the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Proportion
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words
or Cp. Eng., "analogy," signified in classical Greek "the right relation, the concidence or agreement existing or demanded according to the standard of the several relations, not agreement as equality" (Cremer). It is used in Romans 12:6 , where "let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith," RV, recalls ver. 3. It is a warning against going beyond what God has given and faith receives. This meaning, rather than the other rendering, "according to the analogy of the faith," is in keeping with the context. The word analogia is not to be rendered literally. "Proportion" here represents its true meaning. The fact that there is a definite article before "faith" in the original does not necessarily afford an intimation that the faith, the body of Christian doctrine, is here in view. The presence of the definite article is due to the fact that faith is an abstract noun. The meaning "the faith" is not relevant to the context.
These files are public domain.
Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Proportion'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ved/p/proportion.html. 1940.
