Council, counsel
These words are distinct in origin, council from concilium, (cun-calere, to call together) ' an assembly ' ; counsel from consilium {con-sulere, to consult) 'consultation,' 'advice.' And they are now kept distinct in spelling and in meaning, their meaning nearly correspondmg with the Lat. words from wnich they come. But from the earliest times they were completely confused in the Eng. lang. ; and although enorts were made from the beg.
of the 16th cent, to separate them, it took two centuries to effect the separation. In AV of 1611 counsel is once (2S 17'') spelt 'counsel,' elsewhere always 'counsell' (with a cap., Counsell, in Is 11'). The plu. is always 'counsels,' except Pr 22* 'counsaifes.' But council appears in a great variety of forms: Council, Councilf, Councels, councell, Councell, counsel, counsell, Counsell. Subsequent edd.
varied these indefinitely, but for the last century or thereby the spelling has been nniformly ' council.' Coanoll li th» tr» of— 1. nrp righmah, P» ag" only, (EVm compaoy ' ; see Q0t«8 in Perowne and Delitzsch ; Wellh. tays the word is prob. corrupt, and certainly unintelligible). 2. rvf- »M,\iu, Mt 12i«, Ac 25i».
In Mt 12H RV gives (with AVm) ' took coonsel ' (for AV held a council '), which ia the trn of r, where it occun elaewhere in the Oo8peUCMt22« 271' ggia, uk S6 16i, ■ held a coniultotion,' AV, RV). But in Ac 2612 both AV and R V render 'council. The Lat. ccmsiliuiniol which rvw^auXtoi is a trn) had this twofold meaning of deliberation ' (mod. counsel '), and ' a deliberating body ' (still retained in law as * counsel (or tba defence '). 8. Elsewhere rvttifttt, for which see Goansel.
— In OT mostly n^cy ''^A, 'advic,' then (at in Ps 11) ' resolution, bent of will, character,' — Del. ; and iSo, a most lnt«re6ting word, whose primary meaning ia that of ' con- fidntial communion ; whereupon the two meanings already seen in rv/xticuXjot emerge, viz. (1) those who are in confidential communication, council ; and (2) the communication itself, counsel. The most freq. tro in EV is ' secret,' as Ps 25* • the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.'
Where AV has 'counsel' RV retains, except Jer 231^- *^, RV 'council.' In NT either ^ei.A^ (which, though it is the usual trn of 'tzah in LXX, rarely in NT means admce, almost always ipiil, purpose, as Ac 2^ ' the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ') or nfA^tuKitf as above. ConnselloF. — This is the only spelling in mod. edd. of AV.
It does not, however, occur in AV of 1611, thourfi ' counsellours ' is found thrice, Ezr8", Pr 12* 15^ ; there the spelling is always ' coun- seller' (or ' Counseller,' Is 1» 9», Dn 6', 1 Es 8"). The Oxf. and Camb. Parallel Bibles restore ' coun- seller' everywliere except Mk 15^, Lk 23" (both fiouXfvT^t, used of .Joseph of Arimatli«a as a member of the Sanhedrin, RV ' councillor ') and Ro 11" (rtJ^i/Soi-Xo!, the LXX word in Is 40", of which this is a quotation). J. HASTINGS.