The meaning of Persuade; Persuasion in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
per-swad', per-swazhun: (1) In the older English "persuade" need not mean "convince" (although this is its usual sense in the King James Version: Matthew 27:20, etc.), but may mean only "attempt to convince," "argue with." This is well brought out in Acts 26:28, where the Greek is literally "In little thou 'persuadest' peitheis to make me a Christian." the King James Version took peitheis as "convince" ("almost thou persuadest me ...."), but this is impossible, and so the Revised Version (British and American) rendered peitheis by "thou wouldest fain." To keep something of the language of the King James Version, "persuasion" was supplied after "little," but it should have been italicized, for it is merely conjectural, as the American Revised Version margin recognizes by giving "time" as an alternative for "persuasion." The text of the passage, however, is suspected. See ALMOST. Similarly in Acts 13:43, the Revised Version (British and American) replaces "persuade" by "urge," and the same change should have been made also in II Kings 18:32 and its parallels. (2) The "popular persuasions" of 1 Esdras 5:73 are "efforts to persuade the people" (uncertain text, however). Acts 19:8 the King James Version writes "persuading the things" (the Revised Version (British and American) "as to the things") for "present the things persuasively." And in Galatians 1:10 (the English Revised Version and the King James Version, not in the American Standard Revised Version) and II Corinthians 5:11, there is a half-ironic force in the word: Paul's enemies have accused him of using unworthy persuasion in making his conversions.
Burton Scott Easton
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