The meaning of Forbid in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
for-bid' (kala; koluo): Occurs very seldom in the Old Testament except as the rendering of chalilah (see below); it is once the translation of kala', "to restrain" (Numbers 11:28, "Joshua .... said My lord Moses forbid them"); twice of tsawah, "to command" (Deuteronomy 2:37, "and wheresoever Yahweh our God forbade us"; Deuteronomy 4:23, "Yahweh thy God hath forbidden thee," literally, "commanded"); once of lo', "not," the Revised Version (British and American) "commanded not to be done" (Leviticus 5:17). In the phrases, "Yahweh forbid" (I Samuel 24:6; I Samuel 26:11; I Kings 21:13), "God forbid" (Genesis 44:7; Joshua 22:29; Joshua 24:16; I Samuel 12:23; Job 27:5, etc.), "My God forbid it me" (I Chronicles 11:19), the word is chalilah, denoting profanation, or abhorrence (rendered, Genesis 18:25 the King James Version, "that be far from thee"); the English Revised Version leaves the expressions unchanged; the American Standard Revised Version substitutes "far be it from me," "thee," etc., except in I Samuel 14:45; I Samuel 20:2, where it is, "Far from it."
In the New Testament koluo, "to cut short," "restrain" is the word commonly translated "forbid" (Matthew 19:14, "forbid them not," etc.); in Luke 6:29, the Revised Version (British and American) has "withhold not"; diakoluo, with a similar meaning, occurs in Matthew 3:14, "John forbade him," the Revised Version (British and American) "would have hindered him"; akolutos, "uncut off" (Acts 28:31), is translated "none forbidding him." The phrase "God forbid" (me genoito, "let it not be," Luke 20:16; Romans 3:4, etc.) is retained by the Revised Version (British and American), with margin "Be it not so," except in Galatians 6:14, where the text has "Far be it from me"; me genoito is one of the renderings of chalilah in Septuagint. "God forbid" also appears in Apocrypha (1 Macc 2:21, the Revised Version (British and American) "Heaven forbid," margin, Greek "may he be propitious," 1 Macc 9:10, the Revised Version (British and American) "Let it not be").
W. L. Walker
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