Compel (Hastings' Dictionary)

This verb was sometimes used with- out any threatening or thought of force, simply in the sense of ' urge successfully.' It is doubtful if it is so used now. Hence we may misunderstand 1 S 28-*, where it is said that Saul's sen-ants, to- gether with the woman of Endor, 'c''' him to eat' (uii-ir', in 2 S 13^-'''' tr'' 'pressed him ') ; and esp. Lk 14'^ ' c. them to come in, that my house may COMPOUND CONDUIT -163 be filled ' {drayKdi'u, RV ' constrain ') ; cf.

Earl Rivers (1477), ' Wliiehe grace . . hath compelled me to sette a parte alle ini^atitude.' Kohertson {Charles V. III. xi. 335) saj-s, 'As they could not persuade they tried to compel men to believe' — and this passage in St. Luke was quoted as their Bulhority ; but neither the Gr. nor the Eng. sanc- tions more than 'urging' : cf. RV even of Ac 20" ' I strove to make them blaspheme,' where Gr. and AV are the same as in Lk 14^. In Mt 6*1 ' \niosoever shall c.

thee to ^ a mile,' 273^ 'him thev c*! to bear his cross,' and ilk l.V-i ' thev c. one Sunoii a Cyrenian ... to bear his cross, the Gr. vh. {ayyafuCu) has the technical meaninfi: of iiressinp into the kinp's service (RVm always 'impreM"). The word is of Pers. ori^^in, the iyyotpet beiii^' the puMic couhera of the kint^s of Persia, who had authority to press into their service in any emert,'ency whatever honies or men they met.

The word was adopted also into *«tin anffariarv, and is used by Vultf. in pass.npe~ named above. J. Hastings.