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Bible Dictionaries
Majesty
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or Two words are so translated-μεγαλειότης and μεγαλωσύνη. According to formation (the first from μεγαλεῖος = ‘stately,’ ‘magnificent’; the second from μεγαλο- = ‘great’) they denote respectively the appearance and the fact of greatness, regal state, and regal might. On the whole, the distinction holds good in usage.
1. μεγαλειότης, ‘magnificence,’ is applied to Solomon (1 Ezra 1:5), and in the NT (by Demetrius, the silversmith) to the Ephesian Artemis (Acts 19:27). In 2 Peter 1:16 it is used of Christ’s transfiguration-glory on the mountain-top, and, with interesting coincidence, in Luke 9:43 of the manifestation of Divine power in His healing of the demoniac boy at the mountain-foot (cf. Clement, Ep. ad Cor. xxiv., Ign. ad Rom. i.; τὰ μεγαλεῖα τοῦ θεοῦ, Acts 2:11).
2. μεγαλωσύνη is used in the Septuagint as the translation of נְּדֽלָּח or נּדָל. It is applied to David (2 Samuel 7:21) and to the kings of the earth (Daniel 7:27); elsewhere to the sovereign greatness of God (Deuteronomy 32:3, 1 Chronicles 29:11, Psalms 145:3; Psalms 145:6, etc.). From the Septuagint it has passed into the vocabulary of Hellenistic Judaism (e.g. Book of Enoch, v. 4, xii. 3, xiv. 16), of the NT, and the Apostolic Fathers (Clement, Ep. ad Cor. xx., xxvii., lviii., lxi., lxiv.). In Hebrews 1:3 ‘the Majesty on high,’ and in Hebrews 8:1 ‘the Majesty in the heavens,’ is equivalent to God Himself in His heavenly dominion (cf. Book of Enoch, v. 4, ‘ye spake hard words … against His Majesty’; Clement, Ep. ad Cor. xxvii., ‘by the word of His Majesty all things were framed together’). Most frequently it is used in doxology (Judges 1:25, 1 Chronicles 29:11; Clement, Ep. ad Cor. xx., lxi., lxiv.).
Robert Law.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Majesty'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/m/majesty.html. 1906-1918.
