a need-driven petition: an urgent request to God that rises from a specific lack, brought to the one who can supply it
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
This word names asking, but a particular kind of asking. Underneath it sits a verb that means to lack or to be in want, and that color never fully fades. A petition of this kind is the prayer of someone who knows exactly what they need and turns to the one person able to give it. It is not praise, not reflection, not thanksgiving. It is a request grounded in real need.
In the New Testament the request is almost always aimed at God, and it is offered as often for other people as for oneself.
Paul brings such a plea for his own people (Romans 10:1)
the churches bring it for him (Philippians 1:19)
believers are told to make it for everyone (1 Timothy 2:1)
It carries a note of persistence:
the widow who keeps at it night and day (1 Timothy 5:5)
the prophetess Anna at worship (Luke 2:37)
Christ himself pleading with loud cries and tears (Hebrews 5:7)
The word also had an everyday life outside the Bible. In the ordinary Greek of the time it was the standard term for a formal petition handed up to someone in power, a governor, a king, even the emperor. Someone with a need and no power of their own would submit a petition to the one who could act. The New Testament takes that familiar picture and turns it toward God: the needy person appeals to the King who can answer.
Whether δέησις carries a lexical meaning distinct from its near-synonyms (προσευχή, ἔντευξις, εὐχαριστία), especially when the New Testament stacks several prayer words together (Philippians 4:6;1 Timothy 2:1), or whether the heaped-up terms are functionally interchangeable and merely rhetorical.
majorityThe cumulative prayer lists are a rhetoric of comprehensiveness rather than a fixed taxonomy: the words cannot be sharply distinguished in NT usage, though δέησις retains its petition-from-need coloring when it stands alone.; Louw & Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the NT Based on Semantic Domains, 33.178; H. Balz, "δέησις," Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT); BDAG (Danker), s.v. δέησις; M. Silva (ed.), NIDNTTE
minorityThe prayer terms mark genuinely distinct kinds of prayer on a genus/species scheme: δέησις expresses specific personal need, προσευχή general devotion addressed to God, ἔντευξις bold approach or intercession, εὐχαριστία thanksgiving.; R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, §li; J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (on 4:6); Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon (drawing on C. L. W. Grimm), s.v. δέησις
means specifically the asking that comes from need, not devotion in generalLuk 1:13Jas 5:16
Both
both are speech directed to God and heard by him1Pe 3:12Luk 2:37
Only prayer
in English "prayer" covers praise, thanksgiving, confession, and meditation, none of which this word by itself denotes
“petition”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“request”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How deēsis differs from similar Greek words
προσευχήthe broad, general word for prayer as an act of devotion addressed to God; this need-driven petition is the narrower, more specific asking that sits inside it
Names a specific request for a definite need, so it can be tied to a single concrete thing being asked for, like the son promised to Zechariah when his petition was heard.Luk 1:13
Carries the note of urgent entreaty pressed out of distress, as when Jesus offered up prayers with loud cries and tears, or when the earnest plea of a righteous person is said to accomplish much.Heb 5:7Jas 5:16
Focuses on interceding for a particular person or outcome, such as Paul's heartfelt plea to God for Israel's salvation.Rom 10:12Co 1:11
Both
Both are listed side by side in the same appeals to pray, showing that they overlap as ways of bringing requests before God.Eph 6:18
Both are directed to God and paired together in calls to bring every need to him with thanksgiving.Php 4:6
Names prayer as an ongoing devotional practice, something believers give themselves to continually and persevere in, not a single request.Act 2:42Act 6:4Col 4:2
Stretches to name the place set apart for prayer and the temple as the house of prayer, a sense the word for petition never carries.Mat 21:13Act 16:13
