Forgiveness

Three Hebrew Words for Forgiveness

The Old Testament uses three distinct verbs where English translates "forgive," each picturing the action differently:

• Salach (סָלַח, Strong's H5545) — "to pardon, to forgive." Used exclusively of God in the Hebrew Bible. No human ever salachs another human — this verb names a divine prerogative.
• Nasa (נָשָׂא, H5375) — "to lift, to carry, to bear away." When sin is the object: sin is lifted off the sinner and carried away, so the sinner no longer bears its weight.
• Kaphar (כָּפַר, H3722) — "to cover, to make atonement." The verb behind Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement, literally "Day of Covering"). Sin is dealt with by being covered through sacrificial blood.

The three words picture forgiveness from different angles: a judicial pardon (salach), a physical removal (nasa), a ritual covering (kaphar). Old Testament writers moved between them depending on context.

Two Greek Words

• Aphiēmi (ἀφίημι, Strong's G863) — "to send away, to let go, to release." Literally "away-send." Used both of forgiving sin and of releasing from debt. The noun form aphesis (G859) appears in phrases like "the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:28).
• Charizomai (χαρίζομαι, G5483) — "to give freely, to grant graciously, to forgive." Built on charis (grace). Used especially in Paul's letters of believers forgiving one another "as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13).

The Connection Between God's Forgiveness and Ours

The Lord's Prayer uniquely conditions divine forgiveness on human forgiveness:

Matthew 6:12 — "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."

Matthew 6:14–15 — "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

This is the only clause in the Lord's Prayer Jesus returns to explicitly after the prayer. The connection between received and extended forgiveness is not that forgiving earns pardon — but that refusal to forgive reveals a heart that has not received grace. The parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:23–35) makes this point in narrative: a servant forgiven an enormous debt refuses to forgive a small one, and loses the original pardon.

"Seventy Times Seven"

Matthew 18:21–22 — "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven."

Peter's seven was generous — rabbinic tradition held three as the typical benchmark. Jesus's "seventy times seven" deliberately echoes Genesis 4:24, where Lamech boasted of "seventy and sevenfold" vengeance. Jesus inverts Lamech: the pattern of sin was escalating revenge; the pattern of grace is escalating forgiveness.

Forgiveness Linked to the Cross

The New Testament connects forgiveness specifically to Jesus's death:

• Matthew 26:28 — "this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."
• Ephesians 1:7 — "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins."
• Hebrews 9:22 — "without shedding of blood is no remission."
• Luke 23:34 — Jesus from the cross: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

The Hebrew kaphar pattern — sin dealt with through sacrificial blood — comes to its fulfillment in the cross. The New Testament presents forgiveness not as a neutral release but as a cost absorbed.

What Forgiveness Is Not

Scripture distinguishes forgiveness from several things it is frequently confused with:

• Not forgetting. "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:34) describes God's action — not a human obligation to erase memory, which is not within human capacity.
• Not condoning. The biblical pattern names the wrong clearly before extending grace. God does not pretend the sin did not happen; he bears its cost.
• Not eliminating consequences. David was forgiven for the Bathsheba episode (2 Samuel 12:13), but the consequences — the death of the child, the sword that "shall never depart from thine house" — remained.
• Not automatic reconciliation. Paul's qualification: "if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men" (Romans 12:18). Forgiveness is a unilateral act of release; reconciliation depends on both parties and on the repair of trust.

God's Forgiveness in Poetic Language

The Hebrew Bible uses striking images for the thoroughness of God's forgiveness:

• Psalm 103:12 — "As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
• Isaiah 1:18 — "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."
• Isaiah 43:25 — "I, [even] I, [am] he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
• Micah 7:19 — "thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
• Jeremiah 31:34 — "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

East from west is a limit that does not exist — the two directions are infinite opposites. Sins cast into the depths of the sea cannot be retrieved. The scarlet-to-white transformation is chemically impossible. Each image pushes past the boundary of what restorative language normally accomplishes.

For the detailed treatment of forgiveness vocabulary and examples, see Forgiveness in the Bible.

Summary

• Hebrew: salach (divine pardon), nasa (lift away), kaphar (cover).
• Greek: aphiēmi (release, send away), charizomai (grant freely as grace).
• Conditional language (Matthew 6:14–15) — refusal to forgive reveals a heart that has not received grace.
• Grounded in the cross — "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22).
• Not forgetting, not condoning, not automatic reconciliation — forgiveness is the unilateral release of a just claim.