Bible Dictionary
BEHAVIOR
Behavior is a person’s outward manner, conduct, or demeanor. Scripture uses the term both of David’s feigned madness and of the orderly, reverent conduct expected of Christian leaders and believers.
Definition
Behavior is a person’s outward manner, conduct, demeanor, and deportment. It may describe mental and outward behavior, as in David’s feigned madness, or orderly and reverent conduct expected of Christian leaders, women, and believers.
Biblical Usage
David’s behavior before the king of Gath is described as feigned madness. In the New Testament, good behavior means an orderly and modest life, reverent demeanor, and conduct becoming holiness, especially in a Christian overseer and in older women.
Historical Background
The biblical terms behind behavior include ideas of taste, judgment, understanding, order, demeanor, and deportment. The entry emphasizes that outward habits and gestures can express an inward reverent spirit.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>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).</p><p>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").</p><p>Dwight M. Pratt</p>