katakeimai describes lying on a bed, often in illness, or reclining in a meal setting.

The occurrences most often place someone lying on a bed amid illness, paralysis, or physical weakness; a substantial group instead places people reclining in homes, at a banquet, or in an idol’s temple. The contrast is contextual: the same verb is used for bodily lying down and for a meal-setting posture.

1. Lying on a bed in weakness or illness · dominant

   In Acts 9:33, the present middle participle identifies Aeneas as lying on a bed while paralyzed, and Acts 28:8 uses the present middle infinitive of Publius’s father lying sick. John 5:3 and John 5:6 place the form among weak people lying there, while Mark 2:4 has the paralytic reclining on the bed lowered through the roof.

   Acts 9:33Acts 28:8John 5:3John 5:6Mark 2:4Mark 1:30
2. Reclining in a meal or table setting · common

   In Luke 5:29, the nominative plural present middle participle describes the tax collectors and others at Levi’s banquet. Mark 2:15, Luke 7:37, and Mark 14:3 place a singular person reclining in a home, while 1 Corinthians 8:10 situates the participial form in an idol’s temple.

   Luke 5:29Mark 2:15Luke 7:37Mark 14:31 Corinthians 8:10

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB varies between “lying,” “lying down,” and “reclining” across these verses. Because it translates whole verses rather than aligning individual words, the contextual distinction between bedbound weakness and meal settings is clearer than any single English rendering.