Dictionaries :: Occasion

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Occasion:

o-ka'-zhun: The uses in English Versions of the Bible are all modern, but in Jer 2:24 "occasion" is employed (both in Hebrew and English) as a euphemism for "time of conception of offspring."

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Occasion:

properly "a starting point," was used to denote "a base of operations in war." In the NT it occurs as follows:

"(a) the Law provided sin with a base of operations for its attack upon the soul, Rom 7:8,11;

(b) the irreproachable conduct of the Apostle provided his friends with a base of operations against his detractors, 2Cr 5:12;

(c) by refusing temporal support at Corinth he deprived these detractors of their base of operations against him, 2Cr 11:12;

(d) Christian freedom is not to provide a base of operations for the flesh, Gal 5:13;

(e) unguarded behavior on the part of young widows (and the same is true of all believers) would provide Satan with a base of operations against the faith, 1Ti 5:14." *
[* From Notes on Galatians, by Hogg and Vine, P. 269.]

The word is found frequently in the papyri with meanings which illustrate those in the NT. In the Sept., Pro 9:9; Eze 5:7.

Notes:

(1) For the RV renderings "occasion (or 'occasions') of stumbling," "occasion of falling," see FALLING, B, Note (3), OFFENCE.

(2) In 2Cr 8:8, AV, the phrase "by occasion of" translates the preposition dia, "through, by means of" (RV, "through").