Bible Dictionary Definitions

Click here to show/hide instructions.

Verse You Selected:

Translation	Verse	Text
Strong Concordance	Mt 27:17	Therefore [3767] when they [846] were gathered together [4863], Pilate [4091] said [2036] unto them [846], Whom [5101] will ye [2309] that I release [630] unto you [5213]? Barabbas [912], or [2228] Jesus [2424] which [3588] is called [3004] Christ [5547]?

Summary Of Definitions Associated With The Selected Verse

Open All | Close All Open All | Close All

Word	American Tract Society - Definition
BARABBAS	A noted robber in Christ's time, who was imprisoned and awaiting death for the crimes of sedition and murder. It was a custom of the Roman government, for the sake of conciliating the Jews, to release one Jewish prisoner, whom they might choose, at the yearly Passover. Pilate desired thus to release Jesus, but the Jews demanded Barabbas, Mt 27:16-26.

Top

Word	Easton Dictionary - Definition
BARABBAS	i.e., son of Abba or of a father, a notorious robber whom Pilate proposed to condemn to death instead of Jesus, whom he wished to release, in accordance with the Roman custom (John 18:40; Mark 15:7; Luke 23:19). But the Jews were so bent on the death of Jesus that they demanded that Barabbas should be pardoned (Matt. 27:16-26; Acts 3:14). This Pilate did.

Top

Word

American Tract Society - Definition

CHRIST

Anointed, a Greek word, answering to the Hebrew MESSIAH, the consecrated or anointed one, and given preeminently to our blessed Lord and Savior. See MESSIAH and JESUS.

The ancient Hebrews, being instructed by the prophets, had clear notions of the Messiah; but these became gradually depraved, so that when Jesus appeared in Judea, the Jews entertained a false conception of the Messiah, expecting a temporal monarch and conqueror, who should remove the Roman yoke and subject the whole world. Hence they were scandalized at the outward appearance, the humility, and seeming weakness of our Savior. The modern Jews, including still greater mistakes, form to themselves ideas of the Messiah utterly unknown to their forefathers.

The ancient prophets had foretold that the Messiah should be God, and man; exalted, and abased; master, and servant; priest, and victim; prince, and subject; involved in death, yet victor over death; rich, and poor; a king, a conqueror, glorious-and a man of grief, exposed to infirmities, unknown, in a state of abjection and humiliation. All these contrarieties were to be reconciled in the person of the Messiah; as they really were in the person of Jesus.

It is not recorded that Christ ever received any external official unction. The unction that the prophets and the apostles speak of is the spiritual and internal unction of grace and of the Holy Ghost, of which kings, priests, and prophets were anciently anointed, was but the figure and symbol.

The name CHRIST is the official title of the Redeemer; and is not to be regarded as a mere appellative, to distinguish our Lord from other persons named Jesus. The force of many passages of Scripture is greatly weakened by overlooking this. We may get the true sense of such passages by substituting for "Christ," "the Anointed," and where Jews were addressed, "THE MESSIAH." Thus in Mt 2:4, Herod "demanded of them," the priests and scribes, "where Christ should be born," that is, the Old Testament Messiah. Peter confessed, "thou art the Messiah," Mt 16:16. The devils did the same, Lu 4:41. In later times the name JESUS was comparatively disused; and CHRIST, as a proper name, was used instead of JESUS.

When we consider the relation of Christ's person, as God and man, to his official work as our Prophet, Priest, and King, and to his states of humiliation and glory; when we consider how God is in and with him-how all the perfections of God are displayed, and all the truths of God exemplified in him; when we consider his various relations to the purposes, covenants, word, and ordinances of God, and to the privileges, duties, and services of saints, in time and to eternity, we have a delightful view of him as ALL and IN ALL, Col 3:11.

Top

Word

Easton Dictionary - Definition

CHRIST

anointed, the Greek translation of the Hebrew word rendered "Messiah" (q.v.), the official title of our Lord, occurring five hundred and fourteen times in the New Testament. It denotes that he was anointed or consecrated to his great redemptive work as Prophet, Priest, and King of his people. He is Jesus the Christ (Acts 17:3; 18:5; Matt. 22:42), the Anointed One. He is thus spoken of by Isaiah (61:1), and by Daniel (9:24-26), who styles him "Messiah the Prince."

