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 (1 Samuel 21:13, and title to Psalms 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: 1 Timothy 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 (1 Peter 3:1-2). "Aged women .... in behavior as becometh holiness" (Titus 2:3; the Revised Version (British and American) "reverent in demeanor").

Dwight M. Pratt

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.