StrongerBible

euchomai

εὔχομαι

GreekG2172“pray, wish, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Act 26:29Act 27:29Rom 9:32Co 13:72Co 13:9Jas 5:163Jn 1:2
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What euchomai means

1

to pray: to speak to God in earnest petition, often on someone else's behalf

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is the older, plainer Greek word for praying, and it carries the weight of a solemn appeal made directly to God. By the time the New Testament was written, the church usually reached for a newer, more specialized word for prayer (προσεύχομαι), so when this verb turns up it tends to mark a heightened or formal moment of address. Where it means "prayer", the writer almost always makes that clear by saying who is being addressed, often adding "to God."

The senses here are not really different prayers but the same act seen in different settings:

  • an apostle interceding for a struggling church
  • a prisoner praying for his hearers before a king
  • terrified sailors crying out in a storm
  • believers told to pray for one another so that the sick may be healed

What unites them is a person turning to God with a request that matters deeply, frequently for the good of someone else rather than themselves.

Act 26:29Act 27:292Co 13:72Co 13:9Jas 5:16
2

to wish: to long for something the speaker knows lies beyond their power to bring about

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The same word can step back from direct prayer into the realm of heartfelt longing. Here the speaker voices a desire while quietly admitting that its fulfillment is not in their hands, and may not be possible at all. Ordinary Greek used this word for exactly such wishes, from the polite "I hope you are doing well" that opened countless letters to the philosopher's "if only" about an ideal that can never exist.

The two New Testament examples sit at opposite emotional poles. One is the conventional courtesy of a letter's opening greeting, warm but expected. The other is a cry of anguish so extreme it borders on the unspeakable, where the very form of the wish signals that the speaker holds himself back from what he dares not actually ask. In both, the longing is real even though its object is out of reach.

Nuances

2athe polite, formulaic wish that someone is doing well
3Jn 1:2
2ban impassioned wish for something the speaker knows cannot be granted
Rom 9:3
Rom 9:3

What Paul's wish to be cursed for the sake of his fellow Jews actually is, given the verb's form here.

  • majorityAn unrealizable wish, intensely felt but consciously held back from being a prayer Paul can actually offer, since he knows nothing can separate him from Christ.; Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans (ICC), II.456-59; Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT, 2nd ed.); Dunn, Romans 9-16 (WBC 38B), 524-25; Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament, 885-86
  • minorityAn actual past prayer that Paul repeatedly offered and that God did not grant, paralleling Moses more literally.; Jewett, Romans (Hermeneia, 2007), 558-60

What scholars say about euchomai

The lexica recognize the same threefold range for this verb, pray, vow, and wish, but weight it differently. BDAG gives two senses for the verb, to pray (Acts 26:29; 2 Cor 13:7; James 5:16) and to wish for, with the implication that attainment lies beyond the speaker (Acts 27:29; Rom 9:3; 3 John 2), reserving the vow sense largely for the noun. Louw-Nida places the verb across separate domains for prayer and for promise/vow, with Rom 9:3 under wish/desire. Greeven (TDNT) and Spicq (TLNT) treat it instead as one act of solemn speech before God whose flavor is set by context, a view that follows the classical philology of Muellner, who argued the verb's underlying sense is to declare solemnly, with vow, prayer, and boast as contextual specializations. Moulton-Milligan and Deissmann document the verb's drift in the Hellenistic letters into the formulaic health-wish that opens 3 John 2, and Muraoka's Septuagint lexicon shows how heavily the Greek Old Testament mortgaged the verb to the Hebrew word for vowing. The standard explanation, from Ramsay and Greeven, is that the New Testament writers inherited a verb overweighted with vow and cliche and pushed it to the margins, leaving the dedicated compound to carry ordinary prayer. On Rom 9:3 the commentators converge: Cranfield, Moo, Fitzmyer, Dunn, Schreiner, Kasemann, and Longenecker all read the imperfect as marking an unrealizable wish that still expresses genuine apostolic anguish, casting Paul as a new Moses after Exodus 32:32.

Where scholars disagree about euchomai

Whether the verb in the New Testament holds a single field of solemn speech before God (pray, vow, wish blending by context) or splits into separate senses of pray and wish.

  • contestedOne unified act of solemn speech before God, with pray, vow, and wish as contextual colorings of a single sense rooted in an older meaning to declare solemnly.; Greeven, TDNT II.775-808; Spicq, TLNT, s.v. εὔχομαι; Muellner, The Meaning of Homeric εὔχομαι Through Its Formulas
  • contestedDistinct senses: to pray, and to wish for something whose attainment lies beyond the speaker, treated as separate entries.; BDAG, 3rd ed., s.v. εὔχομαι; Louw and Nida, §§33.178, 33.296, 25.7
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

  • Bauer, Danker, Arndt, Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), 3rd ed., s.v. εὔχομαι, εὐχήlexicon
  • Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, §§33.178, 33.296, 25.7lexicon
  • Liddell, Scott, Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (LSJ), 9th ed., s.v. εὔχομαιlexicon
  • Greeven, εὔχομαι κτλ., in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) II.775-808theological-dictionary
  • Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (TLNT), s.v. εὔχομαι, εὐχήtheological-dictionary
  • Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Peeters, 2009), s.v. εὔχομαι, εὐχήlexicon
  • Moulton and Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. εὔχομαιlexicon
  • Muellner, The Meaning of Homeric εὔχομαι Through Its Formulas (1976; 2nd ed., Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard)monograph
  • Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East (1927)monograph
  • Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans (ICC), II.456-59commentary
  • Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT, 2nd ed., 2018)commentary
  • Fitzmyer, Romans (Anchor Bible)commentary
  • Dunn, Romans 9-16 (WBC 38B), 524-25commentary
  • Schreiner, Romans (BECNT)commentary
  • Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle of James (ICC, 2013)commentary
  • Davids, The Epistle of James (NIGTC, 1982)commentary
  • Barrett, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (ICC)commentary
  • Brown, The Epistles of John (Anchor Bible 30)commentary
  • Lieu, The Second and Third Epistles of John (1986)monograph
  • Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, 885-86grammar
  • Blass, Debrunner, Funk, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament (BDF), §359(2)grammar
  • Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, 551-52grammar

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of εὔχομαι

present middle-or-passive indicative 1p

εὐχόμεθα

2Co 13:7, 2Co 13:9

aorist middle optative 1s

εὐξαίμην

Act 26:29

imperfect middle-or-passive indicative 1s

ηὐχόμην

Rom 9:3

imperfect middle-or-passive indicative 3p

ηὔχοντο

Act 27:29

present middle-or-passive imperative 2p

εὔχεσθε

Jas 5:16

present middle-or-passive indicative 1s

εὔχομαί

3Jn 1:2