The Greek adverb prōi (πρωΐ) means early in the morning, at dawn, or in the first part of the day. It refers to the early morning watch (approximately 3–6 AM) or the time just at or after sunrise. It appears about 12 times in the New Testament and carries theological significance as the time of resurrection, prayer, and new beginnings.
In the New Testament, prōi is almost always the setting for decisive divine action. The women come to the tomb 'early on the first day of the week' (Mark 16:2, 9) and find the stone rolled away — the resurrection happens in the darkness before dawn. Jesus regularly rose 'very early in the morning' to pray (Mark 1:35). In John 8:2, 'early in the morning he came again to the temple.' The pattern establishes early morning as the sacred time of encounter with the risen Christ. The Hebrew concept of the morning as a time of God's fresh mercies (Lamentations 3:23) is carried forward into the New Testament's resurrection-morning theology.