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Bible Dictionaries
Proportion
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or The Greek word ἀναλογία is of frequent occurrence in classical writings, but in the NT it is found only in Romans 12:6, ‘Whether prophecy [let us prophesy] according to the proportion of faith’ (AV_; ‘according to the proportion of our faith’; RVm_ ‘according to the proportion of the faith’). Interpreters are divided as to whether ‘the faith’ is to be taken subjectively (Meyer, Sanday-Headlam) or objectively (Vaughan, Liddon). The first alternative would mean that they who had received the gift of prophecy were to exercise it in consistency with the extent (or limits) of their own faith, the measure of which had been allotted to them (Romans 12:3); the second, in harmony with ‘the faith’ as referring to the gospel as a whole. The latter is very attractive, but the usage of the NT is against it. There is no instance in the Epistles of St. Paul of the use of ἡ πίστις in the sense of ‘the gospel.’ It is, however, found in Judges 1:5; Judges 1:20, and is one of the indications of its late date. The ἀναλογία τῆς πίστεως must be taken as parallel with, and not different from, μέτρον πίστεως (Judges 1:3). (For an elaborate examination of ‘Analogy considered as a guide to Truth’ see the work of J. Buchanan, published under that title, Edinburgh, 1864.)
John Reid.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Proportion'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/p/proportion.html. 1906-1918.