Describes sustained address to God, such as spending a whole night in prayer, treating prayer as communion with God rather than a specific thing asked for.Luk 6:12Mrk 9:29
ἔντευξιςan approach or appeal made by gaining an audience with someone, hence intercession on another's behalf; paired with this word in the prayer list of 1 Timothy 2:1
A request that rises out of a specific lack or need: asking God for the particular thing that is wanting.Luk 1:13Rom 10:1Php 4:6
The ordinary, widely used word for earnest personal prayer, offered by many kinds of people in many settings.Luk 2:37Eph 6:18Jas 5:16
Both
Both name prayer addressed to God, and both can be offered on behalf of other people, so they stand side by side in a list of the church's prayers.1Ti 2:1
Carries the idea of a confident approach or appeal, coming before God with free access, the way a subject is granted an audience with a king to lay a petition before him.1Ti 4:5
εὐχαριστίαthanksgiving, the giving of thanks, which is the opposite motion from asking; stacked alongside this petition word in Philippians 4:6 to round out prayer
Thanksgiving responds to what God has already given. It looks back in gratitude rather than forward in request.2Co 9:11Act 24:3
It is a voice of praise and worship, gratitude offered up in adoration to God.Rev 4:9Rev 7:12
It is the grateful response to provision received, such as the giving of thanks over food.1Ti 4:31Ti 4:4
deēsis in the other biblical languages
תְּחִנָּהHebrew“supplication”the main Hebrew word this one translates in the Greek Old Testament: a plea for grace or favor from someone who has none to claim
Names the pointed, specific request inside prayer: the New Testament keeps pairing it with the general word for prayer to mark it as the definite asking for a particular need, not prayer in the round.1Ti 2:1Eph 6:18Php 4:6
Is made for other people as readily as for oneself: much of its use is intercession, one believer pressing a request to God on another's behalf.Rom 10:12Co 1:11Php 1:19
Marks the settled, ongoing practice of the devout who keep seeking God with persistent requests, not just a single cry.Luk 2:371Ti 5:5Luk 5:33
Both
Both name an urgent plea to God for a specific favor, made out of felt need rather than as general prayer, thanksgiving, or praise.1Ki 8:30Php 4:6
Both ask God to hear and answer the one crying out, resting the request on his readiness to show mercy.Psa 6:9Heb 5:7
Grows straight out of the idea of being shown favor, so it leans wholly on the hearer's kindness rather than on anything the one asking deserves.2Ch 33:13Dan 9:20
Is bound up with pleading for God to hear and forgive from his dwelling place: its great concentration is Solomon's temple prayer, asking God to heed the people's pleas made toward that house.1Ki 8:381Ki 8:52
Is often a cry for rescue in personal danger, laid before a king or before God as a last appeal for mercy.Jer 37:20Jer 38:26
תְּפִלָּהHebrew“prayer”the broader Hebrew word for prayer, especially the prayer of distress in the Psalms, which this Greek word also renders
The broad word for prayer as a whole act of address to God, wide enough to hold praise, confession, and thanks alongside any request.1Ki 8:28Psa 42:8
Serves as a title for a complete composed prayer or psalm, and even labels a collection of them, something the petition word never does.Psa 90:0Psa 72:20
It is prayer language: the asking is addressed to God, so whether it is answered depends on God hearing it rather than on a ruler granting an audience. An angel tells Zechariah that his petition has been heard, and Peter says the ears of the Lord are open to prayers like it.Luk 1:131Pe 3:12Jas 5:16
It is regularly made on behalf of other people rather than for the one praying. Paul asks God for the salvation of his own people, the Corinthians pray for those who helped them, and Paul makes his asking for the Philippians with joy.Rom 10:12Co 9:14Php 1:4
It names a sustained practice, not a single hearing: it goes on night and day, is kept up alongside fasting, and belongs to a settled habit of asking.Luk 2:371Ti 5:52Ti 1:3
It carries the pressure of need. It can be offered with loud crying and tears in the face of death, and it is what a worried person is told to do with worry instead of being anxious.Heb 5:7Php 4:6
Both
