to permit, to allow: to give someone leave to do something.
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
This word means to give someone permission, to let them do something. Across the New Testament it keeps a single sense: a person in authority, or God, grants leave for an action that has been asked for or intended.
The one who permits is normally someone with the standing to say yes or no: Moses over the law, Pilate over a body to be buried, a Roman officer over his prisoner, the Lord over a traveler's plans. The word does not describe commanding or forcing an action; it describes clearing the way for it and leaving the person free to go ahead.
Greek had softer ways to say "let." The verb ἐάω leans toward leaving something alone or not standing in its way, and ἀφίημι is a broad word that can mean to release, to forgive, or simply to let be. This word is the most formal of the three: the granting of leave by someone who has the right to grant it.
the Greek word plainly means to give permission to act; there is no idea of pain or endurance in it.Act 27:3
Both
in older English "suffer" meant to allow or let, which is exactly what the Greek word does.Mat 8:21Luk 9:59
Only suffer
in modern English "suffer" means to endure pain or hardship, a sense the Greek word never carries, so the old rendering can baffle a present-day reader.
How epitrepō differs from similar Greek words
ἐάωto let alone or not hinder; it often means simply not preventing something, where this word is an active granting of permission by one with the authority to give it.
The word for permission that is asked for and then granted: a request is made and the one with authority gives leave, as when the demons beg to enter the pigs and Jesus lets them, and when Paul asks to address the crowd and the commander gives him leave.Mat 8:31Mrk 5:13Luk 8:32Act 21:39Act 21:40
Carries official or legal force, naming what a law or a community rule allows: what Moses allowed about divorce, and what is not allowed in the gathered assembly.Mat 19:8Mrk 10:41Co 14:341Ti 2:12
Supplies the set phrase that makes a plan conditional on God's leave, "if the Lord permits" and "if God permits".1Co 16:7Heb 6:3
Used of a person in custody being granted a privilege by the official holding them, whether a body released for burial, a prisoner allowed to visit friends, or Paul allowed to live on his own.Jhn 19:38Act 27:3Act 28:16
Both
Both mean letting someone go ahead with something the one allowing had the power to stop, whether God leaving the nations to their own ways or Moses allowing a man to divorce his wife.Act 14:16Mat 19:8
Both turn negative to state that something is refused or forbidden, so English Bibles often render either one as "would not allow" or "is not permitted".Luk 4:411Ti 2:12
Both cover the decision to allow or block someone from speaking, so the choice between them is not about the kind of action being permitted: Jesus will not let the demons speak, and Paul is given leave to speak in his own defense.Luk 4:41Act 26:1
Reaches beyond people to things: it can mean letting go of an object or leaving it where it falls, as the sailors do when they cut the ship's boat loose and let it drop away, and when they leave the anchors in the sea.Act 27:32Act 27:40
Works as a blunt command to break off something already happening, the sense of "stop, that is enough", spoken by Jesus when a sword is drawn at his arrest.Luk 22:51
Describes an attempt held back on the spot rather than a ruling handed down: the disciples will not let Paul go in to the crowd, and the islanders say justice will not let the shipwrecked survivor live.Act 19:30Act 28:4
Names a restraint set by God or by the limits of a situation, keeping a person from a course they had already set out on, as when the Spirit blocks the road into Bithynia and when God caps how far a testing can go.Act 16:71Co 10:13
ἀφίημιa broad verb for releasing, forgiving, or leaving be; in its "let" sense it means to allow something to happen without stopping it, milder than a formal grant of leave.
epitrepō in the other biblical languages
נָתַןHebrew“to give: give”Biblical Hebrew has no dedicated verb for "permit" and expresses the idea with "give" (natan), granting or, most often, withholding leave, as when Edom "would not allow" Israel to pass.
What scholars say about epitrepō
The standard lexicons (BDAG, LSJ) agree that in the New Testament this verb means only "to allow, permit," typically with a person in authority as its subject and a following infinitive naming the permitted act; the present passive ἐπιτρέπεται means "it is permitted." It is built from ἐπί and τρέπω ("to turn"), with the underlying idea of turning a matter over to someone. In classical and documentary Greek the verb ranges more widely, from "to entrust" or "commit a matter to another's decision" to "to permit" (LSJ; Moulton and Milligan on the papyri), but the New Testament confines it to permission. The debated occurrences at 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:12 turn on the scope and setting of the instruction rather than on the sense of the verb, which is not in question.