"Prevent" is not a False Friend in the KJV

I originally thought this article would have a different title. When I decided to do an article on the word prevent, I fully expected my title to be something like “Prevent Is an Actual False Friend in the KJV.” I chose that as my working title because everyone that I have ever read or listened to regarding the word prevent in I Thessalonians 4:15 has claimed that it doesn’t have the same meaning that we ascribe to that word today. However, the more I studied this word and the underlying Greek word, the more convinced I became that prevent is the best word to use both here in I Thessalonians and in every other passage where it occurs in the KJV.

Out of Mark Ward’s entire video series about “false friends,” he only devoted one minute to discussing the word prevent, and he didn’t mention it at all in his book on the topic. He gave very little thought to this word before dismissing it as a “false friend” and proclaiming that the modern translations are better. Because of that, I’m not going to focus much on Ward for the rest of this article except to point out that he mislabeled prevent as an intransitive verb. That error doesn’t have any real impact on anything, but Ward likes to threaten people with his knowledge of the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs, and this is just one more in a long list of examples of him not knowing that difference. Having said that, let me move on to consider the use of the word prevent in the King James Version.
 
The word prevent occurs fifteen times in the KJV—twice in the New Testament and thirteen times in the Old Testament. Most of these are obscure passages like Job’s question, “Why did the knees prevent me?” found in Job 3:12, but the use of this word in I Thessalonians 4:15 has received a lot of attention over the years, and it is often presented as an error in the KJV. The claim made by Ward is that prevent means “to stop or hinder,” while the underlying Greek word simply means “to go before.” The modern translations use the word precede in this verse instead of the word prevent, and Ward argues that prevent used to mean the same thing as precede.
 
What many people fail to grasp is that there is a directional difference between prevent and precede. Ward is basically correct to claim that prevent used to include the meaning of going before someone or something. And it is true that precede also carries the meaning of going before someone or something. However, there is an implied difference in the direction in which the subject is facing while he does the action of going before.
 
The word precede is a term of rank, and it implies that the one doing the preceding is facing away from those whom he comes before. It is used of a general marching at the head of the column and leading his troops, or perhaps a gentleman giving honor to a lady by opening the door and allowing her to enter before him. Precede almost always refers to someone or something leading the way.
 
Prevent, on the other hand, carries the idea that the one doing the preventing is facing toward those whom he comes before as if to hinder their progress. It is used of a guard stepping into the path of a visitor to demand identification before he is allowed to pass. Even the uses of this word which seem at first glance to be synonymous with precede almost always carry the implication of the verb’s subject facing the verb’s object as if to hinder its progress.
 
Several good examples can be found in the quotations provided by the OED. Under the definition “to anticipate or act in advance,” the OED quotes a line from Homer’s Odysses as translated by Hobbes. The line quoted is, “While what to answer he was taking care, Helen prevented him.” This use of the word prevent does convey the idea that Helen spoke before Atrides could say anything, but it’s not just saying that Helen spoke first. Consider the rest of the context from which this quotation was drawn.
 
As he said this, an Eagle dexter flew
And seis’d a great white tame Goose grazing near
The standers-by shouted and cri’d, Shu, shue.
But yet away the Eagle bore him clear.
And none but with the sight was well content.
Then to Atrides said Pisistratus,
This Prodigy, unto you is it sent
From Jupiter? Or is it sent to us?
While what to answer he was taking care,
Helen prevented him. I will, said she,
First tell you what hereon my own thoughts are,
And to my mind by th’Gods insused be.
You saw the Eagle come down from the Hill,
Where nature placed him to dwell and breed,
And kill that Goose: So shall Ulysses kill
The Suiters that upon his Substance feed.
Or, it may be, already there he is
Devising for the Suites some ill end.
O Gods, then said Telemachus, that this
Were so indeed! To you then should I send
As to a God my Vows. This said, away
They whip their willing Horses through the Town.
 
Pisistratus asked Atrides a question, and while Atrides was thinking about how to answer, Helen interrupted and gave her answer instead. The important thing to note when contemplating the difference between prevent and precede is that Atrides never gave an answer. Helen didn’t just precede him by giving her answer before he gave his. Helen prevented him from giving any answer at all by speaking before he finished thinking.
 
