Profess

Profess - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

PROFESS', v.t. [L. professus, profiteor; pro and fateor.]

1. To make open declaration of; to avow or acknowledge.

Let no man who professes himself a christian, keep so heathenish a family as not to see God by daily worshipped in it.

They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him. Titus 1.

2. To declare in strong terms.

Then will I profess to them, I never knew you. Mat 7.

3. To make a show of any sentiments by loud declaration.

To your professing bosoms I commit him.

4. To declare publicly one's skill in any art or science, for inviting employment; as, to profess one's self a physician; he professes surgery.

PROFESS', v.i. To declare friendship. [Not in use.]

Profession - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

PROFES'SION, n. [L. professio.]

1. Open declaration; public avowal or acknowledgment of one's sentiments or belief; as professions of friendship or sincerity; a profession of faith or religion.

The professions of princes,when a crown is the bait, are a slender security.

The Indians quickly perceive the coincidence or the contradiction between professions and conduct, and their confidence or distrust follows of course.

2. The business which one professes to understand and to follow for subsistence; calling; vocation; employment; as the learned professions. We speak of the profession of a clergyman, of a lawyer, and of a physician or surgeon; the profession of lecturer on chimistry or mineralogy. But the word is not applied to an occupation merely mechanical.

3. The collective body of persons engaged in a calling. We speak of practices honorable or disgraceful to a profession.

4. Among the Romanists,the entering into a religious order, by which a person offers himself to God by a vow of inviolable obedience, chastity and poverty.

pro-fes', pro-fesh'-un (naghadh; homologeo, homologia): "Profess" means literally "to own before," hence, to make open or public announcement; it occurs only once in the Old Testament as the translation of naghadh, "to put before," often "to tell," "to show," "to declare" (De 26:3); in the New Testament it is the translation of homologeo, "to speak or say together in common," "to assent," "to confess publicly" (Mt 7:23, "Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you"; 1Ti 6:12, the Revised Version (British and American) "didst confess the good confession"; Tit 1:16, "They profess that they know God"); of epaggellomai, "to announce one's self," "to make profession" (1Ti 2:10; 6:21); of phasko, "to say," "to assert" (Ro 1:22). "Profession" is the translation of homologia (2Co 9:13; 1Ti 6:12; Heb 3:1, the King James Version "the High Priest of our profession" (of our professed faith); Heb 4:14; 10:23; in each instance the Revised Version (British and American) has "confession"). "Profess" occurs in the King James Version of Ecclesiasticus 3:25, but the verse is omitted by the Revised Version (British and American); margin "Most authorities omit verse 25."

W. L. Walker