To fall/beat
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The Greek verb prospíptō describes falling against something or falling down before someone. In Jesus' house illustration, winds beat against a house, so the verb can describe forceful impact rather than reverence.
Reader summary
Full entry for προσπίπτω (G4363) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Greek verb prospíptō describes falling against something or falling down before someone. In Jesus' house illustration, winds beat against a house, so the verb can describe forceful impact rather than reverence.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include fell down before (2), [and] fell (1), [and] fell down before (1), beat against (1), fell (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 7:25. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (3), Mark (3), Acts (1), Matthew (1).
The Greek verb prospíptō describes falling against something or falling down before someone. In Jesus' house illustration, winds beat against a house, so the verb can describe forceful impact rather than reverence. In the remaining New Testament occurrences, unclean spirits and distressed people fall before Jesus, and the Philippian jailer falls before Paul and Silas.
The physical act may accompany recognition, fear, desperation, confession, a request for help, or exposure of truth, but posture alone does not prove worship, repentance, obedience, or saving faith. Unclean spirits correctly name Jesus while remaining opposed to Him. Peter responds to the overwhelming catch with awareness of sin, while two women approach Jesus amid family crisis, chronic illness, fear, and public vulnerability.
Responsible teaching listens to each speaker and narrative outcome. It does not imitate collapse, shame frightened people, confuse demonic oppression with mental illness, or make bodily intensity a spiritual test. The verb directs attention to pressure, need, authority, and response without allowing outward posture to replace truth and grace.
Prospíptō ranges from wind striking a house to spirits and people falling before Jesus and a jailer falling before His servants. Each narrative supplies the act's moral and theological meaning.
The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.
In the wise-builder illustration the verb describes storms striking a house, establishing a physical impact sense unrelated to bodily reverence.
And when the unclean spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and cried out, “You are the Son of God!”
Unclean spirits fall and speak a true title, yet Jesus silences them, so recognition and posture do not equal faithful discipleship.
Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him trembling in fear, and she told Him the whole truth.
After hidden suffering and healing, the woman falls before Jesus in fear and tells the truth within a public encounter He redirects toward peace.
Instead, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit soon heard about Jesus, and she came and fell at His feet.
A Gentile mother falls at Jesus' feet while pleading for her daughter, and the ensuing conversation must govern the posture's meaning.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.”
Peter responds to the overwhelming catch with fear and confessed sin before Jesus calls him into a new vocation.
When the man saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, shouting in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You not to torture me!”
The Gerasene man's action and cry occur within a scene of demonic oppression, social isolation, and Jesus' liberating authority.
Then the woman, seeing that she could not escape notice, came trembling and fell down before Him. In the presence of all the people, she explained why she had touched Him and how she had immediately been healed.
A woman made publicly visible falls trembling and explains her action before Jesus addresses her as daughter and sends her in peace.
Calling for lights, the jailer rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.
After the earthquake and his interrupted suicide attempt, the jailer falls before the prisoners and asks what he must do to be saved.
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 fall/beat
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
8 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I fall down before, beat against
Read verseI fall down before, beat against
Read verseI fall down before, beat against
Read verseI fall down before, beat against
Read verseI fall down before, beat against
Read verseI fall down before, beat against
Read verseI fall down before, beat against
Read verseI fall down before, beat against
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 8 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)
προσπίπτω is built from these roots:
Prospíptō is vivid, but vivid posture is not self-interpreting. Matthew uses the verb for winds beating against a house, demonstrating that the lexical core can be forceful contact rather than worship. Mark and Luke place unclean spirits before Jesus, where they recognize His identity but remain under rebuke and command. The hemorrhaging woman falls trembling after years of suffering and a hidden touch; Jesus does not exploit her fear but calls her daughter and sends her in peace.
The Syrophoenician mother comes for her child, and Peter falls after the catch while confessing sin before receiving a call. The Gerasene scene involves demonic oppression, social isolation, and restoration, not a template for diagnosing every distressed person. In Acts, the jailer falls after an earthquake and an interrupted suicide attempt, then hears the gospel and brings the apostles into his home.
These scenes direct ministers to listen, protect, and speak truth rather than manufacture spectacle. Bodily intensity may accompany faith, fear, coercion, illness, trauma, or opposition. Scripture asks readers to attend to Jesus' authority and the narrative response, not to treat collapse as proof of spiritual power.
Luke.5.8
Prospíptō combines a prepositional prefix with the common verb for falling. Its governed forms are active aorist or imperfect verbs and one aorist participle. The construction and context distinguish impact against an object from falling before a person.
Hebrew Bible narratives include people falling before kings, prophets, angels, and the Lord, but posture receives meaning from its object and setting. New Testament worship language likewise cannot be reduced to one physical verb or used to require a particular bodily response.