Mansion
Mansion
MANSION (, Joh 14:2; Joh 14:23).1. Mansion, like , is properly an abstract noun, meaning a staying, an abiding. In English literature it is first found in Hampoles Psalter, 5. 8 (c. [Note: circa, about.] 1340 a.d.), ai entire in til God is house of heuen and takis aire joy and aire mansyon in aire perfeccioun. So in the B text of Piers Plowman, Langland says of Pride (B xiv. 26): Arst in the maister than in the man some mansioun he hath (he dwelleth in the master rather than in the man). The C text (c. [Note: circa, about.] 1393) keeps the word while it extends the limits of Prides abode (xvii. 59): Other in the maister, other in the man, some mancion he shewith. But Hampole and Lydgate (1420) also use mansion of a dwelling-place. A charter of Henry vi. (1444) uses it of a hostel, and Fabyan (1512) of the chief residence of a lord, whence it gains its modern meaning of an imposing abode, which is seen even in Shakspeare (2 Henry IV. iii. ii. 351). Bacon, however, still uses the word in its abstract sense in the Advancement of Learning (1605), and both Shakspeare and Milton use it of an abiding-place without the suggestion of a building (Timon of Athens, v. i. 218; Paradise Lost, i. 268, viii. 296). From the Vulgate mansiones it is used by Wyclif for halting-places in Exo 17:1, but in translations from the Greek (as Whistons Josephus, 1737) this meaning represents , not , and so has no bearing upon the sense of Joh 14:2. The Vulgate also uses mansiones in Joh 14:2, and is responsible for Hampoles use of the English form of the word in the sense of dwelling-places. That sense was confirmed in the language, partly by Chaucer (Knights Tale, 1116), but mainly by the influence of Tindales Version of the NT (1526), In my fathers housse are many mansions, and (2Co 5:1) Our erthy mancioun wherein we now dwell, copied by Milton in Il Penseroso, 92.
2. But while the English mansion and the identical French word maison have retained from their common original only the developed meaning of dwelling-place, the Greek is nowhere in extant literature found with this meaning, save only in Joh 14:2. Westcott (with Liddell and Scott) explains its use in this verse by the supposed occurrence of the word in Pausanias (x. 31:7) in the sense of a halting-place for the night. But the ordinary reading in that passage seems impossible Greek, and is certainly corrupt (see J. G. Frazers note): is not an intelligible expression for the traditional meaning, there are halting-places at intervals upon the road. One MS reads , from which W. M. Ramsay conjectures , the road has been carried through the country of the M. (beside Minos tomb).
Apart, then, from Joh 14:2, remains a purely abstract noun, meaning (1) abiding, (2) continuance, (3) rest. The ease with which it passes from the first to the last of these meanings can be seen from Plato, Crat. 437 B, where is defined as a , and not a ; Ar. Phys. v. 6. 8 ( ); Polybius, iv. 41, 4, 5, where it is twice coupled with ; and most of all in Plutarch, whose writings (a.d. 80120) are contemporary with St. Johns Gospel.
Like the classical authors, Plutarch still uses , in the literal sense of a stay or a continuance: (1042 D), , 1063 D. But in 1024 F, though answers to , Plutarch opposes it, like Aristotle, to : , . So in 927 A the material elements as conceived by Empedocles are reduced to order by the introduction of the principle of love ( ), , where has the complete meaning of rest as opposed to motion. And in 747 C he uses the plural of rests in dancing; .
In Joh 14:2, however, the immediate mention of a place seems to demand a concrete meaning for , though it has no parallel elsewhere. If so, the senses of abode in vv. 2 and 23, concrete and abstract respectively, will be derived from the idea of rest that has become attached to the word, as well as from the original idea of remaining. The difference is seen at once when the of Joh 14:23 is compared with the same phrase in Thuc. i. 131: Pausanias the victor of Plataea, intriguing with the Persians in Asia Minor, was prolonging his stay to no good purpose ( ), , as the Scholiast remarks, being practically equivalent to , idleness. In Joh 14:23 the phrase combines, like in Joh 14:2, the meanings of abiding and rest with that of the home in which the rest is found. All the same suggestions are found in 1Ma 7:38, the only passage in the LXX Septuagint where occurs: , (and suffer them not to live any longer, Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ).
3. The of the Christian in the spiritual world (Joh 14:2) and the of God in the Christian (Joh 14:23) are evidently intended to be correlative: Abide in me, and I in you (Joh 15:4). Their consummation realizes the ideal of Joh 17:21; Joh 17:23; meanwhile they are the NT fulfilment of the two OT ideals of rest: Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him (Psa 37:7), and Arise, O Lord, into thy resting-place; thou, and the ark of thy strength (Psa 132:8). Joh 14:2, that is, refers not only to the perpetual rest or home in the life hereafter, but, like v. 23, to the abiding fellowship with the Divine in this life (Mat 28:20, Rev 21:8). See artt. Abiding, and Fathers House.
Literature.For the English word see Oxford English Dict., where its history is fully illustrated; Aldis Wrights Bible Word-Book, 387, 388; Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible iii. 238. The Greek word is very insufficiently treated both in Stephanus and in Liddell and Scott; for Plutarchs uses see Wyttenbachs Index, where, however, some references are misprinted. Reference may further be made to Expos. Times, viii. [1897] 496, x. [1899] 303; Expositor, ii. ii. [1881] 281, iii. [1882] 397, iv. vi. [1892] 209; A. Maclaren, The Holy of Holies (1890), p. 12; R. W. Dale, Christ and the Future Life (1895), pp. 3384; J. Parker, City Temple Pulpit, i. (1899), p. 259.
Frank Richards.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Mansion
MANSION.The English word occurs in Scripture only in Joh 14:2, In my Fathers house are many man-sioos (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] Or, abiding places). Its retention is an archaism, for the modern connotation of a house of some dignity is quite lacking from the word as used by Tindale (1525), apparently from the Vulg. [Note: Vulgate.] mansiones, abiding places. The Gr. word (mon), like the Latin, means (1) the act of abiding, (2) a place of abode. In the NT it occurs also in Joh 14:23, where make our abode is Greek idiom for abide. Hence the thought in Joh 14:2 is simply that there is ample room for the disciples in the Fathers house. In the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] the Gr. word occurs only once, viz. 1Ma 7:38, give them no abiding place (RV [Note: Revised Version.] suffer them not to live any longer).
S. W. Green.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Mansion
manshun (, mone, abode): In Joh 14:2, the word is used in the plural: In my Father’s house are many mansions, the Revised Version margin abiding places. The ideas conveyed are those of abundance of room, and permanence of habitation, in the heavenly world.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Mansion
Joh 14:2 (b) Our blessed Lord used this word to describe the wonderful place He is preparing in glory for His own children. We do not know what it is like, nor just where in glory it will be located, but we do know that if the architect of the universe is making it, it will be gorgeous, glorious and marvelous.