Jurisdiction
King James Dictionary [1]
JURISDIC'TION, n. L. jurisdictio jus, juris, law, and dictio, from dico, to pronounce.
1. The legal power of authority of doing justice in cases of complaint the power of executing the laws and distributing justice. Thus we speak of certain suits or actions, or the cognizance of certain crimes being within the jurisdiction of a court, that is, within the limits of their authority or commission. Inferior courts have jurisdiction of debt and trespass, or of smaller offenses the supreme courts have jurisdiction of treason, murder, and other high crimes. Jurisdiction is secular or ecclesiastical. 2. Power of governing or legislating. The legislature of one state can exercise no jurisdiction in another. 3. The power or right of exercising authority. Nations claim exclusive jurisdiction on the sea, to the extent of a marine league from the main land or shore. 4. The limit within which power may be exercised.
Jurisdiction, in its most general sense, is the power to make, declare or apply the law when confined to the judiciary department, it is what we denominate the judicial power,the right of administering justice through the laws, by the means which the laws have provided for that purpose. Jurisdiction, is limited to place or territory, to persons, or to particular subjects.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( a.) The legal power, right, or authority of a particular court to hear and determine causes, to try criminals, or to execute justice; judicial authority over a cause or class of causes; as, certain suits or actions, or the cognizance of certain crimes, are within the jurisdiction of a particular court, that is, within the limits of its authority or commission.
(2): ( a.) The authority of a sovereign power to govern or legislate; the right of making or enforcing laws; the power or right of exercising authority.
(3): ( a.) Sphere of authority; the limits within which any particular power may be exercised, or within which a government or a court has authority.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
is an ecclesiastical term denoting the power and authority vested in a bishop, by virtue of the apostolical commission, of governing and administering the laws of the Church within the bounds of his diocese. The same term is also used to express the bounds within which a bishop exercises his power, i.e. his diocese. To define this power of the ecclesiastic properly from that of civil jurisdiction has led to no little discussion. Of old the earl and bishop sat in the same court. Afterwards the bishop held his courts by himself, though temporal lords sat in synod with bishops — "the one to search the laws of the land, and the other the laws of God." The question of jurisdiction, after the period of the Conqueror, was often agitated between the pope and sovereigns. The things, the latter argued, and reasonably, that are Caesar's belong to Caesar, and it is treason to take them from him; the things that are God's belong to God, and it is impiety to take them from him. The Church is a free society, and should have perfect power of self government within its own domain, and a purely spiritual sentence should be beyond review by a civil court. (See Investiture); (See Power Of Keys).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
jōō - ris - dik´shun ( ἐξουσία , exousı́a ): The word exousia is well known in New Testament Greek. It is derived from the word éxesti , and suggests the absence of any hindrance to an act. It contains the idea of right and might (Cremer). In the New Testament it means right, authority, capability ( Romans 9:21 ); power, strength ( Matthew 9:8 ); right and might ( John 5:27 ). Thus it gets the meaning of the powers of the magistrate, which it bears in later Greek ( Titus 3:1; Romans 13:1-3 ). And in this sense it is used in Luke 23:7 , where it is translated "jurisdiction."
