dioko is used for hostile pursuit against people, and for actively pressing after a goal such as peace, love, or righteousness.

The dominant use describes hostile pursuit of people, including persecution marked by abuse, imprisonment, or killing; it also describes active striving after qualities, peace, hospitality, righteousness, and a goal. In two settings, it denotes pursuing a person or reported location without the fuller persecution context.

1. Hostile pursuit and persecution · dominant

   This use targets people in hostile action: in Acts 22:4 the first-person aorist is set beside binding men and women and delivering them to prisons, while in Luke 21:12 future forms stand with seizure, delivery to synagogues and prisons, and being led before rulers. Passive participles describe those undergoing that action in 1 Corinthians 4:12 and Matthew 5:10; in Matthew 23:34, the future form occurs alongside killing, crucifying, and flogging.

   Acts 22:4Luke 21:121 Corinthians 4:12Matthew 5:10Matthew 23:34John 15:20
2. Actively striving after a desired aim · common

   Imperatives and present forms direct sustained effort toward stated objects: in 1 Corinthians 14:1 the APB renders the clause "Pursue love," and in Hebrews 12:14 it renders "Pursue peace with all and the holiness." Philippians 3:12 and Philippians 3:14 place first-person present forms in the speaker's continuing effort toward what has not yet been attained and toward the goal.

   1 Corinthians 14:1Hebrews 12:141 Timothy 6:112 Timothy 2:22Philippians 3:12Philippians 3:14
3. Following after a person or location · rare

   In Revelation 12:13, the aorist action is directed at the woman after the dragon sees that it has been thrown to earth. In Luke 17:23, the aorist subjunctive occurs in a warning not to go out or follow after reports of a location; these clauses show pursuit without the explicit punitive actions found in the hostile-use passages.

   Revelation 12:13Luke 17:23

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly uses "persecute" where people are targeted hostilely and "pursue" where a person presses after an aim or follows another. It also renders the form in John 5:16 as "were pursuing Jesus" and in Philippians 3:14 as "press on," so these are verse-level renderings rather than fixed word alignments.