" CONVERSATION" IN THE SCRIPTURES.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—May I point out a slight inaccuracy in the article in the Spectator of October 29th on " The Rarity of True Conver- 'ration"? The writer of the article says that the old and Scrip- tural meaning of the word " conversation " implied a common concentration of attention on the same subject, and whatever resulted from that common concentration, and explains : " For our conversation is in Heaven," as meaning the subjects with which our mind is most conversant are of a spiritual kind. But the word " conversation" here is really a mistranslation, due to the Vulgate which has been followed by Coverdale and
others of the English translators. The Greek original is z-o),,Tri,,arc, rightly translated by the Revisers " citizenship," with an alternative marginal rendering " commonwealth." But even in other places where the word " conversation " occurs in the New Testament, such as " Be ye holy in all manner of conversation," or " Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles," I venture to doubt whether it bears the sense the writer of your article would put upon it. The Greek word used is loqurrpop,), a pretty exact analogue of the Latin conversatio ; but surely it means a " way of life," sometimes "intercourse with others," "a going up or down among men," but hardly a common concentration of attention on the same
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