The meaning of Intend; Intent in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
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), Acts 5:35 the King James Version; Acts 20:13; or of desired action (thelo), Luke 14:28 the King James Version; again of a fixed purpose (boulomai), Acts 5:28; Acts 12:4; or, finally, of a declared intention ('amar), Joshua 22:33 the King James Version; II Chronicles 28:13 the King James Version.
Intent is used only of purpose, and is the translation sometimes of a conjunction (lebha'abhur), II Samuel 17:14; (lema'an), II Kings 10:19; (hina), Ephesians 3:10; sometimes of an infinitive of purpose, I Corinthians 10:6; or of a preposition with pronoun (eis touto), Acts 9:21, and sometimes of a substantive (logo), Acts 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.
Russell Benjamin Miller
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