Both name a definite asking made by someone who cannot supply the thing themselves, laid before someone who can, and both are spoken of as being answered. The Persian king grants Ezra all he asked for, and the angel tells Zechariah that his asking has been heard.Ezr 7:6Luk 1:13
Both name particular things that can be spelled out and dealt with one at a time, not goodwill or devotion in general. Esther names her life and her people; Paul tells readers to let their specific requests be known to God.Est 7:3Php 4:6
Every use belongs to a royal court, where the asking is put to a human king who has the power to say yes. The king himself invites it and offers to go as far as half the kingdom.Est 5:3Est 5:6Est 7:2
It points at a definite thing to be handed over and then carried out, so it can be granted in full and a further one can be invited afterward. The king gives Ezra everything he asked for, and later asks Esther what her next request is.Ezr 7:6Est 9:12
It is paired with a second word for the appeal being presented, so the appeal is made in one breath and this word names what the petitioner is actually after: her own life and the lives of her people.Est 7:3Est 5:8
Is regularly made on someone else's behalf: a man pleading with God for his own nation, whole churches pressing a request to God for one imprisoned worker, a congregation praying for the givers who supplied them.Rom 10:12Co 1:11Php 1:192Co 9:14
Names a sustained habit of devotion rather than one outburst: the aged prophetess who never leaves the temple, the widow who keeps at it night and day, John's disciples whose asking goes with their fasting.Luk 2:371Ti 5:5Luk 5:332Ti 1:3
Is something believers are instructed to do, spelled out as an ordinary duty for all times and all people, not a sound that trouble forces out of them.Eph 6:18Php 4:61Ti 2:1
Does not require a crisis. It covers a childless priest's long-standing hope finally granted and a request that Paul says he makes with joy, so the need behind it can be a quiet want rather than danger closing in.Luk 1:13Php 1:4
Both
The New Testament itself puts the two words in the same slot. Peter's promise that the Lord's "ears are open to their prayer" is a quotation of the psalm that says his ears are open to the cry of the righteous, with the Greek word standing exactly where the Hebrew one stood.Psa 34:151Pe 3:12
Both assume a hearer who then acts. Each is described as reaching God and being answered: he hears the cry and saves, and the priest is told his request has been heard and will be granted.Psa 145:19Psa 40:1Luk 1:13
Both can be the raw plea of someone at the end of their strength. Christ's requests are offered with loud crying and tears, which is the same register as the shout of enslaved people and of a man calling out of distress.Heb 5:7Exo 2:23Psa 18:6
Both are set beside the ordinary word for prayer, marking the pointed asking within it: two psalms name prayer first and then this cry, and the letters stack the Greek word next to prayer in the same way.Psa 39:12Psa 102:1Php 4:61Ti 2:1
Is always somebody's own cry, wrung out by trouble already fallen on them: slaves worn down by forced labor, a plague-struck city, a man with the ropes of death around him.Exo 2:231Sa 5:122Sa 22:7
Can be the noise a whole population makes, spoken of as a sound that rises and travels: the shriek of a stricken town going up to heaven, the cry of a ruined people heard from far off.1Sa 5:12Jer 8:19
Comes with the fear that God may not be listening, so it is pressed on him with pleas that he not stay silent, not hide his ear, and let the cry actually reach him.Psa 39:12Psa 102:1Lam 3:56
Names a definite request: the one praying knows what is lacking and asks for that particular thing, which is why it stands beside the general word for prayer and beside thanksgiving in lists of what to bring to God.Php 4:61Ti 2:1Luk 1:13
Is made for other people at least as readily as for oneself, one believer pressing a request to God on another's behalf.Rom 10:12Co 1:11Php 1:19
Describes a settled practice of asking kept up over years, set alongside fasting and night-and-day worship rather than a single outburst.Luk 2:371Ti 5:5Luk 5:33
Both
Both name real need put into spoken words before God rather than praise or thanksgiving, and the Greek Old Testament reaches for this Greek word at the very place where the Hebrew speaks of pouring out one's complaint to the Lord.Psa 142:2Heb 5:7
