the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Dictionaries
Excuse
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words
or "a pretense, pretext" (from pro, "before," and phemi, "to say"), is translated "excuse" in John 15:22 , RV, for AV, "cloke;" "cloke in 1 Thessalonians 2:5 AV and RV. See CLOKE , PRETENCE, SHOW (Noun).
"without excuse, inexcusable" (a negative, n, euphonic, and apologeomai, see C, No. 1, below), is used, Romans 1:20 , "without excuse," of those who reject the revelation of God in creation; Romans 2:1 , RV, for AV, "inexcusable," of the Jew who judges the Gentile.
lit., "to speak oneself off," hence "to plead for oneself," and so, in general, (a) "to defend," as before a tribunal; in Romans 2:15 , RV, "excusing them," means one "excusing" others (not themselves); the preceding phrase "one with another" signifies one person with another, not one thought with another; it may be paraphrased, "their thoughts with one another, condemning or else excusing one another;" conscience provides a moral standard by which men judge one another; (b) "to excuse" oneself, 2 Corinthians 12:19; cp. B. See ANSWER.
is used in the sense of "begging off, asking to be excused or making an excuse," in Luke 14:18 (twice),19. In the first part of ver. 18 the verb is used in the Middle Voice, "to make excuse" (acting in imagined self-interest); in the latter part and in ver. 19 it is in the Passive Voice, "have me excused."
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Excuse'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ved/e/excuse.html. 1940.
