the Fourth Week after Easter
Click to donate today!
Bible Dictionaries
Excuse
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words
or "a pretense, pretext" (from pro, "before," and phemi, "to say"), is translated "excuse" in John 15:22 , RV, for AV, "cloke;" "cloke in 1 Thessalonians 2:5 AV and RV. See CLOKE , PRETENCE, SHOW (Noun).
"without excuse, inexcusable" (a negative, n, euphonic, and apologeomai, see C, No. 1, below), is used, Romans 1:20 , "without excuse," of those who reject the revelation of God in creation; Romans 2:1 , RV, for AV, "inexcusable," of the Jew who judges the Gentile.
lit., "to speak oneself off," hence "to plead for oneself," and so, in general, (a) "to defend," as before a tribunal; in Romans 2:15 , RV, "excusing them," means one "excusing" others (not themselves); the preceding phrase "one with another" signifies one person with another, not one thought with another; it may be paraphrased, "their thoughts with one another, condemning or else excusing one another;" conscience provides a moral standard by which men judge one another; (b) "to excuse" oneself, 2 Corinthians 12:19; cp. B. See ANSWER.
is used in the sense of "begging off, asking to be excused or making an excuse," in Luke 14:18 (twice),19. In the first part of ver. 18 the verb is used in the Middle Voice, "to make excuse" (acting in imagined self-interest); in the latter part and in ver. 19 it is in the Passive Voice, "have me excused."
These files are public domain.
Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Excuse'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ved/e/excuse.html. 1940.
