to go out in front and lead the way; to take the initiative in doing something
The word is built from "before, in front" joined to a common verb, ἡγέομαι, that means both "to lead" and "to consider." Everywhere else it appears in Greek, from histories and military writing to everyday letters, it means to go ahead of others: to lead a procession, march at the head of an army, guide someone, or be the first to act. It is never clearly used to mean thinking someone superior in your own mind.
It turns up only once in the New Testament, in Romans 12:10, inside Paul's rapid list of what real love looks like. There the picture is a kind of race to honor: not waiting to be honored, but hurrying to be the one who honors first and honors most. Because it is a single use, and because Paul attaches it to honor in a way no other Greek writer does, the exact shade is debated (see the note on that verse), but the direction is clear.
The puzzle is partly in the grammar. Here the verb takes a direct object, "one another," which it does not do anywhere else in Greek. That oddity is what makes the verse a genuine crux for scholars. Yet the thrust is not in doubt: honor is something to give away actively and first, the reverse of the ordinary scramble to be honored yourself.
What προηγέομαι means in its sole New Testament occurrence, Romans 12:10, and therefore how τῇ τιμῇ ἀλλήλους προηγούμενοι should be rendered. The crux is sharpened by the verb taking a direct object (ἀλλήλους), a construction unattested elsewhere, where classical usage takes a dative or genitive.
- contestedThe verb keeps its normal Greek sense of going out in front, here with a competitive edge: believers should try to outdo one another in showing honor. This reads the honor culture of the day as something Paul co-opts and inverts.; BDAG, 3rd ed. (2000), s.v. προηγέομαι; D. J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT, 1996), 777; J. D. G. Dunn, Romans 9-16 (WBC 38B, 1988), 740-41; R. Jewett, Romans (Hermeneia, 2007), 761-62; John Chrysostom, Homily 21 on Romans
- contestedThe verb keeps its normal sense of going before, understood as taking the initiative: each believer should be the first to honor the other rather than wait to be honored. This is the reading behind the Latin Vulgate's praevenientes.; J. A. Fitzmyer, Romans (AB 33, 1993), 653-54; R. N. Longenecker, The Epistle to the Romans (NIGTC, 2016), 935-37; C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. προηγέομαι
- minorityThe verb functions like its base verb with a comparative force, esteem others as ranking above yourself, echoing Philippians 2:3. This is the King James tradition, defended on grammatical and theological rather than lexical grounds.; BDF (Blass-Debrunner-Funk), A Greek Grammar of the NT, section 150; J. Murray, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT, 1959-65); C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans (ICC, 1979)