Thayer's Greek Lexicon STRONGS NT 703: ἀρετήἀρετή, ἀρετῆς, ἡ (see ἄρα at the beginning), a word of very wide signification in Greek writings; any excellence of a person (in body or mind) or of a thing, an eminent endowment, property or quality. Used of the human mind and in an ethical sense, it denotes: 1. a virtuous course of thought, feeling and action; virtue, moral goodness (Wis. 4:1 Wis. 5:13; often in 4 Macc. and in Greek writings): 2 Peter 1:5 (others take it here specifically, viz. moral vigor; cf. next entry). 2. any particular moral excellence, as modesty, purity; hence (plural αἱ ἀρεταί, Wis. 8:7; often in 4 Macc. and in the Greek philosophers) τίς ἀρετή, Philippians 4:8. Used of God, it denotes a. his power: 2 Peter 1:3. b. in the plural his excellences, perfections, 'which shine forth in our gratuitous calling and in the whole work of our salvation' (John Gerhard): 1 Peter 2:9. (In the Sept. for הוד splendor, glory, Habakkuk 3:3, of God; Zechariah 6:13, of the Messiah; in plural for תְּהִלּות praises, of God, Isaiah 43:21; Isaiah 42:12; Isaiah 63:7.) |
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