Both assume a hearer who can act, so the one speaking expects God to attend to what is said and to answer it.Psa 55:21Pe 3:12
Is the unsorted contents of a heavy heart tipped out rather than a request for anything, so Job voices bitterness and protest without naming a favor he wants granted.Job 10:1Job 23:2Job 7:13
Does not have to be addressed to God at all, since it can be simply what a person is heard saying: rambling speech, a taunt about what a god is supposedly busy with, or grumbling that goes on and on.2Ki 9:111Ki 18:27Pro 23:29
Reaches past trouble altogether at one point, naming a glad going-over of what God has done, said aloud with pleasure.Psa 104:34
Names a pointed request for a specific thing, a plea for a particular need to be met. Zacharias asks for a son and is told his petition is heard (Luke 1:13); Paul's heart's petition is that Israel would be saved (Romans 10:1); believers are told to make their particular requests known to God (Philippians 4:6).Luk 1:13Rom 10:1Php 4:6
Stands beside the broader word for prayer as the focused asking within it, often listed alongside general prayer and intercession. It appears in such lists in Ephesians 6:18 and 1 Timothy 2:1.Eph 6:181Ti 2:1
Both
Both name an earnest plea addressed to God out of need, a cry lifted up for him to hear. The psalmist asks God to hear the voice of his supplications (Psalm 28:2), and Christ offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying (Hebrews 5:7).Psa 28:2Heb 5:7
Both look to God to hear and answer the plea, and both record that answer as given. The LORD heard the voice of the psalmist's supplications (Psalm 116:1), and Zacharias is told his petition is heard (Luke 1:13).Psa 116:1Luk 1:13
A cry specifically for grace and mercy, appealing to God's undeserved favor rather than to any right of the one asking. Daniel pleads for mercy on the ruined sanctuary (Daniel 9:17, 9:18), and God pours out a spirit of grace and supplication (Zechariah 12:10).Dan 9:17Dan 9:18Zec 12:10
Carries the posture of the lowly and needy who have nothing to bargain with. The poor speak in entreaties while the rich answer roughly (Proverbs 18:23), and the plea comes mixed with weeping and tears (Jeremiah 3:21,Jeremiah 31:9).Pro 18:23Jer 3:21Jer 31:9
What scholars say about deēsis
Lexica trace δέησις to the verb δέομαι ("to lack, to need"), which grounds its consistent "petition-out-of-need" coloring (Spicq, TLNT; Greeven, TDNT II:40-42). Moulton-Milligan and Deissmann document its dominant Koine use as the technical term for a formal petition submitted by a subject to a ruler (papyri: P.Petr. II 19; CPHerm 6; the recurring formula δικαίαν δέησιν ποιεῖσθαι from Demosthenes 29.4 onward), a background the NT redirects toward God. In the LXX (roughly 79x) δέησις chiefly renders תְּחִנָּה, also תְּפִלָּה, תַּחֲנוּן, and רִנָּה in petitionary contexts, and pairs repeatedly with προσευχή (Solomon's temple prayer, 3 Kgdms 8), a Septuagintism the NT inherits (Eph 6:18;Phil 4:6;1 Tim 2:1, 5:5). The chief scholarly dispute concerns whether δέησις is lexically distinct from its stacked near-synonyms: the older synonym tradition (Trench, Synonyms §li; Lightfoot; Ellicott; Thayer/Grimm) presses a genus/species scheme, while the modern consensus (Louw-Nida 33.178; Balz, EDNT; BDAG; NIDNTTE; Barr, Semantics of Biblical Language; Wiles, Paul's Intercessory Prayers) reads the cumulative lists as rhetoric of comprehensiveness rather than a fixed taxonomy, while still granting δέησις its need-petition force when it stands alone.
In-depth research
This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.
Sources
BDAG (Danker), s.v. δέησιςlexicon
Louw & Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the NT Based on Semantic Domains, 33.178lexicon
C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. δέησιςtheological dictionary
H. Greeven, "δέομαι, δέησις," TDNT II:40-42theological dictionary
H. Balz, "δέησις," Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT)theological dictionary
M. Silva (ed.), New International Dictionary of NT Theology and Exegesis (NIDNTTE)theological dictionary
J. H. Moulton & G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. δέησιςlexicon
R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, §lireference
J. Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Languagemonograph
G. P. Wiles, Paul's Intercessory Prayers (SNTSMS 24)monograph