per-form' (Fr. parfournir, "to furnish completely," "to complete" "finish entirely"): In modern English, through a mistaken connection with "form," "perform" usually suggests an act in its continuity, while the word properly should emphasize only the completion of the act. the King James Version seems to have used the word in order to convey the proper sense (compare Romans 15:28; 2 Corinthians 8:11; Philippians 1:6, where the Revised Version (British and American) has respectively "accomplish," "complete," "perfect"), but usually with so little justification in the Hebrew or Greek that "do" would have represented the original even better. the Revised Version (British and American) has rarely changed the word in the Old Testament, and such changes as have been made (Deuteronomy 23:23; Esther 1:15, etc.) seem based on no particular principle. In the New Testament the word has been kept only in Matthew 5:33 and Romans 4:21, but in neither verse does the Greek accent the completion of the act, in the former case apodidomi, literally, "to give back," in the latter poieo, "to make," "to do," being used.

Performance is found in the King James Version Sirach 19:20 (the Revised Version (British and American) "doing"); 2 Macc 11:17 (inserted needlessly and omitted by the Revised Version (British and American)); Luke 1:45 (the Revised Version (British and American) "fulfilment"); 2 Corinthians 8:11 (the Revised Version (British and American) "completion").

^Burton Scott Easton

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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