Dictionaries :: Reformation

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Reformation:

ref-or-ma'-shun: The word is found only in Heb 9:10, being the translation of diorthosis, in its only occurrence. This Greek word means etymologically "making straight," and was used of restoring to the normally straight condition that which is crooked or bent. In this passage it means the rectification of conditions, setting things to rights, and is a description of the Messianic time.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Reformation:

properly, "a making straight" (dia, "through," orthos, "straight;" cp. diorthoma in Act 24:2; see CORRECTION, No. 1), denotes a "reformation" or reforming, Hbr 9:10; the word has the meaning either

(a) of a right arrangement, right ordering, or, more usually,

(b) of restoration, amendment, bringing right again; what is here indicated is a time when the imperfect, the inadequate, would be superseded by a better order of things, and hence the meaning (a) seems to be the right one; it is thus to be distinguished from that of Act 24:2, mentioned above. The word is used in the papyri in the other sense of the rectification of things, whether by payments or manner of life.