Bible Dictionary
Conversation
Conversation in older Bible English means one’s conduct, manner of life, or citizenship, not merely speech. Believers are urged to live in a manner worthy of the gospel and as citizens of heaven.
Definition
In older Bible English, conversation means conduct, behavior, deportment, manner of life, or a person’s relation to a community. It does not ordinarily mean verbal exchange. In some New Testament passages it refers specifically to citizenship.
Biblical Usage
Scripture uses the term for a person’s course of life, whether good, holy, covetous, or immoral. “Our conversation is in heaven” refers to citizenship, while other passages call believers to a good or holy manner of life.
Historical Background
The older English sense changed over time from conduct to mutual talk. The biblical terms behind it include ideas of a way, a turning up and down, and citizenship; modern revisions often translate them as manner of life, good life, or citizenship.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Generally the goings out and in of social intercourse (Eph. 2:3; 4:22; R.V., “manner of life”); one’s deportment or course of life. This word is never used in Scripture in the sense of verbal communication from one to another (Ps. 50:23; Heb. 13:5). In Phil. 1:27 and 3:20, a different Greek word is used. It there means one’s relations to a community as a citizen, i.e., citizenship.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>kon-ver-sa'-shun (anastrophe, homilia): This word is another illustration of the changes which time makes in a living language. The modern sense of the term is mutual talk, colloquy, but in the King James Version it never means that, but always behavior, conduct. This broader meaning, at a time not much later than the date of the King James Version, began to yield to the special, limited one of today, perhaps, as has been suggested, because speech forms so large a part of conduct. The New Testament words for "converse" in the modern sense are homileo (Lu 24:14,15; Ac 20:11) and sunomileo (Ac 10:27).</p><p>(1) In the Old Testament the word used to indicate conduct is derekh, "way" the course one travels (the King James Version Ps 37:14; margin 50:23). It is the common Hebrew idea of conduct, possibly due, as Hatch thinks, to the fact that in Syria intercourse between village and village was so much on foot, with difficulty on stony tracks over the hills, and this is reflected in the metaphor.</p><p>(2) In the New Testament the idea of deportment is once rendered by tropos, "Let your conversation be without covetousness" (Heb 13:5 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "be ye free from the love of money"; the Revised Version, margin "let your turn of mind be free"). But the usual Greek word is anastrophe, "a turning up and down," possibly due to the fact, as Hatch again avers, that life in the bustling streets of Athens and Rome gave rise to the conception of life as quick motion to and fro. "Ye have heard of my conversation" (Ga 1:13 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "manner of life"). So also Eph 4:22; 1Ti 4:1; Heb 13:7; "Let him show out of a good conversation" (Jas 3:13 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "by his good life"); "vexed with the filthy conversation" (2Pe 2:7 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "lascivious life"); "holy conversation" (2Pe 3:11 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "holy living"); "Our conversation is in heaven" (Php 3:20 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "citizenship" (which see)). See also in the Apocrypha (Tobit 4:14; 2 Macc 5:8).</p><p>The translations in the Revisions put a wholesome emphasis upon conduct, and eliminate the danger of much misunderstanding. See further Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek.</p><p>G. H. Trever</p>