Greek word · G4248

πρηνής

prēnēs

headlong

In ordinary Greek: (1) face down, lying prone, as opposed to on one's back; (2) pitching forward, head first, headlong. It is used of warriors falling forward in Homer and of bodies lying face down. Only here in the NT.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

πρηνής, -ές

(in Att.. also πρανής), [in LXX: Wisdom of Solomon 4:19, 3Ma.5:43 3Mac 5:50 3Mac 6:23 * ;]

headlong, prone: Acts 1:18.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Acts 1:18

Range of meaning

In ordinary Greek: (1) face down, lying prone, as opposed to on one's back; (2) pitching forward, head first, headlong. It is used of warriors falling forward in Homer and of bodies lying face down. Only here in the NT.

Against the English

"Headlong" (KJV, BSB, ESV, NASB, NIV) is a fair rendering. NLT's "headfirst" is close. Some readers assume "headlong" means a long fall from a cliff, but the Greek word describes the body's position, not the height.

How it drifted

No real drift. The risk is reading in a dramatic cliff or a breaking rope, which the word does not supply.

Used elsewhere in the period

Wisdom of Solomon 4:19 says God "will dash them speechless, headlong (πρηνεῖς)" and "shake them from the foundations" of the ungodly. This is a striking parallel in a Greek Jewish book about the end of the wicked. In 1912 F. H. Chase proposed a medical sense, "swollen" (linking it to πίμπρημι/πρήθω, "to swell, burn"). BDAG notes the suggestion, but no secure example of πρηνής with that meaning has been produced.

Where it appears

Acts · 1

  1. Acts 1:18 πρηνὴς headlong

    (Now with the reward for his wickedness Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong and burst open in the middle, and all his intestines spilled out.

    Here: Lying face down, or pitching forward head first. The word describes the position of the body, not how far he fell. A rare proposal takes it as "swollen" (see debates).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.