Another example provided by the OED is taken from the novel Ruins of Rigonda by Helen St. Victor. The excerpt provided by the dictionary is, “Foventi wished … to ask the father’s consent to address his daughter, when he was prevented by the baron’s asking his advice in point of providing a husband.” The OED is correct to note that prevent in this sentence refers to the baron first before the marquis was able to ask his question, but once again, the context informs us that the baron’s prevention did more than just precede Foventi’s question.
 
The baron, who was fast declining in years, thought he saw none more capable of protecting his beloved daughter than Foventi. He had noticed Adeliza’s looks and manner when she addressed the marquis, and thought he could discern in them an increasing attachment, which pleased him, as he believed it to be reciprocal. Several months having elapsed, Foventi wished, yet forbore to ask the father’s consent to address his daughter, when he was prevented by the baron’s asking his advice in point of providing a husband for Adeliza. The marquis now pleaded his cause, and was with joy accepted. The baron sent for his daughter, and communicated the conversation he had held with the marquis. Kissing the hand of her father, she said nothing could give her so much pleasure as obeying the commands of the best of parents! In a short time she became Marchioness Foventi.
 
From the context, we can see that Foventi wanted to ask the baron about marrying Adeliza, but he never got the chance to ask because the baron brought up the subject first. All Foventi had to do was answer the baron’s question in the affirmative, and he was soon happily married to his new Marchioness. The baron spoke first and prevented Foventi from having to initiate the conversation.
 
Yet another example is taken from Gibbon’s book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The sentence quoted is, “The fortunate soil assisted, and even prevented, the hand of cultivation.” The OED used this quotation to illustrate the soil acting more quickly than the hand of cultivation, but that’s not all that is being said here, as we can see from its context within the paragraph.
 
But the most important care of Mamæa and her wise counsellors, was to form the character of the young emperor, on whose personal qualities the happiness or misery of the Roman world must ultimately depend. The fortunate soil assisted, and even prevented, the hand of cultivation. An excellent understanding soon convinced Alexander of the advantages of virtue, the pleasure of knowledge, and the necessity of labor. A natural mildness and moderation of temper preserved him from the assaults of passion, and the allurements of vice. His unalterable regard for his mother, and his esteem for the wise Ulpian, guarded his unexperienced youth from the poison of flattery.
 
In this paragraph, Gibbon described Alexander as having such a fertile mind that, in some cases, his mind did not even need the cultivation provided by his tutors. The readiness of his mind wasn’t followed by the work of preparing his mind. It preempted that work and made it unnecessary.
 
All three of these examples are found in the OED as illustrations of the definition “to anticipate or act in advance” as opposed to the definition “to preclude, stop, or hinder.” Yet all of them still carry the implication of hindering. In fact, all of the examples under the first definition have that same implication. The reason for this implication can be found in the Latin roots of the word prevent.
 
Ward mentioned in his video that the word prevent was brought into English from Latin, and he was correct in that regard. Prevent comes from the Latin word praevenire, and this word means “to come before or anticipate.” However, the word prevent is derived from the past participle form of praevenire which means that it refers to an action which has already been completed. In this case, the action which has already been completed is the action of going before someone or something. The past participle of the Latin verb was brought into English as its own unique verb stem which can be conjugated through the full range of forms. This heritage explains why prevent has a directional implication of the subject facing its object and carries the idea of a hindrance. Prevent doesn’t just imply that the subject is going somewhere before the object can get there. It implies that the subject has already arrived and is looking back at the object while occupying the space that the object intended to occupy.
 
Once we are aware of the implications inherent in the word prevent, we cannot help but see them everywhere that this word is used in the Bible. Prevent is used fifteen times in the KJV, and the implication of the subject facing the object to hinder its progress can be seen in each of those uses.

1.  “The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me” (2 Sam. 22:6; Ps. 18:5).
 