The Messiah is the same person as "the seed of the woman" (Gen. 3:15), "the seed of Abraham" (Gen. 22:18), the "Prophet like unto Moses" (Deut. 18:15), "the priest after the order of Melchizedek" (Ps. 110:4), "the rod out of the stem of Jesse" (Isa. 11:1, 10), the "Immanuel," the virgin's son (Isa. 7:14), "the branch of Jehovah" (Isa. 4:2), and "the messenger of the covenant" (Mal. 3:1). This is he "of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write." The Old Testament Scripture is full of prophetic declarations regarding the Great Deliverer and the work he was to accomplish. Jesus the Christ is Jesus the Great Deliverer, the Anointed One, the Saviour of men. This name denotes that Jesus was divinely appointed, commissioned, and accredited as the Saviour of men (Heb. 5:4; Isa. 11:2-4; 49:6; John 5:37; Acts 2:22).

To believe that "Jesus is the Christ" is to believe that he is the Anointed, the Messiah of the prophets, the Saviour sent of God, that he was, in a word, what he claimed to be. This is to believe the gospel, by the faith of which alone men can be brought unto God. That Jesus is the Christ is the testimony of God, and the faith of this constitutes a Christian (1 Cor. 12:3; 1 John 5:1).

Top

Word

Easton Dictionary - Definition

JESUS

(1.) Joshua, the son of Nun (Acts 7:45; Heb. 4:8; R.V., "Joshua").

(2.) A Jewish Christian surnamed Justus (Col. 4:11).

Je'sus, the proper, as Christ is the official, name of our Lord. To distinguish him from others so called, he is spoken of as "Jesus of Nazareth" (John 18:7), and "Jesus the son of Joseph" (John 6:42).

This is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which was originally Hoshea (Num. 13:8, 16), but changed by Moses into Jehoshua (Num. 13:16; 1 Chr. 7:27), or Joshua. After the Exile it assumed the form Jeshua, whence the Greek form Jesus. It was given to our Lord to denote the object of his mission, to save (Matt. 1:21).

The life of Jesus on earth may be divided into two great periods, (1) that of his private life, till he was about thirty years of age; and (2) that of his public life, which lasted about three years.

In the "fulness of time" he was born at Bethlehem, in the reign of the emperor Augustus, of Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter (Matt. 1:1; Luke 3:23; comp. John 7:42). His birth was announced to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-20). Wise men from the east came to Bethlehem to see him who was born "King of the Jews," bringing gifts with them (Matt. 2:1-12). Herod's cruel jealousy led to Joseph's flight into Egypt with Mary and the infant Jesus, where they tarried till the death of this king (Matt. 2:13-23), when they returned and settled in Nazareth, in Lower Galilee (2:23; comp. Luke 4:16; John 1:46, etc.). At the age of twelve years he went up to Jerusalem to the Passover with his parents. There, in the temple, "in the midst of the doctors," all that heard him were "astonished at his understanding and answers" (Luke 2:41, etc.).

Eighteen years pass, of which we have no record beyond this, that he returned to Nazareth and "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man" (Luke 2:52).

He entered on his public ministry when he was about thirty years of age. It is generally reckoned to have extended to about three years. "Each of these years had peculiar features of its own. (1.) The first year may be called the year of obscurity, both because the records of it which we possess are very scanty, and because he seems during it to have been only slowly emerging into public notice. It was spent for the most part in Judea.

(2.) The second year was the year of public favour, during which the country had become thoroughly aware of him; his activity was incessant, and his frame rang through the length and breadth of the land. It was almost wholly passed in Galilee. (3.) The third was the year of opposition, when the public favour ebbed away. His enemies multiplied and assailed him with more and more pertinacity, and at last he fell a victim to their hatred. The first six months of this final year were passed in Galilee, and the last six in other parts of the land.", Stalker's Life of Jesus Christ, p. 45.

The only reliable sources of information regarding the life of Christ on earth are the Gospels, which present in historical detail the words and the work of Christ in so many different aspects. (See CHIRST.)

Top