Dictionaries :: Allow; Allowance

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Allow; Allowance:

a-lou', a-lou'-ans: The verb "to allow" is used in the King James Version to translate four different Greek words:

(1) suneudokeo, "to approve together" (with others) (the Revised Version (British and American) "consent unto"), Lu 11:48.

(2) prosdechomai, "to receive to oneself," "admit" (the Revised Version (British and American) "look for," margin "accept"); Ac 24:15.

(3) ginosko, "to know," "recognize": "That which I do, I allow not" (the Revised Version (British and American) "I know not"), i.e. "I do not understand what I am doing, my conduct is inexplicable to me" (Grimm-Thayer); Ro 7:15.

(4) dokimazo, "to prove," "approve." "Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the thing which he alloweth" (the Revised Version (British and American) "approveth," i.e. in practice), i.e. who is not troubled with scruples; Ro 14:22. Thus the Revised Version (British and American) has removed the verb "allow" in each case in which it occurs in the King James Version, it being somewhat ambiguous in meaning (its original sense, as derived from Latin allocare, "to place," "assign," "grant," being influenced by another word, Latin allaudare, "to praise"). The noun "allowance" occurs in the sense of quantity of food allowed, in 2Ki 25:30 (King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American)) and the parallel passage Jer 52:34 (RV; "diet" in the King James Version).

Written by D. Miall Edwards