To remain/persist
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The Greek verb prosmeno describes staying longer, remaining with someone, or continuing in a commitment or practice. Paul leaves Timothy in Ephesus to address false teaching and himself stays in Corinth before traveling.
Reader summary
Full entry for προσμένω (G4357) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek verb prosmeno describes staying longer, remaining with someone, or continuing in a commitment or practice. Paul leaves Timothy in Ephesus to address false teaching and himself stays in Corinth before traveling.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include they have already been (2), continues (1), remained [in Corinth] (1), to abide (1), to continue (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 15:32. Its strongest book concentrations include Acts (3), 1 Timothy (2), Mark (1), Matthew (1).
The Greek verb prosmeno describes staying longer, remaining with someone, or continuing in a commitment or practice. Paul leaves Timothy in Ephesus to address false teaching and himself stays in Corinth before traveling. A widow truly alone continues in petitions and prayers; Barnabas urges believers to remain with the Lord; Jews and devout converts are urged to continue in God's grace; and Jesus has compassion on crowds who have stayed with Him for three days without food.
Persistence is therefore relational and contextual, not automatically virtuous. People can remain for a task, with a person, in grace, in prayer, or at a place until circumstances require movement. Responsible teaching asks what or whom a person remains with, for how long, toward what purpose, and what care continued presence requires. It must not use endurance language to trap people in abuse, neglect hungry bodies, burden widows, resist needed transitions, or make persistence a substitute for truth, grace, consent, and wise limits.
Prosmeno covers remaining in a location, staying with a person, continuing in grace or prayer, and persisting for an assigned ministry. Jesus' compassion shows that prolonged presence creates bodily responsibilities rather than merely proving devotion.
As I urged you on my departure to Macedonia, you should stay on at Ephesus to instruct certain men not to teach false doctrines
Timothy remains in Ephesus for the bounded task of confronting teaching that departs from apostolic instruction.
The widow who is truly in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers.
A widow left truly alone places hope in God and continues in prayer day and night.
When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to abide in the Lord with all their hearts.
Barnabas sees God's grace in Antioch and encourages the whole community to remain devoted to the Lord.
After the synagogue was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.
Paul and Barnabas urge Jews and devout converts who followed them to continue in God's grace.
Paul remained in Corinth for quite some time before saying goodbye to the brothers. He had his head shaved in Cenchrea to keep a vow he had made, and then he sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila.
Paul stays in Corinth for an additional period before saying farewell and continuing his journey.
“I have compassion for this crowd, because they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat.
Jesus notices that the crowd has remained with Him for three days and now has no food.
Then Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have compassion for this crowd, because they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may faint along the way.”
Matthew's parallel emphasizes Jesus' compassion and refusal to dismiss the continuing crowd hungry and at risk of fainting.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. to remain/persist
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I remain, persist in
Read verseI remain, persist in
Read verseI remain, persist in
Read verseI remain, persist in
Read verseI remain, persist in
Read verseI remain, persist in
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 7 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
προσμένω is built from these roots:
Prosmeno presents persistence as directed attachment rather than stubborn immobility. Timothy remains in Ephesus because Paul has given him a particular task concerning false teaching; the verse does not grant indefinite control or make one minister irreplaceable. First Timothy 5 honors the prayer of a widow truly alone, yet the chapter also assigns family and church responsibilities, so her persistence must not be used to spiritualize away material support.
Acts 11 and 13 locate continuing faith in the Lord and in God's grace, protecting perseverance from becoming self-reliant performance. The Jewish and devout hearers in Acts 13 remain visible participants in the gospel's first-century Jewish context, not foils for anti-Jewish claims. Paul's extended stay in Corinth is followed by departure, showing that faithful remaining and faithful transition can coexist.
Mark and Matthew portray a crowd's three-day presence through Jesus' compassion: He notices hunger and the risk of collapse. Faithful teaching therefore encourages durable allegiance, prayer, and service while watching bodies, dependencies, changing assignments, and safety. Remaining is good when its object and purpose are good and when leaders accept the care it requires.
Matt.15.32
Prosmeno combines a staying verb with a prefix that often directs remaining toward or with someone. It can govern a person or appear with a prepositional phrase, covering extended stay, relational attachment, or continued practice without itself specifying that the duration is permanent.
The Hebrew Scriptures praise covenant steadfastness, sustained prayer, and patient presence while also narrating timely departures and commands to flee danger. The New Testament gathers perseverance around Christ and grace, never making duration alone a proof of faithfulness or a reason to neglect bodies.