Force
βίαStrong’s G0970bia
Appears in 4 verses of the New Testament
In short
Bia is the Greek word usually translated “violence” and “force”. It appears in 4 verses of the New Testament.
“Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.”
Meaning
Usually translated “violence” and “force”. Open the dictionary entry below for the full range of meaning, with the verses it cites.
How it's translated
- violence 3
- force 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Acts 4
1 book in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Acts 21:35And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people.
- Acts 24:7But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands,
- Acts 27:41And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
Greek dictionary
βία bia · force
βία, -ας, ἡ, [in LXX for פֶּרֶךְ, etc. ;] strength, force, violence: Act.5:26 21:35 24:7 27:41.† (AS)
From STEPBible’s Greek lexicon (based on Abbott-Smith).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “force” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
FORCE, noun
[Latin fortis. All words denoting force power, strength, are from verbs which express straining, or driving, rushing, and this word has the elements of Latin vireo.]
- Strength; active power; vigor; might; energy that may be exerted; that physical property in a body which may produce action or motion in another body, or may counteract such motion.
- Momentum; the quantity of power produced by motion or the action of one body on another; as the force of a cannon ball.
- That which causes an operation or moral effect; strength; energy; as the force of the mind, will or understanding.
- Violence; power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power.
All definitions and other forms of “force”
- Strength; moral power to convince the mind.
- Virtue; efficacy.
- Validity; power to bind or hold. Hebrews 9:17
- Strength or power for war; armament; troops; an army or navy; as a military or naval force:sometimes in the plural; as military forces.
- Destiny; necessity; compulsion; any extraneous power to which men are subject; as the force of fate or of divine decrees.
- Internal power; as the force of habit.
- In law, any unlawful violence to person or property.
FORCE, verb transitive
- To compel; to constrain to do or to forbear, by the exertion of a power not resistible.
- To overpower by strength.
- To impel; to press; to drive; to draw or push by main strength; a sense of very extensive use; as, to force along a wagon or a ship; to force away a man's arms; water forces its way through a narrow channel; a man may be forced out of his possessions.
- To enforce; to urge; to press.
- To compel by strength of evidence; as, to force conviction on the mind; to force one to acknowledge the truth of a proposition.
- To storm; to assault and take by violence; as, to force a town or fort.
- To ravish; to violate by force as a female.
- To overstrain; to distort; as a forced conceit.
- To cause to produce ripe fruit prematurely, as a tree; or to cause to ripen prematurely, as fruit.
- To man; to strengthen by soldiers; to garrison. obsolete
FORCE, verb intransitive
- To lay stress on. obsolete
- To strive. obsolete
- To use violence.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Greek, not from any one translation.