eaō

ἐάω is a well-attested classical verb (Homer onward) with two established branches: with an accusative and infinitive, "to allow, permit"; used absolutely or with a simple object, "to let alone, leave, abandon." LSJ treats the negated construction as its own sub-entry, οὐκ ἐᾶν functioning as "to forbid, prevent," and that is the dominant New Testament pattern, since six of the eleven occurrences are negated (Matthew 24:43; Luke 4:41; Acts 16:7; 19:30; 28:4; 1 Corinthians 10:13). BDAG divides the New Testament material along the same two lines, glossing sense 1 "to allow someone to do someth., let, permit" and sense 2 "to leave someone alone, let go." The classical augment εἰ- is preserved throughout (εἴασεν, εἴων, εἴα), one of several marks of the more literary Greek of Luke-Acts, which accounts for nine of the eleven occurrences (Luke 4:41; 22:51; Acts 14:16; 16:7; 19:30; 23:32; 27:32, 40; 28:4); the remaining two are Matthew 24:43 and 1 Corinthians 10:13. Moulton and Milligan document the verb in the documentary papyri in both branches, confirming it as ordinary rather than technical vocabulary. Acts 27:40 is the clearest instance of the leaving branch: with the cables cut, εἴων εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν most naturally means the crew abandoned the anchors to the sea, though a permissive rendering ("let them go into the sea") is defended by a minority and the nautical details of the verse are themselves debated. Acts 14:16 carries the heaviest theological freight, where εἴασεν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη πορεύεσθαι ταῖς ὁδοῖς αὐτῶν states divine forbearance in the past without implying approval, a construction commentators regularly read alongside Acts 17:30 and Romans 3:25. The one genuinely contested passage is Luke 22:51, ἐᾶτε ἕως τούτου, where the absence of an expressed object leaves both the addressee and the object undetermined; BDAG records two interpretations without adjudicating between them, and the abrupt "Stop! No more of this!" reading favored by Fitzmyer stands behind most modern versions.