Greek word · G4401
προχειροτονέω
procheirotoneō
to choose
To choose or appoint beforehand. It is built from pro- ('before') and cheirotoneō, literally 'to stretch out the hand'. That verb first meant voting by show of hands in a Greek assembly, and later simply 'to elect, appoint, designate' to an office.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament.
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
To choose or appoint beforehand. It is built from pro- ('before') and cheirotoneō, literally 'to stretch out the hand'. That verb first meant voting by show of hands in a Greek assembly, and later simply 'to elect, appoint, designate' to an office.
- Against the English
'Chosen beforehand' (BSB, NASB) and 'chosen before' (KJV, WEB) are accurate. Bare 'chosen' loses the sense of appointment to an office and the 'before'. Some readers take 'beforehand' to mean an eternal predestining decree. That may be read into it, but the word itself only says the appointment came before the event.
- Used elsewhere in the period
This compound appears only here in the New Testament. Its simple form cheirotoneō appears in Acts 14:23, where Paul and Barnabas appoint elders, and in 2 Cor 8:19, where the churches choose a delegate. In classical Athens a related noun named a preliminary show-of-hands vote in the assembly. By the Roman period the hand-raising had mostly faded from the meaning, leaving 'designate, appoint' (BDAG).
Similar words
Where it appears
Acts · 1
-
Acts 10:41 προκεχειροτονημένοις chosen beforehand
not by all the people, but by the witnesses God had chosen beforehand, by us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.
Here: 'Who had been designated in advance.' The word comes from raising a hand to vote or appoint, and it sounds like being formally named to an office. The perfect tense means the appointment stands: they still hold that role.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.