Page 109 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

10
It is not easy to pin down the nature of authority. In general, authority is the “power to

11
influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior.” In the Septuagint, exousia was Greek
term utilized for the Hebrew words for authority. Kittel explains that “exousia first means right,

authority or freedom in the legal or political sense, and it is then used for the right or permission

12
given by God” or Torah. Later he adds the concept of ability in his definition of exousia. He

asserts that exousia in the New Testament “denotes first the ‘ability’ to perform an action” and

13
secondly the ‘right,’ ‘authority,’ ‘permission’ conferred by a higher court.”

10
For an introductory study of authority, see John E. Skinner, The Meaning of Authority
(Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1983) and Manabu Waida, “Authority,” in The
Encyclopedia of Religion, 1987 ed., 2: 1. For a further exploration of the topic, see E. D. Watt,
Authority (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982) and Bernard Ramm, The Pattern of Authority
(Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. E. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1957). For the topic of authority and
contemporary preaching, refer to Grant Irven Lovejoy, “A Critical Evaluation of the Nature and
Role of Authority in the Homiletical Thought of Fred B. Craddock, Edmund A. Steimle, and
David G. Buttrick.” Ph.D. diss. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1990.

11 Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc.,
1991), s.v. “Authority.” See also Ramm, Pattern, 10. He says, “That right or power to command
action or compliance, or to determine belief or custom, expecting obedience form those under
authority,” and John Goldingay, Authority and Ministry (Nottingham ???: Bramcote, 1976), 7.

12 Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament, Vol. II, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grnad Rapids, MI: Wm E. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1964), s.v. “Exousia”. Hatchett defines it in the same line, by saying that exousia
“may simply suggest power, although it can be contrasted to the intrinsic power of dynamis.
Exousia bears the idea of control or rule and is used of the right to rule, domain of rule, or even
the ruler.” Hatchett, “The Authority,” 194.

13 Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One
Volume (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm E. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1985), s.v. “exestin.”