Dictionaries :: Behavior

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Behavior:

be-hav'-yer (Ta‘am, "taste," "flavor," hence, "intellectual taste," i.e. judgment, reason, understanding): Of significance as referring to David's feigning madness before Aehish, king of Gath, being "sore afraid." Gesenius renders it "changed his understanding," i.e. his mental behavior and outward manner (1Sa 21:13, and title to Ps 34).

Twice used in the New Testament (the King James Version) of the well-ordered life of the Christian (kosmios, "well-arranged," "modest," i.e. living with decorum: 1Ti 3:2), defining the blameless life expected of a minister (overseer), "A bishop must be..... of good behavior," the Revised Version (British and American) "orderly" (katastema, "demeanor," "deportment"), including, according to Dean Alford, "gesture and habit" as the outward expression of a reverent spirit (1Pe 3:1,2). "Aged women.... in behavior as becometh holiness" (Tit 2:3; the Revised Version (British and American) "reverent in demeanor").

Written by Dwight M. Pratt