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Greek verb · G2967

κωλύω

kolyoko-loo'-o

to prevent

23 uses in the Greek text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key

Concordance spelling: kōlýō

Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's G2967is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.

  • 11 of 27
    New Testament books
  • 14
    spellings

The definition in full

Strong's key (1890) · G2967

to estop, i.e. prevent (by word or act)

The King James renders it: forbid, hinder, keep from, let, not suffer, withstand.

James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.

Summary

kolyo is rendered "to prevent". It stands 23 times in the Greek text, across eleven books.

  • Six of the uses stand in Luke, more than in any other book.
  • Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Matthew 19:14But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
  • The Greek text spells it fourteen different ways.

The first use

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Matthew 19:14κωλύετε

The first use, in the order of the New Testament's books.

Where the word stands

Six of the word's twenty-three uses are in Luke.

The other 16 New Testament books never use the word.

What the word means

Each meaning, and the words it is translated by

How the Greek text is glossed, word by word

  • do forbid5
  • forbidding2
  • to forbid2
  • we were forbidding2
  • being prevented from1
  • do hinder1
  • having been forbidden1
  • he forbids1
  • hindered1
  • it restrained1
  • may do withhold1
  • prevents1

and 4 more, 23 uses in all

The words built on the same word-part

Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.

All 23, in canonical order

Every use, in order

Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.

14 spellings and their grammar

STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.

How it is spelled

  • κωλύετε6
  • ἐκωλύομεν2
  • ἐκώλυσεν2
  • κωλύει2
  • κωλυόντων2
  • ἐκωλύθην1
  • ἐκωλύσατε.¶1
  • κωλύειν1
  • κωλύεσθαι1
  • κωλυθέντες1
  • κωλύοντα1
  • κωλῦσαι1

and 2 more spellings in the ledger below.

The grammar of each form

  • verb · present active, command · 2nd person plural6V-PAM-2P
  • verb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person singular2V-AAI-3S
  • verb · aorist active, infinitive (“to…”)2V-AAN
  • verb · imperfect active, indicative · 1st person plural2V-IAI-1P
  • verb · present active, indicative · 3rd person singular2V-PAI-3S
  • verb · present active, participle · genitive (“of”) · masculine plural2V-PAP-GPM
  • verb · aorist active, indicative · 2nd person plural1V-AAI-2P
  • verb · aorist active, subjunctive · 2nd person singular1V-AAS-2S
  • verb · aorist passive, indicative · 1st person singular1V-API-1S
  • verb · aorist passive, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine plural1V-APP-NPM
  • verb · present active, infinitive (“to…”)1V-PAN
  • verb · present active, participle · accusative (object) · masculine singular1V-PAP-ASM

Matthew

one use
  • But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

    Matthew 19:14

    • κωλύετεkolueteverb · present active, command · 2nd person pluraltagged: do forbid

Mark

three uses
  • John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone else driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.”

    Mark 9:38

    • ἐκωλύομενekoluomenverb · imperfect active, indicative · 1st person pluraltagged: we were forbidding
  • “Do not stop him,” Jesus replied. “For no one who performs a miracle in My name can turn around and speak evil of Me.

    Mark 9:39

    • κωλύετεkolueteverb · present active, command · 2nd person pluraltagged: do forbid
  • But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and told them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

    Mark 10:14

    • κωλύετεkolueteverb · present active, command · 2nd person pluraltagged: do hinder

Luke

six uses
  • If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well.

    Luke 6:29

    • κωλύσῃς.¶kolusesverb · aorist active, subjunctive · 2nd person singulartagged: may do withhold
  • “Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.”

    Luke 9:49

    • ἐκωλύομενekoluomenverb · imperfect active, indicative · 1st person pluraltagged: we were forbidding
  • “Do not stop him,” Jesus replied, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”

    Luke 9:50

    • κωλύετεkolueteverb · present active, command · 2nd person pluraltagged: do forbid
  • Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”

    Luke 11:52

    • ἐκωλύσατε.¶ekolusateverb · aorist active, indicative · 2nd person pluraltagged: you hindered
  • But Jesus called the children to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

    Luke 18:16

    • κωλύετεkolueteverb · present active, command · 2nd person pluraltagged: do forbid
  • And they began to accuse Him, saying, “We found this man subverting our nation, forbidding payment of taxes to Caesar, and proclaiming Himself to be Christ, a King.”

    Luke 23:2

    • κωλύονταkoluontaverb · present active, participle · accusative (object) · masculine singulartagged: forbidding

Acts

six uses
  • As they traveled along the road and came to some water, the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is there to prevent me from being baptized?”

    Acts 8:36

    • κωλύειkolueiverb · present active, indicative · 3rd person singulartagged: prevents
  • “Can anyone withhold the water to baptize these people? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have!”

    Acts 10:47

    • κωλῦσαίkolusaiverb · aorist active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: to withhold
  • So if God gave them the same gift He gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder the work of God?”

    Acts 11:17

    • κωλῦσαιkolusaiverb · aorist active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: to forbid
  • After the Holy Spirit had prevented them from speaking the word in the province of Asia, they traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia.

    Acts 16:6

    • κωλυθέντεςkoluthentesverb · aorist passive, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine pluraltagged: having been forbidden
  • He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard, but to allow him some freedom and permit his friends to minister to his needs.

    Acts 24:23

    • κωλύεινkolueinverb · present active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: to forbid
  • But the centurion, wanting to spare Paul’s life, thwarted their plan. He commanded those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.

    Acts 27:43

    • ἐκώλυσενekolusenverb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person singulartagged: hindered

Romans

one use
  • I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, how often I planned to come to you (but have been prevented from visiting until now), in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

    Romans 1:13

    • ἐκωλύθηνekoluthenverb · aorist passive, indicative · 1st person singulartagged: was hindered

1 Corinthians

one use
  • So, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues.

    1 Corinthians 14:39

    • κωλύετεkolueteverb · present active, command · 2nd person pluraltagged: do forbid

1 Thessalonians

one use
  • hindering us from telling the Gentiles how they may be saved. As a result, they continue to heap up their sins to full capacity; the utmost wrath has come upon them.

    1 Thessalonians 2:16

    • κωλυόντωνkoluontonverb · present active, participle · genitive (“of”) · masculine pluraltagged: they are hindering

1 Timothy

one use
  • They will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

    1 Timothy 4:3

    • κωλυόντωνkoluontonverb · present active, participle · genitive (“of”) · masculine pluraltagged: forbidding

Hebrews

one use
  • Now there have been many other priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office.

    Hebrews 7:23

    • κωλύεσθαιkoluesthaiverb · present passive, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: being prevented from

2 Peter

one use
  • But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

    2 Peter 2:16

    • ἐκώλυσενekolusenverb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person singulartagged: it restrained

3 John

one use
  • So if I come, I will call attention to his malicious slander against us. And unsatisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and forbids those who want to do so, even putting them out of the church.

    3 John 1:10

    • κωλύειkolueiverb · present active, indicative · 3rd person singulartagged: he forbids

Where it leads

How the numbers are counted

Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.

Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.

Hebrew and Greek text, word tagging and grammar: STEP Bible (www.STEPBible.org), Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0. Their grammar codes are written out in English here and shown as tagged beside each one.

Meaning and senses: STEP Bible TBESG (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0), the Brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922).

Dictionary key: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890, public domain). English verse text: Berean Standard Bible (public domain, 2023).

Revised 2026-09-05. Every cited work, the sources registry →