Understanding the Meaning of Bole in Greek

βολή expresses the idea of “throwing,” and it appears once in the New Testament in the account of Jesus withdrawing from His disciples to pray. In that setting it frames distance in terms of what a thrown stone could cover.

Root and Related Words

βολή corresponds to the verb ballo (βάλλω), “to throw” (Strong’s G906). The noun draws its imagery from the act of throwing, and in context it naturally lends itself to describing space by reference to a throw.

Occurrences

“He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and prayed,” (Luke 22:41)

In Luke’s narration, the movement away from the group is expressed with a concrete measure: “about a stone’s throw.” The phrase places Jesus close enough to remain within the same immediate setting—He is not leaving the scene or abandoning the company—but far enough to be “withdrawn from them” as He “knelt down and prayed.” The distance is not presented as exact or technical (“about”), but as a familiar, bodily scale drawn from everyday action: the reach of a thrown stone.

That image shapes how the reader perceives the moment. The disciples remain nearby, yet Jesus creates a small physical separation that suits prayer. The narrative links three elements in sequence—withdrawal, kneeling, praying—and the “stone’s throw” language functions as the hinge between company and solitude. It gives the withdrawal an ordinary, graspable dimension, so that the scene reads as a deliberate step aside rather than a departure.

Sense and Usage

The definition “throwing” is not used here to describe an act performed in the scene (no one throws anything in Luke 22:41). Instead, “throwing” supplies the conceptual basis for a spatial comparison: distance is understood in terms of what a throw can do. A “stone’s throw” is a unit of experience rather than a measured interval; it assumes a common human ability and a common object (“stone”) and turns the force and range of a throw into a way of locating one person in relation to others.

Because the statement is qualified by “about,” the point is not the precise extent of the separation, but its character. The phrase presents the gap as neither negligible nor extreme. It is enough to mark withdrawal—Jesus is no longer in the circle of the group—while still keeping the disciples in the near background of the same moment. In this way the idea of “throwing” serves Luke’s narrative economy: one brief comparison supplies a visual sense of space, anchors the reader in the physical setting, and supports the emotional tone of a short withdrawal for prayer.

Within this single attestation, βολή functions as a concrete, image-bearing term. It conveys distance through motion imagined rather than enacted: the mind supplies the arc of a stone, the brief flight through air, and the landing point that defines “about” how far Jesus moved away. The word’s contribution is therefore not abstract measurement but vivid, embodied orientation in the scene.

Imagery

Luke 22:41 frames a quiet moment with a simple physical picture. “About a stone’s throw” evokes an open space between Jesus and the disciples—close enough to remain within the same setting, far enough for kneeling prayer—so that the reader can almost mark the ground where He stopped and knelt.

Sources: Lexical data from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Translators Brief Lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (STEPBible, CC BY). Occurrence data from the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY). Scripture quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).