejecting coercive evangelism, manipulative promises, trespass, spiritualized stalking, and the claim that a closed opportunity always reflects deficient faith.
G2925 occurs in literal and figurative doorway scenes involving prayer, readiness, exclusion, arrival, and Christ's call to a compromised church. The person knocking, the door's owner, and the surrounding warning or promise control the application.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
Jesus commands asking, seeking, and knocking within teaching about the Father's good gifts, encouraging dependent prayer rather than control over outcomes.
Then you will be like servants waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once.
Ready servants open immediately when their returning master knocks, so the action belongs to watchful faithfulness.
After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’
Those left outside knock after the master shuts the door, warning that proximity and delayed claims do not replace genuine response to Jesus.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.
The risen Christ stands at Laodicea's door and knocks within a message of rebuke, repentance, renewed fellowship, and promised victory.
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. To knock at a door with urgent seeking, distinct from casual striking or beating
To knock at a door with urgent seeking, distinct from casual striking or beating
with, accusative, τ. αὐλαίαν, Jdth.14:14 * ;] to strike, knock: at a door (Κόπτειν, in Att..), Mat.7:7-8, Luk.11:9-10 12:36, Act.12:16, Rev.3:20; with accusative, τ. θύραν, Luk.13:25, Act.12:13.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
9 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I knock
Read verseI knock
Read verseI knock
Read verseI knock
Read verseI knock
Read verseI knock
Read verseI knock
Read verseI knock
Read verseI knock
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 9 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 1 selected witness from 9 lexical occurrence verses.
κρούω is a primary verb - no further derivation.
G2925 gives a vivid action to several different relationships. In Matthew 7, knocking belongs with asking and seeking under the care of a Father who gives good gifts; it is dependent prayer, not a technique for compelling a preferred result. In Luke 12, the knock tests servants' readiness. In Luke 13, knocking comes too late and warns against substituting familiarity for genuine response.
Revelation 3 addresses a self-satisfied church: Christ's knock is part of rebuke, repentance, fellowship, and endurance, not merely a detached illustration about first conversion. These distinctions protect pastoral practice. People may pray persistently while also accepting that God may answer differently, a job may remain closed, or another person may say no.
No minister may use this word to justify repeated unwanted contact, entering property, demanding private meetings, or wearing down consent. Churches can knock in service by offering help clearly and leaving people free to decline. Faithful persistence remains humble before God, alert to the right time, responsive to correction, and governed by love rather than control.
Matt.7.7
G2925 is a Greek verb for striking or knocking, especially at a door to announce presence or request entry. The verb itself does not determine whether the knock is welcomed, timely, persistent, literal, or metaphorical.
Old Testament doorway scenes often involve welcome, warning, protection, worship, and judgment. New Testament G2925 concentrates the physical act of knocking within prayer, readiness, closed-door warning, and Christ's corrective address to a church.