Precept

Precept - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

PRE'CEPT, n. [L. proeceptum, from proecipio, to command; proe, before, and capio, to take.]

1. In a general sense, any commandment or order intended as an authoritative rule of action; but applied particularly to commands respecting moral conduct. The ten commandments are so many precepts for the regulation of our moral conduct.

No arts are without their precepts.

2. In law, a command or mandate in writing.

pre'-sept: A commandment, an authoritative rule for action; in the Scriptures generally a divine injunction in which man's obligation is set forth (Latin praeceptum, from praecipere, "to instruct").

Four words are so rendered in the King James Version:

(1) mitswah, very frequently (168 times) translated "commandment," but 4 times "precept" (in the Revised Version (British and American) only Jer 35:18; Da 9:5);

(2) from the same root is tsaw, or tsaw (Isa 28:10,13);

(3) piqqudhim, only in the Psalms (21 times in Ps 119, e.g. verses 4,15,27; also the Revised Version (British and American) Ps 19:8; 103:18; 111:7);

(4) in the New Testament, entole, generally in the King James Version translated "commandment" (68 times), but twice "precept" (Mr 10:5; Heb 9:19; in both cases the Revised Version (British and American) substitutes "commandment").

See COMMANDMENT.

D. Miall Edwards