Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
"Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel" is about what you say
"Conversation" in 1611 meant one's whole way of life and conduct, not talking.
Philippians 1:27, in every translation this tool compares.
"Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ" (Philippians 1:27, KJV). Modern "conversation" means talking; the underlying Greek, politeuomai, means to live as a citizen, to conduct oneself. The word is related to polis, city, and carries the sense of one's whole public manner of life, not merely speech. The same word choice shows up again in 1 Timothy 4:12, urging Timothy to be an example "in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity," a list that only makes sense as a list of distinct areas of conduct, of which speech ("word") is just one, if "conversation" is read as talking too.
The KJV translators weren't describing small talk; they were describing character, which is why modern translations typically render this word as "conduct" or "manner of life" instead.