Here David, the warrior king, described his sorrows as enemy combatants that have surrounded him on the field of battle. The phrase the snares of death is a parallel rephrasing of the sorrows of hell, and the parallel structure tells us that the phrase prevented me means the same thing as the phrase compassed me about. David was saying that his sorrow had surrounded him and was threatening to overwhelm him and drive him to his death. He was not saying that the snares of death had preceded him down the path. He was saying that the snares of death were facing him from all sides and threatening to send him into a spiral of depression from which there was no escape.

2.  “They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay” (2 Sam. 22:19; Ps. 18:18).

This verse summarizes the entire song by informing us that David saw no escape from his situation, but the Lord rescued him and set him free. In both of these first two verses, the word prevent is clearly speaking of a hindrance in David’s life.

3.  “Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?” (Job 3:11-12).
 
In this passage, Job was obviously expressing his grief by wishing that he had died before birth. The knees mentioned here are those of either the father or the midwife being in a position to catch the child as he exited the birth canal and prevent him from falling to his death. This is clearly not referring to a set of knees that preceded Job out of the birth canal.

4.  “My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation” (Job 30:27-28).
 
You can draw your own conclusions about the meaning of boiling bowels, but the word prevent here clearly means that Job’s affliction hindered him from obtaining rest. There’s no way to interpret this word as meaning that Job’s affliction had merely preceded him down the path of life.

5.  “Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? ... None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me? Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine” (Job 41:1, 10-11).
 
When God challenged Job to consider leviathan, He said that just as no man could defeat leviathan who was a mere creature, surely no man could defeat and demand payment from the God who had created leviathan with nothing but the power of His words. Prevent in this case refers to a man defeating God and thus hindering Him from continuing on until payment had been made. God was not just asking if any man could precede Him.

6.  “The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah. For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever” (Ps. 21:1-4).
 
In this passage, David used an analogy of a coronation to describe God’s blessings on his life. He described God in the position of the priest placing the crown on the head of the king. The word preventest refers to God standing in David’s path and waiting for David to kneel before Him and receive the blessings of goodness. David did not use this word to describe God carrying the blessing away with David trying to catch up to get it.

7.  “Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence. The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies” (Ps. 59:9-10).
 
Psalm 59 is a prayer for deliverance. David began by asking God to deliver him from his enemies, and he said in verse nine that he would wait on God to defend him because the enemy was too strong for David to defeat. Later in the psalm, David said that he would sing because of God’s victory, but there is no mention of David doing any fighting himself. This enemy was one he had determined to give over entirely to God. The word prevent in verse ten gives us a picture of God stepping up and holding out His hand to tell David to stay seated and let Him handle things. All David had to do was sit back and watch.

8.  “O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low” (Ps. 79:8).
 
Psalm 79 is another prayer for deliverance, this time for the city of Jerusalem. The plea in verse eight is that God would reach out His hands of mercy to keep Jerusalem from falling. The prayer is for God to prevent them from falling any lower than they already have. It is not a request for God’s mercies to quickly get out ahead of them and precede them as they fall.

9.  “Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves…But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee” (Ps. 88:7-13).
 
Here we find Heman crying out for mercy from the affliction of God. He recognized that he was receiving punishment from the Lord, and like Moses who prayed that God not destroy Israel in His wrath, Heman realized that prayer is the key to obtaining God’s attention and staying His hand. Heman’s prayer prevented God from destroying him. His prayer did not just precede God as He continued in His wrath.
 
10-11.  “I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word. Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word” (Ps. 119:147-148).
 
The picture presented here is that of a man whose grief and sorrow are so great that he cannot sleep, and he is pacing in the courtyard crying out to God and meditating on the Scriptures. The dawn is unable to wake him as it does other men because he never fell asleep, and the guards who approach him during the night need only a single look from his grief-laden eyes to realize that they should not disturb him.

12.  “The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled” (Isa. 21:14).
 
This prophecy speaks of the Dedanim of Kedar being forced to flee from their homeland in such haste that they did not even take the time to pack food and water for the journey. The people of Tema heard of their plight and brought them water and bread. The Dedanim were so famished that they stopped to receive help from Tema. This is not saying that the people of Tema took their bread and ran out ahead of the Dedanim to keep it from them.

