Devout

DEVOUT [ISBE]

DEVOUT - de-vout' (eulabes, eusebes, sebomai, "pious," "dutiful," "reverential"): The word is peculiar to Luke. Applied to Simeon (Lk 2:25), Cornelius (Acts 10:2,7), Ananias (Acts 22:12). "Devout proselytes" (Acts 13:43, the King James Version "religious proselytes"), with possible reference to the proselytes of righteousness as distinguished from the proselytes of the gate (see PROSELYTE). "Devout women of honorable estate" (Acts 13:50), proselytes to Judaism and wives of the men in high position among the heathen (see Josephus, BJ, II, xx, 2). "Devout Greeks" (Acts 17:4), probably, though not necessarily, proselytes of the gate, heathen by birth, who attended the synagogue services and worshipped God. "Devout persons" (Acts 17:17), proselytes of the gate.

M. O. Evans