Dictionaries :: Heritage

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Heritage:

her'-i-taj (nachalah, from nachal, "to give"; kleroo): That which is allotted, possession, property, portion, share, peculiar right, inheritance; applied to land transferred from the Canaanites to Israel (Ps 11:6; 136:22); to Israel, as the heritage of Yahweh (Joe 3:2, etc.). In the New Testament (Eph 1:11) applied to believers, the spiritual Israel, as God's peculiar possession (Ellicott, Eadie).

King James Dictionary

Heritage: Allotment; Possession.

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's HERITAGE, but being ensamples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:2-3)

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Heritage:

primarily, "to cast lots" or "to choose by lot," then, "to assign a portion," is used in the Passive Voice in Eph 1:11, "we were made a heritage," RV (AV, "we have obtained an inheritance"). The RV is in agreement with such OT passages as Deu 4:20, "a people of inheritance;" Deu 9:29; 32:9; Psa 16:6. The meaning "were chosen by lot," as in the Vulgate, and in 1Sa 14:41, indicating the freedom of election without human will (so Chrysostom and Augustine), is not suited to this passage.