Greek word - (doxa G1391)
Quiz - Choose the answer that is closest to what you think GLORY is.
A - a type of fog
B - godliness
C - magnificence
D - brilliant radiant beauty
Problem - Outdated, Misused
KJV Example - "Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them" (Matthew 4:8).
Explanation
This word is seldom used outside of church as it is in the Bible. People do not look at a big building and say, "Look at the glory of this building!"
So what is glory? How do you find out what glory or any other Bible word means? Here are three steps to take.
First, look in the Greek dictionaries. Strong and Thayer are the most popular. You can use these online for free.
Next, look in an English dictionary, but be aware that many words change in meaning after hundreds of years. An English dictionary tells what a word means today. You want to know what the word meant in 1395 or 1611 when it was first put in the English Bible. To find this, look in the etymology and/or history section. This is hit and miss. It does not always work.
Last of all and most importantly, look in the Bible. Look up all the places where the Greek word appears in the New Testament. Try to find one modern word that will fit in each verse.
As I studied glory, the first two steps did not yield much help. Strong defines glory as glory. So I had to study the 168 times that doxa, the Greek word for glory, appears in the New Testment. The modern synonym I came up with is magnificence.
Glory is magnificence. The verb of glory is glorify. It means to talk about how magnificent something is or to acknowledge the magnificence of something.
When God does something magnificent, people should attribute that magnificent thing to God. This is glorifying God. When Jesus healed people, they often turned their attention to God and told how magnificent God was to heal them (Luke 18:43).
Our natural tendency is to make ourselves magnificent. But instead we should make God magnificent (glorify God). We must constantly turn our attention to God and make Him magnificent in our eyes.
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God," the magnificence of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31 KJV)
In the Bible, glory is magnificence.
Modern Synonym - magnificence
Bible Version Tally (how other versions translate this word) - magnificence (5 of 50), glory (31 of 50)
Breakthrough Version - "Again, the Accuser takes Him along to a very high mountain and shows Him all the world's empires and their magnificence" (Matthew 4:8).