Authority
Authority
This word, which occurs much more frequently in Revised Version than in Authorized Version , in most cases represents the Gr. . It is used of delegated authority in Act 9:14; Act 26:10; Act 26:12; of the authority of an apostle in 2Co 10:8; 2Co 13:10 (Revised Version ); of earthly rulers (authorities) in Tit 3:1 (Revised Version ), cf. Luk 12:11; and in Revised Version of Apocalypse is substituted frequently for Authorized Version power; cf. Rev 6:8; Rev 12:10; Rev 13:4-12; Rev 17:12 (in Rev 17:13 it replaces Authorized Version strength). Yet in many places Revised Version still retains power as the translation of ; cf. Act 8:19, Col 1:13, Rom 13:1-3, Rev 9:10; Rev 11:6 etc. In 1Co 11:10 is used in a peculiar sense (for this cause ought the woman to have on her head, because of the angels), where a veil appears to be meant. Here Authorized Version gives power, Revised Version a sign of authority, with have authority over in the margin.
In several passages is used to designate a created being superior to man, a spiritual potentate, viz. 1Co 15:24, Eph 1:21, Col 2:10, and, in the plural, Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12, Col 1:16; Col 2:15, 1Pe 3:22. In 1Co 15:24 and 1Pe 3:22, Authorized Version and Revised Version render authority and Revised Version also in Eph 1:21, the reason probably being that also occurs in these verses for which the word power was needed. In the other references the translation is power or powers. Seeing that appear to be a class of angelic beings distinct from , it would have been conducive to clearness if the word authority had been used in all these passages. In Eph 6:12 evil principles are obviously referred to (cf. Eph 2:2); in 1Co 15:24 both good and evil angels may be included (Lightfoot, Col.3 1879, p. 154). See, further, under Principality, and cf. the preceding article.
In a few places authority in Authorized Version represents other Gr. words, viz. Act 8:27 Authorized Version , Revised Version , a eunuch of great authority (); 1Ti 2:2 Authorized Version for kings and for all that are in authority ( ), Revised Version in high place; 1Ti 2:12 Authorized Version I suffer not a woman to usurp authority over the man ( ), Revised Version to have dominion over; Tit 2:15 rebuke (Authorized Version reprove) with all authority ().
W. H. Dundas.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
authority
(Latin: auctoritas)
The moral right to direct the conduct of others and the duty on their part of obedience. Authority is a spiritual force resting on the freedom of the will and endowed with a dignity which enables it to yield, not to superior might but to superior right. Civil authority is the moral power of command (supported when need be by physical coercion) which the state exercises over its members. It is natural to man to live in civil society, and for families to unite with others, so that when there is civil society there must be authority. Civil authority originates from God since God is the author of nature which in turn requires civil authority to be set up and obeyed. The state is established by God and did not happen by chance or compact, but is a Divine and necessary institution. God forbids anarchy and is at the back of every state, binding men in conscience to observe the laws of the state within its competence “that every soul be subject to Higher Power for there is no power but from God and those that are ordained of God.” This principle, however, does not justify the theory of the “divine right of kings,” i.e., from God come the kings, and from the kings the laws, and therefore subjects have no rights. The theologian Suarez, as defender of the rights of the people, argues that spiritual authority is not vested in the crown, and that it is not immediately the gift of God to the king, but given by God to the people collectively and by them transmitted or confided to the ruler. Civil authority is both natural and universal, but the distribution of authority or form of government is a human convention and is subject to change. These forms are classified as monarchies, aristocracies, and democracies. God fixes the principle that there must be authority everywhere, and that this authority must be obeyed under some form; but it is untrue to hold that men are bound to live under any particular form of authority, and that it cannot be subverted. Authority rules by Divine right under whatsoever form it is established, but no one form of government is more sacred or more inviolable than another; hence when a change of government is complete the new government rules by right of accomplished fact. There are limits, however, to civil obedience and to compliance with civil authority. The authority of the State is absolute, i.e., full and complete in its own sphere and subordinate to no other authority within that sphere. The state, however, is not to be obeyed as against God, neither can a state command anything and everything; thus to dictate to conscience, to interfere with man’s eternal destiny, or his relation with his Maker, to formulate civil laws in conflict with the moral law, to deny the parents’ right in the education of the child, and to prevent religious instruction are beyond the power of the state. The arbitrary use of authority is called tyranny and the liberty of the subject is based on the doctrine that the state is not omnipotent. Neither is it true to hold that man is all citizen, for besides his political interests, he has his eternal, domestic, intellectual, and artistic interests. According to the theories of Hobbes and Rousseau, authority resiiles in and originates from the community, the state is omnipotent, though in its origin it is an artificial thing constituted by the citizens; while Hobbes holds that authority is vested permanently in the individual, Rousseau states that this authority is revocable at the will of the citizens. Hegel further developed the notion of state absolutism in which the citizen is wholly subordinated to the civil power. The fallacies that The State is the source of all right and its rights are unlimited, and Authority is nothing else than numbers and its rights are unlimited, were condemned by Pius IX. The theories would also embrace the fallacies that right is necessarily attached to majorities, that one man is as good as another, and that the rule of numerical majority is of universal application. Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical, Immortale Dei, thus sums up the true doctrine: Man’s natural instinct moves him to live in civil society. Authority no less than society itself is natural and therefore has God for its author. Hence it follows that public power itself cannot be otherwise than of God.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Authority
(1.) in matters religious and ecclesiastical, an assumed right of dictation, attributed to certain fathers, councils, or church courts. On this subject Bishop Hoadley writes: Authority is the greatest and most irreconcilable enemy to truth and argumlent that this world ever furnished. All the sophistry all the color of plausibility all the artifice and cunning of the subtlest disputer in the world may be laid open and turned to the advantage of that very truth which they are designed to hide; but against authority there is no defense. He shows that it was authority which crushed the noble sentiments of Socrates and others, and that by authority the Jews and heathens combated the truth of the Gospel; and that, when Christians increased into a majority, and came to think the same method to be the only proper one for the advantage of their cause which had been the enemy and destroyer of it, then it was the authority of Christians, which, by degrees, not only laid waste the honor of Christianity, but well-nigh extinguished it among men. It was authority which would have prevented all reformation where it is, and which has put a barrier against it wherever it is not. The remark of Charles II. is worthy of notice-that those of the established faith make much of the authority of the church in their disputes with dissenters, but that they take it all away when they deal with papists. Buck, Theol. Dict. s.v.
(2.) In a proper sense, by the authority of the church is meant either the power’ residing generally in the whole body of the faithful to execute the trust committed by Christ to his church, or the particular power residing in certain official members of that body. The first-named authority is vested in the clergy and laity jointly; the latter in the clergy alone. In the interpretation of Scripture for any particular church, that church’s authority does not belong to all divines or distinguished theologians who may be members of the church, but only to the authorized formularies. Single writers of every age are to be taken as expressing only their individual opinions. The agreement of these opinions at any one period, or for any lengthened space of time, may and must be used as proof to ourselves, privately, as to the predominant sentiments of the church at that time, but no opinions can be quoted as deciding authoritatively any disputed question. The universal church deserves deference in all controversies of faith; and every particular church has a right to decree such rights and ceremonies as are not contrary to God’s written word; but no church has a right to enforce any thing as necessary for salvation, unless it can be shown so to be by the express declaration of Holy Scripture. See the 20th and 34th Articles of the Church of England, and the 5th and 22d of the Methodist Episcopal Church. SEE RULE OF FAITH; SEE TRADITION.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
AUTHORITY
In some English versions of the Bible the two words power and authority are used to translate what is one word in the Greek. In such cases power means the right to exercise power, and this is the aspect of power that is the subject of the present article. Concerning power in the sense of strength or might, see POWER.
God is the one who has absolute authority (Psa 93:1-2; Psa 115:3; Isa 40:20-23; Rom 9:20-24; Rom 13:1; see GOD, sub-headings Eternal and independent, Majestic and sovereign). Jesus Christ, being God, also had absolute authority, though he chose to exercise that authority in complete submission to his Father (Joh 5:19). He had the same authority on earth as he had in heaven, the same authority in time as he had in eternity (Mat 21:23-27; Mat 28:18; Joh 5:27; Joh 10:18).
By his authority Jesus Christ released sick and demonized people from the power of Satan (Mat 8:8-10; Mar 1:27) and instructed people in the truth of God (Mat 7:29). By that same authority he forgave people their sins (Mat 9:6), gave them eternal life (Joh 17:2), made them children of God (Joh 1:12), and gave them the authority and the power to carry on the work of his kingdom (Mat 10:1; Mat 28:18-20; 2Co 13:10; see KINGDOM OF GOD; APOSTLE).
As the words that the Son of God spoke carried with them Gods authority, so did the words that the Spirit of God inspired the authors of the Bible to write. The Scriptures, Old and New Testament alike, are Gods authoritative Word to the human race (2Ti 3:16; 2Pe 1:21; see INSPIRATION).
