a matter or affair: a concrete thing that is done or has to be dealt with, whether a deed, an unspecified affair, a legal case, or the reality behind an appearance
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
This is Greek's all-purpose word for a "thing" in the sense of something done or something being handled. It is the concrete partner of the ordinary verb "to do" or "to act" (prasso): where one word names the activity of doing, pragma names the thing that results from it, the deed or the affair. That built-in flavor keeps it from ever being a purely empty "thing"; even at its vaguest it still points to a matter that someone is dealing with.
From that core the word fans out entirely by context. It can be:
a plain deed (the fraud Ananias planned)
any unspecified matter (anything two believers agree to ask for)
a delicate affair named only in passing
a legal case brought against someone
an event that actually happened
The reader almost always needs the surrounding sentence, not the word itself, to know which of these is meant.
In the letter to the Hebrews the same everyday word is stretched to its loftiest use: the "realities" that faith lays hold of, the true things themselves as against their shadows and copies. Nothing in the word forces that grand sense; the setting supplies it. That is the whole character of this word. It is an unremarkable, flexible term that takes its color from its surroundings, which is exactly why a writer reaches for it when the aim is to be either deliberately vague or unexpectedly weighty.
Nuances
1aa deed: a concrete thing that someone does, especially a specific act
TranslatabilityDirect
Act 5:4Jas 3:16
1ba matter or affair: some unspecified thing that is being dealt with
TranslatabilityApproximate
Mat 18:19Rom 16:2*
Rom 16:2
Whether "whatever matter" (ᾧ ἂν πράγματι) Phoebe may need help with is left entirely open or points specifically to legal or business affairs befitting her role as patron (προστάτις).
majorityA deliberately unspecified matter: whatever assistance she requires, with no technical sense intended.; C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC) 2:780-783; D. Moo, Romans (NICNT), 913-919
minorityA semi-technical legal or business affair, since Phoebe travelled to Rome as a patron underwriting Paul's mission.; R. Jewett, Romans (Hermeneia), 946-948
1ca delicate matter referred to obliquely, without being named outright
2Co 7:111Th 4:6*
1Th 4:6
Whether τῷ πράγματι in this verse is a veiled reference to sexual wrongdoing (taking another man's wife) or to defrauding a fellow believer in a business dealing; the articular τῷ and the surrounding purity theme are the main points at issue.
majorityA sexual euphemism: "the matter" points back to the sexual immorality of the preceding verses, and to wrong a brother "in the matter" is to commit adultery against him.; C. A. Wanamaker, The Epistles to the Thessalonians (NIGTC), 155-158; A. J. Malherbe, The Letters to the Thessalonians (Anchor Bible), 231-237
minorityA commercial wrong: the verb for defrauding is a trade term, so the warning covers cheating a brother in business as well as, or instead of, sexual sin.; E. J. Richard, First and Second Thessalonians (Sacra Pagina), 194, 202; B. Witherington, 1 and 2 Thessalonians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary
1da lawsuit: a legal case one person brings against another
TranslatabilityDirect
1Co 6:1
1ean event that has actually taken place; an established fact
TranslatabilityApproximate
Luk 1:1Heb 6:18
1fa reality: the true thing itself, as opposed to a shadow or copy of it
Both can stand in for anything at all when the speaker leaves it unspecified.Mat 18:19
Only thing
"Thing" is the vaguest possible rendering; it loses the sense of something done or a weighty affair and can flatten a lawsuit or a solemn reality into a triviality.
In Hebrews the word means the true thing itself as against its shadow or copy, a solid reality that faith holds onto.Heb 10:1Heb 11:1
Both
Both point to what actually exists rather than to a mere appearance.Heb 11:1
Only reality
"Reality" in English leans philosophical and abstract, whereas the Greek word is an ordinary term for a matter that takes this lofty sense only from its setting.
