In view of the basic meaning of the Greek words staurosʹ and xyʹlon, the Critical Lexicon and Concordance, quoted above, observes: “Both words disagree with the modern idea of a cross, with which we have become familiarised by pictures.”
A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, by Bauer, Arndt, and Gingrich, shows that the word toʹte is used in two basic senses in the Scriptures.
“Showy display” is a translation of the Greek word a·la·zo·niʹa, which is described as “an impious and empty presumption which trusts in the stability of earthly things.” —The New Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon.
It should be noted that some dictionaries and lexicons of Bible words merely list how the word has been translated in a particular version of the Bible, such as the King James Version, rather than independently defining the meaning of the word.
According to The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon, in this context the Hebrew word chen, translated “charming,” means ‘grace or elegance of form and appearance.’
The Greek word rendered “worship” is pro·sky·neʹo, which A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature says was also “used to designate the custom of prostrating oneself before a person and kissing his feet, the hem of his garment, the ground.”
In the Gospels the word “generation” is translated from the Greek word ge·ne·aʹ, which current lexicons define in these terms: “Lit[erally] those descended fr[om] a common ancestor.”
Compare their record with what the Catholic encyclopedia Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (Lexicon for Theology and Church) says about Pope Leo X: “Involved in political and often nepotistic transactions and devoted to lavish worldly pleasures, Leo X neglected the urgent tasks of a spiritual nature.”
* As examples of the use of toʹte “to introduce that which follows in time,” the lexicon cited Matthew 24:10, 14, 16, 30; Mark 13:14, 21; and Luke 21:20, 27.
The Lexikon des Judentums (Lexicon of Judaism), under “Philo,” states that Philo “united the language and ideas of Greek philosophy (Plato) with the revealed faith of the Jews” and that to begin with he “had a visible effect upon the Christian church fathers.”
(John 16:1-3) One Bible lexicon explains that a form of the verb here rendered “stumbled” means “to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey; to cause to fall away.”