0
0
Greek Word for Forgiveness: What Does “Aphesis” Really Mean?
Quick answer: The primary Greek word for forgiveness in the New Testament is ἄφεσις (aphesis), pronounced AH-feh-sees — Strong’s G859. It does not mean “to feel warmly toward someone who wronged you.” It literally means release, dismissal, letting go — the word a first-century Greek speaker would use for cancelling a debt, freeing a slave, or opening a prison door. Aphesis appears seventeen times in the New Testament, and your English Bible renders it as either “forgiveness” or “remission” in nearly every one.
Word Study: Where “Aphesis” Comes From
Aphesis is the noun form of the verb ἀφίημι (aphiemi, G863), which is built from two smaller pieces:
- apo (ἀπό) — “away from”
- hiemi (ἵημι) — “to send”
So at root, aphesis is a sending-away. The image underneath the word is not a feeling at all. It is motion — something that was attached to you being detached and sent off.
This is why the verb aphiemi shows up all over the Gospels doing jobs that have nothing to do with sin. When the disciples “left” their nets to follow Jesus, that is aphiemi. When the fever “left” Peter’s mother-in-law, that is aphiemi. When Jesus “yielded up” His spirit on the cross, that is aphiemi. The word simply means to let something go — to release your grip and let it depart.
The commercial world of the ancient Mediterranean sharpened it further. In everyday Greek documents, aphesis was a legal and financial term: the cancellation of a debt, the release of an obligation, the discharge of a prisoner. If someone owed you money and you granted them aphesis, the ledger was not adjusted or renegotiated. The debt was gone. There was nothing left to collect.
And then there is the Old Testament layer, which is the part most readers never hear. When Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek (the Septuagint), they needed a word for the Year of Jubilee — the fiftieth year when every debt was wiped, every slave went home free, and every family’s lost land was restored. The word they chose was aphesis. Leviticus 25:10 commands, “proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” That “liberty” is aphesis in Greek. Deuteronomy 15:1 sets up the seventh-year debt cancellation — “At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release” — and that “release” is aphesis too.
So by the time a New Testament writer reaches for this word, it already carries centuries of freight: debts erased, prisoners walking out, slaves going home, land returned to families who lost it. That is the vocabulary God chose to describe what happens to your sin.
If you have ever read the Bible and felt lost, this is for you.
Our free, cinematic retelling of the Book of Matthew lets you experience Jesus’ life, teachings, and miracles in first person — as if you were standing there — while staying scripturally accurate. It is the same Gospel where Jesus tells us to pray “forgive us our debts.” Read it the way the first hearers heard it.
Where “Aphesis” Appears in the Bible
| Reference | Text (KJV) | How aphesis is translated |
|---|---|---|
| Matthew 26:28 | “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” | remission |
| Luke 4:18 | “…he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” | deliverance / liberty |
| Acts 2:38 | “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” | remission |
| Ephesians 1:7 | “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” | forgiveness |
| Hebrews 9:22 | “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” | remission |
Notice the translation drift. One Greek word, four different English words — remission, deliverance, liberty, forgiveness. English has no single term that covers everything aphesis covers, so translators pick whichever facet fits the sentence. Reading only in English, you would never guess these were all the same idea.
Verse Deep Dive: Luke 4:18 — The Word Jesus Used Twice
When Jesus stood up in the synagogue at Nazareth to announce what He had come to do, He read from Isaiah. And in the Greek of Luke 4:18, aphesis appears twice in a single verse — translated two different ways:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” (Luke 4:18, KJV)
“Deliverance to the captives” is aphesis. “Set at liberty them that are bruised” is aphesis. Two occurrences, one word — and neither one is rendered “forgiveness” in your English Bible.
This matters enormously, because this is Jesus’ own mission statement — the sermon where He tells a roomful of neighbors what the anointing on His life is for. And the load-bearing word in it is the same word the rest of the New Testament uses for the forgiveness of sins.
Which means Jesus is not describing two separate ministries, one social and one spiritual. He is describing one act of release, applied to everything that holds a person. Prisoners get aphesis. Debtors get aphesis. Sinners get aphesis. It is all the same motion: whatever has you, God sends it away.
Then Luke tells us Jesus closed the scroll and said the Jubilee had arrived — “this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” The fiftieth year that Israel had celebrated in theory for centuries was standing in front of them in person.
Not All “Forgiveness” Is the Same: Aphesis vs. Charizomai, Apolyo, and Paresis
Greek has several words your Bible renders as “forgive,” and they are doing genuinely different work:
- Aphesis (ἄφεσις, G859) — release, send away, cancel. The debt-and-prison word, and the standard term for God’s forgiveness of sin. It says nothing about how anyone feels; it says the thing that bound you is gone.
- Charizomai (χαρίζομαι, G5483) — to give freely as a favor. Built on charis, the word for grace. It means to forgive by handing over a gift you were never obligated to give. Paul reaches for it when forgiveness is between people: “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). Where aphesis empties the ledger, charizomai hands over a present.
- Apolyo (ἀπολύω, G630) — to loose, set free, dismiss. Used for releasing a prisoner. Jesus uses it in Luke 6:37: “forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.” The picture is untying a knot.