“affair”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“lawsuit”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How pragma differs from similar Greek words
πρᾶξιςthe doing or activity itself, where this word is rather the thing done that results from it
names the act as something performed, a deed done or a settled practice viewed as conduct, keeping the doer's activity in viewMat 16:27Act 19:18Luk 23:51
can mean the function or working proper to a part, the role it carries outRom 12:4
ἔργονa work as accomplished labor or a finished product, more tangible than this word's looser sense of a matter or affair
Names a deed as the product of activity or labor: what a person actually does or makes, the fruit of effort rather than merely an affair being dealt with.Jhn 4:34Act 9:36
Carries the loaded theological sense of human deeds set against faith and grace, the acts someone might point to as ground before God.Rom 3:20Eph 2:9
Names the acts of God himself, what he has done in creation and salvation.Jhn 5:36Heb 4:4
pragma in the other biblical languages
דָּבָרHebrew“word”the Hebrew word this most often translates in the Greek Old Testament; it likewise stretches from word to matter, thing, and affair
It can name a concrete legal case or lawsuit, a dispute pressed before a court for judgment.1Co 6:1
Rooted in the verb for doing, it can mean a deed actually carried out or a fact that objectively exists, a reality standing apart from anyone's speech about it.Act 5:4Heb 11:1Heb 6:18
Both
Both name an abstract matter, affair, or piece of business under discussion, the issue at hand rather than any physical object.Gen 21:11Rom 16:2
Both stretch to mean simply a thing or anything at all, the most general placeholder for something asked, done, or considered.Gen 18:14Mat 18:19
Its core and most frequent sense is a spoken word, a saying, or speech itself, something said aloud, which the Greek word never covers.Gen 34:18Gen 37:8
It is the standard term for the word of the LORD, divine speech and revelation given to a prophet, a religious weight the Greek word does not carry.Gen 15:1Gen 15:4
מַעֲשֶׂהHebrew“deed: work”a Hebrew word for a deed or piece of work, matching this word mainly in its concrete sense of a thing done
reaches into the courtroom, naming a legal case or lawsuit that one person brings against another1Co 6:1
names an abstract matter or piece of business to be handled or settled between people, not an object one can point toRom 16:21Th 4:62Co 7:11
points to a thing that actually and objectively exists, the real substance standing behind a promise or behind a mere shadowHeb 11:1Heb 10:1Heb 6:18
Both
both can name a deed or act that someone has actually done, often a wrongful one, so English renders each as deed, work, or thing doneAct 5:4Jas 3:16Gen 20:9Num 16:28
names a concrete object shaped by skilled hands, a piece of craftsmanship or manufacture such as woven curtains, priestly garments, or engraved stoneExo 26:1Exo 28:6Exo 32:16
stands for God's mighty deeds and saving acts worked out in history, the great things his people watch him doExo 34:10Deu 3:24
covers the product and fruit of human labor, what hands have toiled to make or growGen 5:29Exo 23:16
What scholars say about pragma
πρᾶγμα is formed from the verb πράσσω with the -μα suffix, which yields the concrete result of an action (as ποίημα from ποιέω), so it denotes the deed or thing done rather than the activity of doing (πρᾶξις); LSJ calls it "the concrete of πρᾶξις, but frequently approaching to the abstract sense." The standard lexica (BDAG 858-59; LSJ; Louw-Nida; Spicq 3:156-58) map a fourfold range: deed/event, undertaking/task, a matter under dispute (lawsuit), and a generic thing/matter. In the Septuagint it renders chiefly דָּבָר (Swete; Hatch-Redpath), with secondary equivalents including חֵפֶץ, מְלָאכָה, and מַעֲשֶׂה; formative passages include Exod 18:14-22 and Deut 17:10 (a legal matter) and Deut 24:1's ἄσχημον πρᾶγμα ("an indecent matter"), which seeds a discreet-reference idiom for shameful acts ("τὸ πρᾶγμα τοῦτο"). The documentary papyri (Moulton-Milligan) make the "affair/business" sense and the forensic formula πρᾶγμα ἔχειν πρός τινα ("to have a case against someone") dominant in daily koine, which Deissmann (Bibelstudien, 233) and Winter (After Paul Left Corinth) connect directly to 1 Cor 6:1. The Middle-Platonic and Philonic use of πράγματα for invisible realities (Plato, Cratylus; Aristotle's πρᾶγμα versus λόγος; Philo, Conf. Ling. 190) stands behind the σκιά-εἰκών-πράγματα triad of Heb 10:1 and the objective "realities" of Heb 11:1.
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, s.v. πρᾶγμα, 858-59lexicon
LSJ, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., s.v. πρᾶγμαlexicon
Louw & Nida, Greek-English Lexicon Based on Semantic Domains, §§13.105, 42.1, 56, 57lexicon
Moulton & Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, s.v. πρᾶγμαlexicon
C. Maurer, "πράσσω κτλ.," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 6:632-644dictionary
Balz & Schneider, Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT) 3, s.v. πρᾶγμαdictionary
C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament 3:156-158dictionary
A. Deissmann, Bible Studies (ET 1901), 233monograph
B. W. Winter, After Paul Left Corinth (Eerdmans, 2001), ch. 4monograph
H. W. Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia), 307-310commentary
C. R. Koester, Hebrews (Anchor Bible), 472-480commentary