Dictionaries :: Intend; Intent

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Intend; Intent:

in-tend', in-tent':Early English words derived from Latin and used in the King James Version, sometimes in the Revised Version (British and American), to translate a number of different expressions of the original.

Intend is sometimes used in English in the literal sense of Latin intendere, "to stretch," but in the English Bible it is used only of the direction of the mind toward an object. Sometimes it is used of mere design (mello), Ac 5:35 the King James Version; Ac 20:13; or of desired action (thelo), Lu 14:28 the King James Version; again of a fixed purpose (boulomai), Ac 5:28; 12:4; or, finally, of a declared intention ('amar), Jos 22:33 the King James Version; 2Ch 28:13 the King James Version.

Intent is used only of purpose, and is the translation sometimes of a conjunction (lebha‘abhur), 2Sa 17:14; (lema‘an), 2Ki 10:19; (hina), Eph 3:10; sometimes of an infinitive of purpose, 1Co 10:6; or of a preposition with pronoun (eis touto), Ac 9:21, and sometimes of a substantive (logo), Ac 10:29. This variety of original expressions represented in the English by single terms is an interesting illustration of the extent of interpretation embodied in our English Bible.

Written by Russell Benjamin Miller