Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Decree
Subjects in this Topic:
DECREE.—What theologians speak of as the ‘decrees of God,’ and describe as one, immutable, eternal, all-embracing, free, etc., do not receive this designation in Scripture. The equivalents are to be sought for under such headings as Election, Predestination, Providence, Reprobate. In the EV [Note: English Version.] the term is frequently used in Esther, Ezra, Daniel, with different Heb. and Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] words, for royal decrees (in Dan_6:1-28 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘interdict’; in Dan_2:9 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘law,’ elsewhere ‘decree’). In the NT also the Gr. word dogmata is employed of decrees of Cæsar (Luk_2:1, Act_17:7); in Act_16:4 it is used of decrees of the Church; elsewhere (Eph_2:15, Col_2:20) it is tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘ordinances.’ The nearest approach to the theological sense of the term is, in OT, in the Heb. word hôk, ordinarily tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘statute,’ which is used in various places of God’s sovereign appointments in nature and providence (Job_28:26, Psa_148:6, Pro_8:29, Jer_5:22, Zep_2:2). The Hebrews had not the modern conception of ‘laws of nature,’ but they had a good equivalent in the idea of the world as ordered and founded by God’s decrees; as regulated by His ordinances (cf. Psa_104:5; Psa_104:9; Psa_119:88-91, Jer_10:12 ff.). The same word is used in Psa_2:7 of God’s ‘decree’ regarding His king; in Dan_4:17; Dan_4:24 (Aram. [Note: Aramaic.] ) we have ‘decree’ of ‘the watchers’ and ‘the most High.’
James Orr.