13.  “All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us” (Amos 9:10).
 
In this verse, God warned the proud and wealthy Israelites that they would die in His judgement of their nation. They had previously claimed that God’s judgement would not come in their day. They did not think it was possible for God to prevent them from enjoying their wealth. The word overtake is used as a synonym for prevent here, and it implies that God’s judgement would come up from behind them and hinder them from continuing in their lives of ease.

14.  “And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?” (Matt. 17:24-25).
 
The implication in this passage is that Jesus knew that Peter was going to approach Him and ask about paying the tribute, and Jesus decided to bring up the topic before Peter had even asked about it. Prevent is used here the same way it was used in the example from Ruins of Rigonda. Peter never asked the question that he intended to ask because Jesus asked about it first. The question from Jesus prevented Peter from asking his question.

15.  “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep” (1 Thess. 4:15).
 
Paul’s statement here was not just a declaration of who would rise first when the Lord returns. This is an application of the directional aspect of the word prevent. Paul was saying that those alive at the coming of the Lord would not stand in the way of those who are asleep. This verse is part of an exhortation encouraging believers with the hope of being reunited with their loved ones. Paul was essentially saying, “Don’t worry, your survival will not keep you from seeing your loved ones again.” He was not saying, “Don’t worry, your survival will not slow down your loved ones from reaching Heaven before you do.” The latter interpretation is senseless in light of the eternal nature of our reunification in glory.
 
Ward and many commentators point to the Greek word used in this passage and claim that it means “to go before,” but that is an overly simplistic definition. I mentioned previously that prevent always implies that the subject is facing the object, and this same implication is present with the Greek word as well.
 
The Greek word translated as “prevent” in this verse is φθάνω (phthano). It is only translated as “prevent” once in the entire New Testament, but when we look at the other verses where phthano is used, we can get an understanding of what the KJV translators intended when they used the word prevent in this verse. Here are the other uses of phthano in the New Testament:
 
“But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you” (Matt. 12:28; Lk. 11:20).
 
“But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness” (Rom. 9:31).
 
“For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:14).
 
“Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing” (Phil. 3:16).
 
“Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” (1 Thess. 2:16).
 
None of these uses convey the idea of preceding ahead of someone or something. Every other time that phthano is used in the New Testament, it implies that the subject is facing the object of the verb. When Jesus said that the kingdom of God was come unto the Pharisees, He was telling them that the kingdom of God was facing them right that instant in the form of His own body. He was not saying that the kingdom of God was walking ahead of them in the same direction they were going. None of the uses of phthano in the New Testament support the claim that precede is a better word than prevent in I Thessalonians 4:15.
 
The error of translating phthano as “precede” is made even clearer when we consider the uses of phthano in the Septuagint. II Samuel 20:12-13 is a great example.
 
“And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that came by him stood still. When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri."
 
Phthano is used here to describe a dead body being dragged out of the road. This verse is not saying that the body preceded the people and led all of them off the road. That would just be silly. What the passage actually says is that the people stopped when the body of Amasa was staring at them from the middle of the road, but they continued on once the body was dragged out of the road and was no longer facing them. The body was an obstacle that hindered their progress, not a leader they followed.
 
Another example can be found in Daniel 6:24.
 
“And the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den.”
 
This verse is not describing Daniel’s accusers of leading the bottom of the den toward some other destination. It’s describing them being devoured before they could crash into the bottom of the den. The direction of their progress was toward the ground, not away from the ground.
 
Mark Ward and many others claim that precede is a better translation than prevent for the Greek word phthano in I Thessalonians 4:15, but that is not the case. The Greek verb phthano carries an implied directionality which portrays the subject as either facing or moving toward the object of the verb. The English verbs precede and prevent also have an implied directionality. The directionality of prevent matches that of phthano, but the directionality of precede is the exact opposite of phthano. This leads us to the inescapable conclusion that the KJV translators were correct to use prevent in this verse instead of precede. It also leads us to the conclusion that prevent has not changed its meaning over time as Ward claims.

Click here to read about more words that are not "false friends" in the KJV.