Sedition

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

A — 1: Στάσις (Strong'S #4714 — Noun Feminine — stasis — stas'-is )

"a dissension, an insurrection," is translated "sedition" in  Acts 24:5 , AV (RV, "insurrections"). See Dissension , Insurrection.

A — 2: Διχοστασία (Strong'S #1370 — Noun Feminine — dichostasia — dee-khos-tas-ee'-ah )

lit., "a standing apart" (dicha, "asunder, apart," stasis, "a standing"), hence "a dissension, division," is translated "seditions" in  Galatians 5:20 , AV. See Division , No. 2.

B — 1: Ἀναστατόω (Strong'S #387 — Verb — anastatoo — an-as-tat-o'-o )

"to excite, unsettle," or "to stir up to sedition," is so translated in  Acts 21:38 , RV (AV, "madest an uproar"); in  Acts 17:6 , "have turned (the world) upside down," i.e., "causing tumults;" in  Galatians 5:12 , RV, "unsettle" (AV, "trouble"), i.e., by false teaching (here in the continuous present tense, lit., "those who are unsettling you"). The word was supposed not to have been used in profane authors. It has been found, however, in several of the papyri writings. See Turn , Unsettle.

King James Dictionary

SEDI'TION, n. L. seditio. The sense of this word is the contrary of that which is naturally deducible from sedo, or sedeo, denoting a rising or raging, rather than an appeasing. But to set is really to throw down, to drive, and sedition may be a setting or rushing together. A factious commotion of the people, a tumultuous assembly of men rising in opposition to law or the administration of justice, and in disturbance of the public peace. Sedition is a rising or commotion of less extent than an insurrection, and both are less than rebellion but some kinds of sedition, in Great Britain, amount to high treason. In general, sedition is a local or limited insurrection in opposition to authority, as mutiny is to military.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) Dissension; division; schism.

(2): ( n.) The raising of commotion in a state, not amounting to insurrection; conduct tending to treason, but without an overt act; excitement of discontent against the government, or of resistance to lawful authority.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A popular tumult,  Acts 24:5 , or a religious faction,  Galatians 5:20 . The same Greek word is translated "insurrection," in speaking of Barabbas,  Mark 15:7 , and "dissension" in  Acts 15:2 .

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Ezra 4:15 Luke 23:19 Acts 24:5 Galatians 5:20

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sḗ - dish´un  : The translation in   Ezra 4:15 ,  Ezra 4:19 for אשׁתּדּוּר , 'eshtaddūr , "struggling," "revolt"; in 2 Esdras 15:16 for inconstabilitio , "instability" with "be seditious" for στασιάζω , stasiázō , "rise in rebellion" in 2 Macc 14:6. In addition, the King James Version has "sedition" for στάσις , stásis , "standing up," "revolt" (the Revised Version (British and American) "insurrection") in  Luke 23:19 ,  Luke 23:25;  Acts 24:5 , with (διχοστασις , dichostası́a ), "a standing asunder" (the Revised Version (British and American) "division") in  Galatians 5:20 . As "sedition" does not include open violence against a government, the word should not have been used in any of the above cases.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

In the early Church, kings and emperors were looked upon as political parents, whose authority and majesty were reputed sacred and supreme under God. All disloyalty or disrespect shown them, either in word or action, was always severely chastised by the laws of the Church. For the first three hundred years, Christians gloried over the heathens in this, that though the emperors were heathen, and some of them furious persecutors of the Christians, yet there were never any seditious or disloyal persons to be found among them. The fourth Council of Carthage forbids the ordination of any seditious person. The fourth Council of Toledo orders all clergymen that took up arms in any sedition to be degraded from their order, and to be confined to a monastery to do penance all their lives. See Bingham Antiq. of the Christ. Church, p. 985 sq.