🔼The name Prochorus: Summary
- Meaning
- Choir Director, First Of A Happy Bunch
- Etymology
- From (1) the prefix προ (pro), before or prior (cognate with the Latin prae), and (2) the noun χορος (choros), choir or dancers.
🔼The name Prochorus in the Bible
There's only one man named Prochorus in the Bible and he is mentioned only once, namely in Acts 6:5, as one of the seven deacons who were appointed to make sure nobody was skipped at chow time.
One of Prochorus' colleagues was Stephen, who became the first Christian martyr, after a bout with the men of the Synagogue of Freedmen went sour (see our article on the name Pilate). This plus the curious requisite of these seven to be "of good reputation and full of the Spirit and of wisdom" merits the suspicion of many that the problem of the hungry widows was about much more than that.
🔼Etymology of the name Prochorus
The name Prochorus consists of two elements. The first one of these is the common prefix προ (pro), meaning before or prior:
προ
The preposition προ (pro) means before (hence English words like prophet and proactive), not to be confused with προς (pros), which describes a motion toward (hence English words like proselyte and prosody). It's part of an enormous list of compound derivations. True derivative πρωτος (protos) is a superlative meaning very first or before everything. From this word derives the familiar adverb πρωτον (proton), very firstly.
The second part of our name comes from the noun χορος (choros), meaning choir or dance:
χορος
The noun χορος (choros) means choir, or slightly broader: any group of celebrants, dancers or singers.
🔼Prochorus meaning
The name Prochorus means Choir Director or perhaps First Of A Happy Bunch, and is both reminiscent of the choir leader to whom many Psalms were dedicated (Psalms 4, 5, 6, 8, etc.), and obviously also of the zygotic nature of Christ.