Dictionaries :: Divinity

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Divinity:

"divinity," the RV rendering in Rom 1:20 (AV, "Godhead"), is derived from theios (see DIVINE, A), and is to be distinguished from theotes, in Col 2:9, "Godhead." In Rom 1:20 the Apostle "is declaring how much of God may be known from the revelation of Himself which He has made in nature, from those vestiges of Himself which men may everywhere trace in the world around them. Yet it is not the personal God whom any man may learn to know by these aids; He can be known only by the revelation of Himself in His Son;... But in the second passage (Col 2:9), Paul is declaring that in the Son there dwells all the fullness of absolute Godhead; they were no mere rays of Divine glory whichgilded Him, lighting up His Person for a season and with a splendor not His own; but He was, and is, absolute and perfect God; and the Apostle uses theotes to express this essential and personal Godhead of the Son" (Trench, Syn. ii). Theotes indicates the "Divine" essence of Godhood, the Personality of God; theiotes, the attributes of God, His "Divine" nature and properties.
See GODHEAD.