Thayer's Greek Lexicon STRONGS NT 3009: λειτουργίαλειτουργία, λειτουργίας, ἡ (from λειτουργέω, which see); 1. properly, a public office which a citizen undertakes to administer at his own expense: Plato, legg. 12, p. 949 c.; Lysias, p. 163, 22; Isocrates, p. 391 d.; Theophrastus, Char. 20 (23), 5; 23 (29), 4, and others. 2. universally, any service: of military service, Polybius; Diodorus 1, 63. 73; of the service of workmen, c. 21; of that done to nature in the cohabitation of man and wife, Aristotle, oec. 1, 3, p. 1343b, 20. 3. in Biblical Greek a. the service or ministry of the priests relative to the prayers and sacrifices offered to God: Luke 1:23; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:21, (for עֲבודָה, Numbers 8:22; Numbers 16:9; Numbers 18:4; 2 Chronicles 31:2; Diodorus 1, 21; Josephus; (Philo de caritat. § 1 under the end; others; see Sophocles Lex. under the word)); hence, the phrase in Philippians 2:17, explained under the word θυσία, b. at the end ((cf. Lightfoot on Clement of Rome, 1 Cor. 44 [ET])). b. a gift or benefaction, for the relief of the needy (see λειτουργέω, 2 c.): 2 Corinthians 9:12; Philippians 2:30. |