Office
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [1]
"a doing, deed" (akin to prasso, "to do or practice"), also denotes "an acting" or "function," translated "office" in Romans 12:4 . See Deed.
or hieratia, denotes "a priest's office," Luke 1:9; Hebrews 7:5 , RV, "priest's office" (AV "office of the priesthood").
"to officiate as a priest" (akin to A, No. 2), is translated "he executed the priest's office" in Luke 1:8 . The word is frequent in inscriptions.
Romans 11:13Acts 1:201 Timothy 3:11 Timothy 3:10,13
King James Dictionary [2]
OF'FICE, n. L. officium ob and facio, to make or do.
1. A particular duty, charge or trust conferred by public authority and for a public purpose an employment undertaken by commission or authority from government or those who administer it. Thus we speak of the office of secretary of state, of treasurer, of a judge, of a sheriff, of a justice of the peace, &c. Offices are judicial, ministerial, executive, legislative, political, municipal, diplomatic, military, ecclesiastical, &c. 2. A duty, charge or trust of a sacred nature, conferred by God himself as the office of priest, in the Old Testament and that of the apostles, in the New Testament.
Insomuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office. Romans 11 .
3. Duty or employment of a private nature as the office of a midwife. Exodus 1 . 4. That which is performed, intended or assigned to be done by a particular thing, or that which any thing is fitted to perform answering to duty in intelligent beings. We enjoy health when the several organs of the body perform their respective offices.
In this experiment, the several intervals of the teeth of the comb do the office of so many prisms.
5. Business particular employment.
Hesperus, whose office is to bring twilight upon the earth.
6. Act of good or voluntarily tendered usually in a good sense as kind offices offices of pity pious offices. 7. Act of worship. 8. Formulary of devotion.
The Lord's prayer, the ten commandments and the creed, is a very good office for children if they are not fitted for more regular offices.
9. A house or apartment in which public officers and others transact business as the register's office a lawyer's office. 10. In architecture, an apartment appropriated for the necessary business or occasions of a palace or nobleman's house. The word is used also for a building pertaining to a farm. 11. In the canon law, a benefice which has no jurisdiction annexed to it. 12. The person or persons entrusted with particular duties of a public nature.
- This office of quarter-master-general not to have the disposal of public money, except small occasional sums.
OF'FICE, To perform to do to discharge. Not used.
Webster's Dictionary [3]
(1):
(n.) The place where a particular kind of business or service for others is transacted; a house or apartment in which public officers and others transact business; as, the register's office; a lawyer's office.
(2):
(n.) The company or corporation, or persons collectively, whose place of business is in an office; as, I have notified the office.
(3):
(n.) A special duty, trust, charge, or position, conferred by authority and for a public purpose; a position of trust or authority; as, an executive or judical office; a municipal office.
(4):
(n.) That which a person does, either voluntarily or by appointment, for, or with reference to, others; customary duty, or a duty that arises from the relations of man to man; as, kind offices, pious offices.
(5):
(n.) The apartments or outhouses in which the domestics discharge the duties attached to the service of a house, as kitchens, pantries, stables, etc.
(6):
(n.) That which is performed, intended, or assigned to be done, by a particular thing, or that which anything is fitted to perform; a function; - answering to duty in intelligent beings.
(7):
(n.) Any service other than that of ordination and the Mass; any prescribed religious service.
(8):
(n.) A charge or trust, of a sacred nature, conferred by God himself; as, the office of a priest under the old dispensation, and that of the apostles in the new.
(9):
(v. t.) To perform, as the duties of an office; to discharge.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
of´is : In the Old Testament the word is often used in periphrastic renderings, e.g. "minister ... in the priest's office," literally, act as priest ( Exodus 28:1 , etc.); "do the office of a midwife," literally, cause or help to give birth (Exodus 1:16 ). But the word is also used as a rendering of different Hebrew words, e.g. כּן , kēn , "pedestal," "place" (Genesis 40:13 , the King James Version "place"; Genesis 41:13 ); עבדה , ‛ăbhōdhāh , "labor," "work" (1 Chronicles 6:32 ); פּקדּה , peḳuddāh , "oversight," "charge" (Psalm 109:8 ); מעמד , ma‛ămādh , literally, "standing," e.g. waiting at table (1 Chronicles 23:28 ); משׁמר , mishmār , "charge," observance or service of the temple (Nehemiah 13:14 the King James Version).
Similarly in the New Testament the word is used in periphrastic renderings, e.g. priest's office (Luke 1:8 , Luke 1:9 ); office of a deacon (διακονία , diakonı́a , 1 Timothy 3:10 ); office of a bishop (ἐπισκοπή , episkopḗ , 1 Timothy 3:1 ). the Revised Version (British and American) uses other renderings, e.g. "ministry" (Romans 11:13 ); "serve as deacons" (1 Timothy 3:10 ). In Acts 1:20 , the Revised Version (British and American) has "office" (margin "overseership") for the King James Version "bishoprick."
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [5]
is a term for an administration without precedence in choir or chapter. The financial provost and procurator; the precentor, chancellor, and treasurer of Beverly; monks elected by the prior and seniors, and confirmed in authority by the bishop in a conventual cathedral, were called officers, the term designating now the vice-dean, treasurer, and receiver-general of the new foundations.
