Bible Dictionaries
Beg, Beggar, Beggarly

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

a strengthened form of aiteo, is used in Luke 16:3 .

lit., "to ask besides" (pros, "towards," used intensively, and aiteo), "to ask earnestly, to importune, continue asking," is said of the blind beggar in John 9:8 . In Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35 certain mss. have this verb; the most authentic have prosaites, "a beggar," a word used in John 9:8 , as well as the verb (see the RV).

Note: "Begged" in Matthew 27:58; Luke 23:52 , RV, "asked for," translates the verb aiteo; see ASK.

an adjective describing "one who crouches and cowers," is used as a noun, "a beggar" (from ptosso, "to cower down or hide oneself for fear"), Luke 14:13,21 ("poor"); Luke 16:20,22; as an adjective "beggarly" in Galatians 4:9 , i.e., poverty-stricken, powerless to enrich, metaphorically descriptive of the religion of the Jews.

While prosaites is descriptive of a "beggar," and stresses his "begging," ptochos stresses his poverty-stricken condition. See POOR.