Dictionaries :: Proportion

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Proportion:

pro-por'-shun: Occurs once in the sense of "space" as the translation of ma‘-ar, "void or open space" (1Ki 7:36 the King James Version margin "Hebrew ‘nakedness,' " the Revised Version (British and American) "space"); once in the obsolete sense of "form" as the translation of ‘erekh, "array," or "row" (Job 41:12, the Revised Version (British and American) "frame"); and once in the sense of "measure" as the translation of analogia, "proportion" "equality" (Ro 12:6, "the proportion of faith," the Revised Version (British and American) "the proportion of our faith"). "Proportionally" occurs in The Wisdom of Solomon 13:5, analogos, the Revised Version (British and American) "in like proportion," margin "correspondently."

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Proportion:

Cp. Eng., "analogy," signified in classical Greek "the right relation, the coincidence or agreement existing or demanded according to the standard of the several relations, not agreement as equality" (Cremer). It is used in Rom 12:6, where "let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith," RV, recalls ver. 3. It is a warning against going beyond what God has given and faith receives. This meaning, rather than the other rendering, "according to the analogy of the faith," is in keeping with the context. The word analogia is not to be rendered literally. "Proportion" here represents its true meaning. The fact that there is a definite article before "faith" in the original does not necessarily afford an intimation that the faith, the body of Christian doctrine, is here in view. The presence of the definite article is due to the fact thatfaith is an abstract noun. The meaning "the faith" is not relevant to the context.