The meaning of Reason; Reasonable; Reasoning in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
re'-z'n, re'-z'n-a-b'l, re'-z'n-ing (yakhach, etc.; logos, dialogizomai, -ismos, etc.): "Reason" with related terms, has a diversity of meanings, representing a large number of Hebrew and Greek words and phrases. In the sense of "cause" or "occasion" it stands in I Kings 9:15 for dabhar, "a word" (the Revised Version margin "account"), but in most cases renders prepositional forms as "from," "with," "because of," "for the sake," etc. As the ground or argument for anything, it is the translation of ta'am (Proverbs 26:16, the Revised Version margin "answers discreetly"), of yakhach, as in Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, and let us reason together" (compare Job 13:3; Job 15:3); in I Samuel 12:7, the word is shaphaT, the Revised Version (British and American) "that I may plead," etc. The principal Greek words for "reason," "reasoning," are those given above. The Christian believer is to be ready to give a reason (logos) for the hope that is in him (I Peter 3:15 the King James Version). "Reason" as a human faculty or in the abstract sense appears in Apocrypha in The Wisdom of Solomon 17:12 (logismos); Ecclesiasticus 37:16, "Let reason (logos) go before every enterprise," the Revised Version (British and American) "be the beginning of every work." In Acts 18:14, "reason would" is literally, kata logon, "according to reason"; in Romans 12:1, for "reasonable (logikos) service," the Revised Version (British and American) has "spiritual," and in the margin "Greek 'belonging to the reason.' " In the Revised Version (British and American) "reason," etc., occurs much oftener than in the King James Version (compare Leviticus 17:11; Deuteronomy 28:47; Judges 5:22; Job 20:2; Job 23:7, etc.; Luke 3:15; Luke 12:17; Acts 17:17, etc.).
W. L. Walker
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