Bible Dictionary
DISCIPLINE
Discipline means moral instruction, training, or corrective education. Scripture presents it as a means of cultivating righteousness and correcting believers, especially through instruction and chastening.
Definition
Discipline means instruction, moral training, education, or corrective cultivation of a righteous life. In biblical usage it can include sobering instruction and chastisement intended to form character and correct conduct.
Biblical Usage
Job uses discipline in the sense of moral instruction. The New Testament connects discipline with instruction and chastening, especially in the training described in Hebrews 12 and the corrective instruction associated with Christian life.
Historical Background
The Greek term can mean education and mental culture in classical usage. Through the Septuagint it also acquired the sense of chastisement, which accompanies its New Testament use.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>dis'-i-plin (mucar): In the King James Version only in Job 36:10, where it refers to moral discipline, the strenuous cultivation of the righteous life; the Revised Version (British and American) "instruction." the Revised Version (British and American) in 2Ti 1:7 has "discipline" for a Greek word (sophronismos) meaning "sobering"; in 2Ti 3:16 margin, for Greek paideia, "instruction." In classic Greek paideia means "education," mental culture. Through the influence of the Septuagint, which translates the Hebrew mucar by paideia, the meaning of "chastisement" accompanies paideia in the New Testament. Compare Heb 12:5,7,8,11.</p><p>See CHASTISEMENT; and for ecclesiastical discipline see CHURCH.</p>