- Paresis (πάρεσις, G3929) — a passing over, an overlooking. This one appears exactly once, in Romans 3:25, describing “the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” Paul chooses a deliberately different word there, and the distinction is sharp: paresis is a temporary passing by of sins, holding the account open. Aphesis is the account closed. Same English word “remission” — entirely different Greek claim.
Why the Original Word Changes the Meaning
In English, “forgiveness” has quietly become an emotional category. We treat it as something that happens inside a person’s heart — a softening, a decision to stop being angry, a feeling we can either summon or cannot. Which is exactly why people say things like “I have forgiven them, but I do not feel like I have,” and then conclude they must not have really done it.
Aphesis dismantles that. It is not an emotional word. It is a legal and transactional one. When Matthew 26:28 says Jesus’ blood was shed “for the remission of sins,” it is saying the debt was discharged — not softened, not managed, not put on a payment plan. Released.
That reframes forgiveness in both directions.
Toward you: Your forgiveness is not a mood God is in. It is a status God has established. Hebrews 9:22 puts the cost right out in the open — “without shedding of blood is no remission.” Aphesis was not free; it was purchased. But because it was purchased, it does not fluctuate with your performance or with how you happen to feel on a given Tuesday. The ledger does not reopen because you woke up ashamed.
Toward others: Jesus taught us to pray “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12), and the word for those debts is a straight financial term — opheilema, what is legally owed. Then in Matthew 18 He tells the story of a servant whose master released an unpayable debt, and who walked out and seized a man over a trivial one. The tragedy of that parable is not that the servant felt insufficiently warm toward his fellow servant. It is that he kept collecting on a debt he had just been shown how to cancel.
So the honest question aphesis puts to you is not “have you managed to stop feeling hurt?” It is quieter, and much harder: are you still trying to collect?
Living It Out
Feelings are slow. Release is a decision, and it usually has to be made more than once.
Think of one person whose debt to you is still open on your books. You do not have to pretend the debt is not real — aphesis never pretends the debt is not real. Jubilee did not mean nobody had borrowed anything. It meant someone decided to stop collecting.
Say it plainly, out loud if you can: “They owe me, and I am not collecting anymore.” You may have to say it again next week, when the memory turns up asking for a payment. That repetition is not failure. That is what letting go looks like when your hands have been closed for a long time.
Journal Prompts
- Luke 4:18 uses aphesis for prisoners and for the wounded, and the rest of the New Testament uses it for sin. What is holding you right now that you have never thought of as something Jesus came to release?
- Romans 3:25 draws a line between paresis (sins passed over) and aphesis (the account closed). Which one does your gut actually believe you have received — a temporary overlook, or a settled release? What would change today if you believed the second?
- In Matthew 18, the forgiven servant walked out and seized his debtor by the throat. Name one debt you are still quietly collecting on — through distance, through bringing it up, through withheld warmth. What would cancelling it cost you?
Prayer
Lord, I have been treating forgiveness like a feeling I could not produce, and I have worn myself out trying. Thank You that aphesis is not a mood but a release — that at the cross the debt was not reduced but sent away. Help me stop reopening an account You have already closed. And where I am still collecting from someone who owes me, give me the courage to open my hands and let it go, the way You let mine go. Amen.
Share This
The Greek word for forgiveness, aphesis, is the same word the Bible uses for the Year of Jubilee — when every debt was cancelled and every prisoner walked free. Forgiveness is not a feeling. It is a release. [Post URL]
Jesus used one Greek word, aphesis, for freeing prisoners, healing the wounded, and forgiving sin. It turns out to be the same act every time: whatever has you, God sends it away. [Post URL]
FAQ
Does aphesis mean I have to feel differently about the person who hurt me?
No. Aphesis is a release word, not an emotion word — it describes cancelling a debt, not producing a feeling. Feelings often follow the decision, sometimes long after it. The New Testament asks you to stop collecting, not to stop hurting.
Does forgiving someone mean I have to trust them again or stay in the relationship?
Aphesis and trust are two different things. Cancelling a debt means you stop demanding payment; it does not mean you hand over your wallet again. Releasing someone from what they owe you does not obligate you to re-enter an unsafe situation.
Why do some verses say “remission” and others say “forgiveness”?
They are the same Greek word. Older English translations used “remission” — a debt-cancellation term — where the context was legal or sacrificial, and “forgiveness” where it read as more personal. Aphesis covers both, because in Greek there was never a difference to begin with.
Is aphesis the only Greek word for forgiveness?
No. Charizomai (forgiving as a free gift of grace), apolyo (loosing or setting free), and the rare paresis (passing over) all appear in the New Testament. Aphesis is the dominant one for God’s forgiveness of sin, and it is the one carrying the Jubilee imagery of cancelled debts and opened prisons.
Want to read the Gospel where Jesus taught us to pray “forgive us our debts”?
Our free, immersive retelling of the Book of Matthew puts you inside the story — first-person, cinematic, and scripturally accurate. If the Bible has ever felt like reading someone else’s mail, start here.