God wants every community of people be properly ordered for the well-being of all. Therefore, he has given authority to civil administrators to govern society (Jer 27:5; Joh 19:11; Rom 13:1-4; see GOVERNMENT), to parents to govern the family (Eph 6:4; 1Ti 5:14; see PARENTS), and to elders to govern the church (Act 20:28; 1Pe 5:2; see ELDER).
Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary
Authority
AUTHORITY.The capability, liberty, and right to perform what one wills. The word implies also the physical and mental ability for accomplishing the end desired. Authority refers especially to the right one has, by virtue of his office, position, or relationship, to command obedience. The centurion was a man under authority, who knew what it meant to be subject to others higher in authority than himself, and who also himself exercised authority over the soldiers placed under him (Mat 8:8-9). In like manner Herods jurisdiction (Luk 23:7) was his authority over the province which he ruled. Hence the authority of any person accords with the nature of his office or position, so that we speak of the authority of a husband, a parent, an apostle, a judge, or of any civil ruler. The magistrates who are called in Rom 13:1 the higher powers, are strictly the highly exalted and honoured authorities of the State, who are to be obeyed in all that is right, and reverenced as the ministers of God for good. God is Himself the highest authority in heaven and on earth, but He has also given unto His Son authority on earth to forgive sins (Mat 9:6) and to execute judgment (Joh 5:27). After His resurrection Jesus Himself declared: All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth (Mat 28:18; cf. Col 2:10, 1Pe 3:22). In the plural the word is used in Eph 2:2; Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12, Col 1:16; Col 2:15, to denote good and evil angels, who are supposed to hold various degrees and ranks of authority. See Dominion, Power.
M. S. Terry.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Authority
See POWER.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Authority
denotes “authority” (from the impersonal verb exesti, “it is lawful”). From the meaning of “leave or permission,” or liberty of doing as one pleases, it passed to that of “the ability or strength with which one is endued,” then to that of the “power of authority,” the right to exercise power, e.g., Mat 9:6; Mat 21:23; 2Co 10:8; or “the power of rule or government,” the power of one whose will and commands must be obeyed by others, e.g., Mat 28:18; Joh 17:2; Jud 1:25; Rev 12:10; Rev 17:13; more specifically of apostolic “authority,” 2Co 10:8; 2Co 13:10; the “power” of judicial decision, Joh 19:10; of “managing domestic affairs,” Mar 13:34. By metonymy, or name-change (the substitution of a suggestive word for the name of the thing meant), it stands for “that which is subject to authority or rule,” Luk 4:6 (RV, “authority,” for the AV “power”); or, as with the English “authority,” “one who possesses authority, a ruler, magistrate,” Rom 13:1-3; Luk 12:11; Tit 3:1; or “a spiritual potentate,” e.g., Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12; Col 1:16; Col 2:10, Col 2:15; 1Pe 3:22. The RV usually translates it “authority.”
In 1Co 11:10 it is used of the veil with which a woman is required to cover herself in an assembly or church, as a sign of the Lord’s “authority” over the church. See JURISDICTION, LIBERTY, POWER, RIGHT, STRENGTH.
an injunction (from epi, “upon,” tasso, “to order”), is once rendered “authority,” Tit 2:15 (RV, marg., “commandment”). See COMMANDMENT.
Note: The corresponding verb is epitasso, “to command.” See COMMAND.
primarily, “a projection, eminence,” as a mountain peak, hence, metaphorically, “pre-eminence, superiority, excellency,” is once rendered “authority,” 1Ti 2:2, AV (marg., “eminent place”), RV, “high place,” of the position of magistrates; in 1Co 2:1, “excellency” (of speech). Cp. huperecho, “to surpass.” See EXCELLENCY.
akin to dunamis, “power,” (Eng., “dynasty,”) signifies “a potentate, a high officer;” in Act 8:27, of a high officer, it is rendered “of great authority;” in Luk 1:52, RV, “princes, (AV, “the mighty”); in 1Ti 6:15 it is said of God (“Potentate”). See MIGHTY, POTENTATE.
akin to A, No. 1, signifies “to exercise power,” Luk 22:25; 1Co 6:12; 1Co 7:4 (twice). See POWER.
kata, “down,” intensive, and No. 1, “to exercise authority upon,” is used in Mat 20:25; Mar 10:42.
from autos, “self,” and a lost noun hentes, probably signifying working (Eng., “authentic”), “to execise authority on one’s own account, to domineer over,” is used in 1Ti 2:12, AV, “to usurp authority,” RV, “to have dominion.” In the earlier usage of the word it signified one who with his own hand killed either others or himself. Later it came to denote one who acts on his own “authority;” hence, “to exercise authority, dominion.” See DOMINION, Note.