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Bible Lexicons
Old & New Testament Greek Lexical Dictionary Greek Lexicon
Strong's #2356 - θρησκεία
- Thayer
- Strong
- Mounce
- religious worship
- esp. external, that which consists of ceremonies
- religious discipline, religion
- esp. external, that which consists of ceremonies
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did not use
this Strong's Number
θρησκ-εία,
Ion. θρησκ-είη, ἡ, (θρησκεύω)
1. religious worship, cult, ritual, ἡ περὶ τὰ ἱρὰ θ. Hdt. 2.18, IG 12(5).141.5 (Paros, iii B.C.), J. AJ 17.9.3, etc.; τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος SIG 801 D (Delph., i A.D.); ἡ περί τινος θ. ib. 867.48 (Ephesus, ii A.D.): pl., rites, Hdt. 2.37, D.H. 2.63, PGnom. 185 (ii A.D.), Wilcken Chr. 72 (iii A.D.).
2. religion, service of God, LXX Wi. 14.18, Acts 26:5, James 1:26; θ. τοῦ θεοῦ μία ἐστί, μὴ εἶναι κακόν Corp.Herm. 12 fin.; ἑκατέρα θ., i.e. Christianity and Paganism, Them. Or. 5.69c; θ. τῶν ἀγγέλων worshipping of angels, Colossians 2:18.
3. in bad sense, religious formalism, ἀντὶ ὁσιότητος Ph. 1.195; θ. βιωτική vulgar superstition, Sor. 1.4.
θρησκεία Tdf. θρησκια (see Iota) (a later word; Ionic θρησκιη in Herodotus (2, 18. 37)), θρησκείας, ἡ (from θρησκεύω, and this from θρησκός, which see; hence, apparently primarily fear of the gods); religious worship, especially external, that which consists in ceremonies: hence, in plural θρησκιας ἐπιτελεῖν μυριάς, Herodotus 2, 37; καθιστας ἁγνείας τέ καί θρησκείας καί καθαρμους, Dionysius Halicarnassus 2, 63; universally, religious worship, James 1:26f; with the genitive of the object (Winer's Grammar, 187 (176)) τῶν ἀγγέλων, Colossians 2:18 (τῶν εἰδώλων, Wis. 14:27; τῶν δαιμον´ων, Eusebius, h. e. 6, 41, 2; τῶν θεῶν, ibid. 9, 9, 14; τοῦ Θεοῦ, Herodian, 4, 8, 17 (7 edition, Bekker); often in Josephus (cf. Krebs, Observations, etc., p. 339f); Clement of Rome, 1 Cor. 45, 7 [ET]); religious discipline, religion: ἡμετέρα θρησκεία, of Judaism, Acts 26:5 (τήν ἐμήν θρησκειαν καταλιπών, put into the mouth of God by Josephus, Antiquities 8, 11, 1; with the genitive of the subjunctive τῶν Ἰουδαίων, 4 Macc. 5:6, 13 (12); Josephus, Antiquities 12, 5, 4; θρησκεία κοσμικη, i. e. worthy to be embraced by all nations, a world religion, b. j. 4, 5, 2; piety, περί τόν Θεόν, Antiquities 1, 13, 1; κατά τήν ἔμφυτον θρησκειαν τῶν βαρβάρων πρός τό βασιλικόν ὄνομα, Chariton 7, 6, p. 165, 18 edition, Reiske; of the reverence of Antiochus the Pious for the Jewish religion, Josephus, Antiquities 13, 8, 2). Cf. Grimm on 4 Macc. 5:6; (especially Trench, § xlviii.).
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**† θρησκεία
(-κία , T), -ας , ἡ
(< θρῆσκος ),
[in LXX: Wisdom of Solomon 14:18; Wisdom of Solomon 14:27, Sirach 22:5 A, 4 Maccabees 5:6; 4 Maccabees 5:13*;]
religion in its external aspect (MM, Exp., xv), worship: Acts 26:5, James 1:26-27; θ . τῶν ἀγγέλων , Colossians 2:18.†
SYN.: see θρῆσκος G2357.
Copyright © 1922 by G. Abbott-Smith, D.D., D.C.L.. T & T Clarke, London.
As against the common idea that θρησκεία means only ritual, Hort (on James 1:26) has shown that the underlying idea is simply ";reverence of the gods or worship of the gods, two sides of the same feeling";—a feeling which, however, frequently finds expression in θρησκεῖαι or ritual acts. Of this use of the plur. a good example occurs in a ii/A.D. Rainer papyrus published by Wessely (Karanis, p. 56) where precautions are taken πρὸς τῷ ἰδίῳ λόγῳ. . . ἴνα μήκετι αἱ τῶν θεῶν θρησκεῖαι ἐμποδίζο (= ω)νται (cf. 1 Maccabees 9:55) : see also another Rainer papyrus, Chrest. I. 72.10 (A.D. 234), where it is reported—μηδένα δὲ τῶν ἱερέω [ν ἢ ] ἱερωμένων ἐνκαταλελοιπέναι τὰς [θρ ]ησκείας, and cf. the curious inscr. from Talmis in Nubia, ib. 73.10 (A.D. 247–8), where the strategus gives orders that all ";swine"; should be driven out of the village—πρὸς τὸ δύνασθαι τὰ περὶ τὰ ἱερὰ θρήσκια κατὰ τὰ νενομισμένα γείνεσθαι. In the Delphic inscr., first published by Bourguet De rebus Delphicis, 1905, p. 63 f., which has proved of such importance in dating Gallio’s proconsulship, and consequently in fixing a point in the Pauline chronology (see s.v. Γαλλίων), the words ἐπετήρη [σα δὲ τὴ ]ν θρησκεί [αν τ ]οῦ Ἀποί [λλωνος ] τοῦ Πυθίου are put into the mouth of the Emperor Tiberius, to which Deissmann (St. Paul, p. 251) furnishes a parallel from the same source in a letter of Hadrian's to Delphi : καὶ εἰς τὴν ἀρ [χαιότητα τῆ ]ς πόλεως καὶ εἰς τὴν τοῦ κατέχοντος α [ὐτὴν θεοῦ θρησ ]κείαν ἀφορῶν (Bourguet, p. 78). We may add Syll 656.48 (Ephesus—ii/A.D.) which describes as θρησκεία the keeping of the month Artemision as sacred to the tutelary goddess, OGIS 513.18 (beginning of iii/A.D.) in honour of a priestess—εὐσεβῶς πᾶσαν θρησκείαν ἐκτελέσασαν τῇ θεῷ, and the interesting passage quoted by C. Taylor (Exp T xvi. p. 334) in illustration of James 1:26 from the end of c. 12 of the Ποιμάνδρης of Hermes Trismegistos—καὶ τοῦτό ἐστιν ὁ θεός, τὸ πᾶν. . . τοῦτον τὸν λόγον, ὦ τέκνον, προσκύνει καὶ θρήσκευε. θρησκεία δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ μία ἐστί, μὴ εἶναι κακόν, ";et hoc deus est, universum . . . hoc verbum, o fili, adora et cole. Cultus autem dei unus est, malum non esse"; (ed. Parthey, Berlin, 1854). For the verb see Preisigke 991 (A.D. 290) where an inscr. on a temple-pillar is dated—ἐπὶ Διδύμου ἱερέως θρησκεύοντος. Boisacq (p. 340) derives the Ionic word from the root of θεράπων, θεραπεύω : cf. θρόνος.
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