Reference: Sect
American
From a Latin word answering to the Greek word hoeresis, which latter our translators have in some places rendered "sect," in others "heresy." As used in the New Testament, it implies neither approbation nor censure of the persons to whom it is applied, or of their opinions, Ac 5:17; 15:5. Among the Jews, there were four sects, distinguished by their practices and opinions, yet united in communion with each other and with the body of their nation: namely, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, and the Herodians. Christianity was originally considered as a new sect of Judaism; hence Tertullus, accusing Paul before Felix, says that he was chief of the seditious sect of the Nazarenes, Ac 24:5; and the Jews of Rome said to the apostle, when he arrived in this city, "As concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against," Ac 28:22. See HERESY.
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Easton
(Gr. hairesis, usually rendered "heresy", Ac 24:14; 1Ch 11:19; Ga 5:20, etc.), meaning properly "a choice," then "a chosen manner of life," and then "a religious party," as the "sect" of the Sadducees (Ac 5:17), of the Pharisees (Ac 15:5), the Nazarenes, i.e., Christians (Ac 24:5). It afterwards came to be used in a bad sense, of those holding pernicious error, divergent forms of belief (2Pe 2:1; Ga 5:20).
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Hastings
Morish
See HERESY.