Bible dictionaries
Commend
What Bible dictionaries say about “Commend”, one article after the other.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
Commend - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)
COMMEND, v.t.
1. To represent as worthy of notice, regard, or kindness; to speak in favor of; to recommend.
I commend to you Phebe our sister. Rom 16.
2. To commit; to entrust or give in charge.
Father, into hy hands I commend my spirit. Luke 23.
3. To praise; to mention with approbation.
The princes commended Sarai before Pharaoh. The Lord commended the unjust steward.
4. To make acceptable or more acceptable.
But meat commendeth us not to God. 1 Cor 8.
5. To produce or present to favorable notice.
The chorus had an occasion of commending their voices to the king.
6. To send or bear to.
These draw the chariot which Latinus sends,
And the rich present to the prince commends.
Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)
The article in Easton + Webster 1828International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)
ko-mend':
(1) For paratithemi (Lu 23:46), translating the Hebrew paqadh (Ps 31:5), in the dying words of Jesus: "Into thy hands I commend my Spirit." the King James Version in Psalms has the more general word "commit." The use of the Greek word in the sense of "deposit what belongs to one into the hands of another" is not uncommon in the classics. So also the derivatives paratheke (2Ti 1:12) and parakatatheke (1Ti 6:20; 2Ti 1:14). See DEPOSIT. This sense of the English, while slightly archaic, corresponds to the first meaning of the Latin, whence it comes, "to commit for preservation," especially of the dying; to commend children, parents, etc., to the care of others (for examples, see Harper's Latin Dictionary).
(2) For sunistiemi, "to stand together," and then, by standing together, to establish, prove, exhibit, as "righteousness" and "love of God" (Ro 3:5; 5:8), and thus to attest (2Co 3:1; 4:2), and, finally, to certify or to recommend a stranger (Ro 16:1; 2Co 6:4). The use of paristemi in 1Co 8:8 is equivalent.
(3) "To praise," epaineo (Lu 16:8), and sunistemi in 2Co 10:12,18; for the Old Testament, Hebrew hillel, in Ge 12:15 the King James Version; Pr 12:8.
H. E. Jacobs
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2
The article in ISBE 1915