Far be it

[lankeela]

Should it be 'far be if from me' or 'far be it for me' and how would you use this phrase?

[Wop/tpo]

Far be it from me to answer your question with any certainty

[lankeela]

LOL. I always use 'from' but suddenly had a mental block today and when I thought about it I couldn't decide or think where it came from

[jno]

far from, same as something being far from something else

[lankeela]

It makes sense now, but when you think about it, its a strange phrase isn't it?

[Quizmonster]

'Far be it...' means in effect 'God forbid that...' In other words, the speaker is suggesting the hope that God will never allow him even close to doing whatever it is that he's referring to.
It might sound odd to modern ears, but it first appeared in Wyclif's Bible, published in the 1300s and has been around as an archaic hope ever since.

[Count_Emmup]

QM is right -and "Far be it for me" is the correct form.

[Count_Emmup]

e.g. "Far be it for me for me to contradict Qm!"

[lankeela]

Ok, so now I am confused.

Maybe its a derivation of the phrase 'Forbid it' that has been changed over the years to 'Far be it'

[Quizmonster]

Lankeela, think of other biblical phrases such as 'Hallowed be Thy name', as in The Lord's Prayer. That expresses a wish that God's name should be treated with reverence. Today we would prabably say, 'May Your name be made holy.'

It's exactly the same with 'far be it from me', which means, 'May (whatever this bad thing is) be kept far away from me'. The bad thing might be lust, greed or some other wickedness/error etc, but whatever it is I don't want it anywhere near me!

Count_Emmup has confused me, too! The correct form here is certainly 'from' and not 'for' and it has nothing to do with 'forbid' either. 'Far from' is an absolutely standard form in English when suggesting the distance between things; 'far for' is used only in situations such as 'It is too far for me to walk.'

Finally, 'Far be it from me' means 'I want there to be a considerable distance between me and this bad thing!'

[lankeela]

Understandable, but when I use the phrase Far be it from me, I then usually go on to say or do what I say I want kept far from me! I.e. Far be it from me to tell you what to do, but if I were you I would.... Or Far be it from me to interfere but in my opinion you are.......

[Quizmonster]

"Far be it from me that I thus do" is from Genesis Chapter 44 Verse 17 of the Wyclif Bible, which I mentioned earlier. The King James version actually reads "God forbid that I should do so." So yes, we do go on to say just what it is that we want to God to keep us far away from...ie whatever bad thing it is we are talking about.
The two examples you offere are perfect.

[lankeela]

Or maybe I just want to distance myself from what I am actually saying! Its a bit like when you say to someone, 'now I don't want you to be offended but'.... then go on to offend them anyway. Or 'I hope you don't mind me saying' when you know full well they will mind.

[Quizmonster]

Yes, 'far be it from me' and 'I don't want you to be offended' are often used in similar ways, especially when we really mean the opposite, as you say. It's rather like "I hate to say 'I told you so'" when we're really delighted to be doing just that!