Word study on glory
1.dóxa in the LXX and Hellenistic Apocrypha.
In this area dóxa is a common word. It represents 25 Hebrew terms, but predominantly kāḇôḏ. It becomes identical with kāḇôḏ and hence does not bear the ordinary senses of dóxa in secular Greek usage.
a. In the OT the only possible instance of “opinion” is in Eccl. 10:1. In the apocrypha the only examples, apart from Sir. 8:14, are in 4 Maccabees.
b. “Honor” or “reputation” is also rare in the OT; indeed, it is used less in this sense than kāḇôḏ. The few instances are in Proverbs (cf. also Wisdom, Sirach, Maccabees).
c. We find some instances of the meaning “splendor” (which merges into “honor” as in Is. 17:4) and the use of dóxa for other Hebrew words for God’s power (cf. Is. 30:30; 40:26). The glory of God’s majesty is a well-known refrain in Is. 2:10, 19, 21; cf. also Ex. 33:22; Ps. 102:15.
d. The primary sense, then, is the divine glory which comes to expression in God’s acts in creation and history. dóxa is the divine nature in its invisibility or its perceptible manifestation, as at the giving of the law, or in the tent or temple. God is the God or King of glory (Pss. 24:7ff.; 29:3). To give him glory is not to impart something he does not have but to acknowledge the honor that is his due (Is. 42). A term that was initially subjective (“opinion”) is thus adapted to express something that is absolutely objective, the reality of God.
e. In the apocrypha, LXX usage is followed except for a slight regression in favor of the sense of human honor or magnificence (as in Proverbs).
Summary: In LXX and Hellenistic Apocyphal the term is used with the meaning of opinion
Honor, reputation, splendor, divine glory, and magnificence. The primary sense is the divine glory which comes to expression in God’s acts in creation and history.
2. kāḇôḏ in Palestinian Judaism.
1. The Targums translate kāḇôḏ by yəqārā’, and often have it to avoid anthropomorphisms.
2. kāḇôḏ is important in rabbinic Judaism for either human or divine honor. God recognizes true human honor. In God’s case, his glory is his nature. Moses has a share of this, and imparts a lesser share to Joshua. The glory that God grants to rulers or to those who fear him is no more than power or dignity. Yet the first man had a part in God’s glory, and if this was lost at the fall, its restoration is the goal of salvation history (cf. expositions of Dan. 12:3). The Messiah in particular will be invested with God’s glory and will restore the radiance lost with the fall. On the other hand, eternal bliss is more commonly depicted as contemplation of the divine glory than participation in it.
- These various ideas are all particularly strong in apocalyptic: alienation from God’s glory, the manifestation of this glory at the judgment, the bliss of contemplating it, the seating of the Messiah on the throne of glory, and the final glory of the righteous.
Summary: In Palestinian Judaism, kabod means the divine honor, God’s glory and Messiah’s reign from the throne is the final glory of righteous.
3. The NT Use of dóxa, II.
1. dóxa as the Divine Mode of Being. While the term can denote “reputation” or “power,” its main use in the NT is shaped by the OT; it thus becomes a biblical term rather than a Greek one. While individual nuances may embrace divine honor, splendor, power, or radiance, what is always expressed is the divine mode of being, although with varying stress on the element of visible manifestation (cf. Lk. 2:9; 9:31-32; Acts 22:11; Rev. 15:8; 21:23). In the NT again, giving God glory means acknowledging (Acts 12:23) or extolling (Lk. 2:14) what is already a reality. NT doxologies, then, presuppose an estin (Gal. 1:5; 1 Pet. 4:11). A peculiarity in John is the almost naive juxtaposition of the use for God’s glory and a use for the honor or praise that may be given either by men or God (12:41, 43).
2. The dóxa of Jesus. The NT takes a decisive step by relating dóxa to Christ in the same way as to God. dóxa then reflects all the dynamism of the relation of God and Christ. Thus Christ is raised by the glory of the Father (Rom. 6:4). He is taken up into glory (1 Tim. 3:16). He is at the right hand of glory (Acts 7:55). Glory is ascribed to him as to God (cf. Lk. 2:14 and Heb. 13:21). He is the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8; Jms. 2:1). The eschatological hope (cf. Is. 40:5) is the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Tit. 2:13). Most of these references are to the risen Christ, but the revelation of glory at his birth points already to his coming from above (Lk. 2:9). In John, faith also sees the glory of the incarnate Christ (1:14; 2:11; 11:40). This dóxa of Christ is not visible in itself. He has to be glorified (Jn. 7:39; cf. 12:23; 13:31; 16:14; the prayer in 17:1, 5). The entry into glory is at the cross (13:31), where God’s dóxa is acknowledged, but there is also participation in it.
