a verdict handed down by a judge: the decision, sentence, or ruling that comes out of judging, most often a sentence of condemnation
This word names the outcome of judging: the verdict, sentence, or ruling that a judge hands down, rather than the act of weighing the case. In the New Testament that outcome is usually bad news, because the word so often describes people standing guilty before a righteous God. Yet it is not a word for condemnation and nothing else. Depending on the setting it can be a neutral decree, a lawsuit between neighbors, a standard of judgment, an authority to judge, or even a favorable verdict that clears the wronged party.
This wide range came into the language through the Greek translation of the Old Testament, where the word became the regular rendering of a broad Hebrew term covering justice, an ordinance, a legal right, and a verdict all at once. The Greek word inherited that whole legal and covenantal field. That is why it can mean God's wise decrees in governing history (Romans 11:33) as easily as it can mean a sentence of doom (Jude 4).
Because the setting, not the word itself, decides the shade, the same term can be corrective discipline meant to reform God's own people (1 Corinthians 11:29 and 11:34), the greater accountability that falls on teachers and leaders (Mark 12:40; James 3:1), or the coming reckoning every person will face (Acts 24:25; Hebrews 6:2). Reading it well means asking who is judging, who is judged, and what is at stake in each passage.
Nuances
Whether the judgment incurred by resisting governing authority is temporal civil punishment, divine eschatological judgment, or deliberately both.
- contestedGod's judgment, carried out through the governing authorities.; Cranfield, Romans (ICC), on 13:2; Schreiner, Romans (BECNT), on 13:2
- minorityChiefly the sanction imposed by the ruling power itself.; Jewett, Romans (Hermeneia), on 13:2
- contestedLeft deliberately open between the civil and the divine.; Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (NICNT), on 13:2; Dunn, Romans 9-16 (WBC), on 13:2
Whether the greater judgment teachers receive is a stricter standard of assessment or an intensified condemnation.
- minorityA stricter judgment or higher standard, stopping short of condemnation.; Dibelius, James (Hermeneia), on 3:1; McKnight, The Letter of James (NICNT), on 3:1
- minorityA greater condemnation.; Allison, James (ICC, 2013), on 3:1; Moo, The Letter of James (Pillar), on 3:1
- contestedAn intensified judgment for teachers that may issue in condemnation without being identical to it.; Davids, The Epistle of James (NIGTC), on 3:1; Johnson, The Letter of James (Anchor), on 3:1
Whether the word here means the authority to judge granted to the reigning saints, or a verdict rendered in their favor.
- majorityAuthority or the right to judge, given to the saints who then come to life and reign, echoing Daniel 7:22.; Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC), on 20:4; Osborne, Revelation (BECNT), on 20:4; Mounce, The Book of Revelation (NICNT), on 20:4; Koester, Revelation (Anchor), on 20:4
- minorityA judgment rendered in their favor, that is, their vindication.; R. H. Charles, The Revelation of St. John (ICC), on 20:4
Disputed
Whether this word strictly names the verdict or result of judging, kept distinct from a related Greek word for the act or process of judging.
- minorityThe word strictly names the verdict or result, as opposed to a similar word for the act of judging, following the force of its ending.; Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, sec. 24; Cremer, Biblisch-Theologisches Woerterbuch der neutestamentlichen Graezitaet, s.v.
- majorityBy the New Testament period the two words overlap heavily and are often interchangeable; context, not the ending, fixes the sense.; BDAG (3rd ed.), s.v.; Silva, NIDNTTE, s.v.; Carson, Exegetical Fallacies (2nd ed.), 26-34; Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon, domain 56