Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Mansion
Subjects in this Topic:
MANSION.—The English word occurs in Scripture only in Joh_14:2, ‘In my Father’s 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 (monç), 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 Father’s 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.