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Two words are so translated- ìåãáëåéüôçò and ìåãáëùóýíç . According to formation (the first from ìåãáëåῖïò = ‘stately,’ ‘magnificent’; the second from ìåãáëï - = ‘great’) they denote respectively the appearance and the fact of greatness, regal state, and regal might. On the whole, the distinction holds good in usage.
1. ìåãáëåéüôçò , ‘magnificence,’ is applied to Solomon (1 Ezr_1:5), and in the NT (by Demetrius, the silversmith) to the Ephesian Artemis (Act_19:27). In 2Pe_1:16 it is used of Christ’s transfiguration-glory on the mountain-top, and, with interesting coincidence, in Luk_9:43 of the manifestation of Divine power in His healing of the demoniac boy at the mountain-foot (cf. Clement, Ep. ad Cor. xxiv., Ign. ad Rom. i.; ôὰ ìåãáëåῖá ôïῦ èåïῦ , Act_2:11).
2. ìåãáëùóýíç is used in the Septuagint as the translation of ðְּãֽìָּç or ðּãָì . It is applied to David (2Sa_7:21) and to the kings of the earth (Dan_7:27); elsewhere to the sovereign greatness of God (Deu_32:3, 1Ch_29:11, Psa_145:3; Psa_145:6, etc.). From the Septuagint it has passed into the vocabulary of Hellenistic Judaism (e.g. Book of Enoch, v. 4, xii. 3, xiv. 16), of the NT, and the Apostolic Fathers (Clement, Ep. ad Cor. xx., xxvii., lviii., lxi., lxiv.). In Heb_1:3 ‘the Majesty on high,’ and in Heb_8:1 ‘the Majesty in the heavens,’ is equivalent to God Himself in His heavenly dominion (cf. Book of Enoch, v. 4, ‘ye spake hard words … against His Majesty’; Clement, Ep. ad Cor. xxvii., ‘by the word of His Majesty all things were framed together’). Most frequently it is used in doxology (Jud_1:25, 1Ch_29:11; Clement, Ep. ad Cor. xx., lxi., lxiv.).
Robert Law.