The idea is that of His exercise of a supremely exalted office as the Great High Priest who is the Mediator between God and men.Ģ. Moreover, in the two passages in Hebrews there is no direct ascription of the Divine majesty to Jesus. It seems always to be used with reference not to His pre-existent dignity, but to the exaltation that followed His incarnation and suffering. The idea of Christ as seated at God’s right hand, which is so frequent in the NT ( Matthew 26:64 ||, Acts 2:33 Acts 7:55 f., Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1 etc.), was no doubt taken in the first case from Psalms 110:1 (cf. (3) In Hebrews 1:3 Hebrews 8:1 we see Jesus seated ‘on the right hand of the Majesty on high.’ The word for ‘Majesty’ in these two cases is μεγαλωσύνη, a term that does not occur again in the NT except in the doxology at the end of Jude ( Judges 1:25). also the ἐπόπται τῆς ἐκείνου μεγαλειότητος of 2 Peter 1:16 with what is said in 2 Peter 1:17 of the ‘glory’ ( δόξα) which Jesus received upon the mount from God the Father. With this idea of Christ’s miracles, or of His miraculous being, as an effulgence of the Divine splendour or magnificence, compare the statement of John 2:11 that by the miracle of Cana Jesus ‘manifested his glory’ ( ἐφανέρωσε τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ). The evidence of the LXX Septuagint also points in the same direction for while μεγαλειότης is used in Jeremiah 33:9 to translation חִּפְאָרָת (Authorized Version ‘honour,’ Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘glory’)-a word which is usually rendered by δόξα-the terms ordinarily taken to express the idea of greatness or majesty are μεγαλωσύνη and μεγαλοπρέπεια ( e.g. Greek, and even by the two instances of its employment in the NT ( Luke 1:49, Acts 2:11). This is suggested by the ordinary use of the adj. And when He came down from the mountain, the μεγαλειότης of God shone forth through His works in the eyes of all the multitude.Ī comparison of the uses of μεγαλειότης in Luke 9:43, Acts 19:27, and 2 Peter 1:16 raises a doubt whether ‘majesty’ is the most adequate rendering of the word in the first and third passages, and whether ‘magnificence’ (as in Acts 19:27 Authorized and Revised Versions ) or ‘splendour’ would not more correctly reproduce the original idea. On the ‘holy mount’ the favoured three received a revelation of Christ’s inherent μεγαλειότης (the word ἐπόπται, ‘eyewitnesses,’ is a technical term denoting those who had been admitted to the highest grade of initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries). It is thus an interesting coincidence that the two instances of its use in connexion with Christ belong to the episode of the Transfiguration and the incident of the healing of the lunatic boy which followed immediately after. Acts 19:27, where it is used to describe the ‘magnificence’ (Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ) of the great goddess Diana. The word μεγαλειότης is found in only one other passage of the NT, viz. (2) In 2 Peter 1:16 the writer, who claims to have been present with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, says of that experience, ‘We were eyewitnesses of his majesty’ (Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 Gr. the ἐποίει which critical editors substitute for ἐποίησεν of Textus Receptus, seems to show that the miracles of Christ generally are to be thought of as producing this impression that the Divine μεγαλειότης was manifesting itself through Him. (1) In Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 of Luke 9:43 a we read that the people ‘were all astonished at the majesty ( μεγαλειότης, Authorized Version ‘mighty power’) of God.’ The immediate occasion of their astonishment was the healing of the lunatic boy, but v. The term.-In the NT the word ‘majesty’ is associated with Christ in three different connexions.
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