Sect
SECT
From a Latin word answering to the Greek word hoeresis, which latter our translators have in some places rendered “sect,” in others “heresy.” As used in the New Testament, it implies neither approbation nor censure of the persons to whom it is applied, or of their opinions, Mal 5:17 15:5. Among the Jews, there were four sects, distinguished by their practices and opinions, yet united in communion with each other and with the body of their nation: namely, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, and the Herodians. Christianity was originally considered as a new sect of Judaism; hence Tertullus, accusing Paul before Felix, says that he was chief of the seditious sect of the Nazarenes, Mal 24:5 ; and the Jews of Rome said to the apostle, when he arrived in this city, “As concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against,” Mal 28:22 . See HERESY.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Sect
See Heresy.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
SECT
A collective term, comprehending all such as follow the doctrines and opinions of some divine, philosopher, &c. The word sect, says Dr. Campbell, (Prelim. Diss.) among the Jews, was not in its application entirely coincident with the same term as applied by Christians to the subdivisions subsisting among themselves. We, if I mistake not, invariably use it of those who form separate communions, and do not associate with one another in religious worship and ceremonies. Thus we call Papists, Lutherans, Calvinists, different sects, not so much on account of their differences in opinion, as because they have established to themselves different fraternities, to which, in what regards public worship, they confine themselves; the several denominations above-mentioned having no inter-community with one another in sacred matters. High church and low church we call only parties, because they have not formed separate communions. Great and known differences in opinion, when followed by no external breach in the society, are not considered with us as constituting distinct sects, though their differences in opinion may give rise to mutual aversion. Now, in the Jewish sects (if we except the Samaritans, ) there were no separate communities errected. The same temple, and the same synagogues, were attended alike by Pharisees and by Sadducees: nay, there were often of both denominations in the Sanhedrim, and even in the priesthood.
Another difference was also, that the name of the sect was not applied to all the people who adopted the same opinions, but solely to the men of eminence among them who were considered as the leaders of the party.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
sect
Term signifying in classical Latin the political party or philosophical school which one followed, applied in the Epistles to divisions within the Christian communities, and not frequently used until the rise of Protestantism. Now it is a general term signifying any organized body of dissenters from some established or older form of faith and is applied to all other denominations in countries wbere State churches exist. It is used by the Catholic Church to designate any band of Christians who refuse to accept the doctrine and authority of the Church and constitute a religious party under human unauthorized leadership. The recognition by the Church of all the sects which sprang up in the course of her history would have been fatal to her organization, for the dissenters generally split up into innumerable parties all holding different doctrines. There is disapproval of the term and disagreement concerning the meaning of it among the Protestant bodies, many of which prefer the designation “churches.”
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Sect
(Gr. hairesis, usually rendered “heresy”, Acts 24:14; 1 Chr. 11:19; Gal. 5:20, etc.), meaning properly “a choice,” then “a chosen manner of life,” and then “a religious party,” as the “sect” of the Sadducees (Acts 5:17), of the PhariSee s (15:5), the Nazarenes, i.e., Christians (24:5). It afterwards came to be used in a bad sense, of those holding pernicious error, divergent forms of belief (2 Pet. 2:1; Gal. 5:20).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Sect
SECT.See Heresy.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Sect
sekt (, haresis): Sect (Latin, secta, from sequi, to follow) is in the New Testament the translation of hairesis, from haireo, to take, to choose; also translated heresy, not heresy in the later ecclesiastical sense, but a school or party, a sect, without any bad meaning attached to it. The word is applied to schools of philosophy; to the Pharisees and Sadducees among the Jews who adhered to a common religious faith and worship; and to the Christians. It is translated sect (Act 5:17, of the Sadducees; Act 15:5, of the Pharisees; Act 24:5, of the Nazarenes; Act 26:5, of the Pharisees; Act 28:22, of the Christians); also the Revised Version (British and American) Act 24:14 (the King James Version and the English Revised Version margin heresy), After the Way which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers (just as the Pharisees were a sect); it is translated heresies (1Co 11:19, margin sects, the American Standard Revised Version factions, margin Greek: ‘heresies’ ; the English Revised Version reverses the American Standard Revised Version text and margin; Gal 5:20, the American Standard Revised Version parties, margin heresies; the English Revised Version reverses text and margin; 2Pe 2:1, damnable heresies, the Revised Version (British and American) destructive heresies, margin sects of perdition); the sect in itself might be harmless; it was the teaching or principles which should be followed by those sects that would make them destructive. Hairesis occurs in 1 Macc 8:30 (They shall do it at their pleasure, i.e. choice); compare Septuagint Lev 22:18, Lev 22:21. See HERESY.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Sect
See HERESY.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Sect
“a choosing,” is translated “sect” throughout the Acts, except in Act 24:14, AV, “heresy” (RV, “sect”); it properly denotes a predilection either for a particular truth, or for a perversion of one, generally with the expectation of personal advantage; hence, a division and the formation of a party or “sect” in contrast to the uniting power of “the truth,” held in toto; “a sect” is a division developed and brought to an issue; the order “divisions, heresies” (marg. “parties”) in “the works of the flesh” in Gal 5:19-21 is suggestive of this. See HERESY.