Ambassador

VIEW:21 DATA:01-04-2020
Stands for two Hebrew words: malahch, "messenger," and tzeer, "ambassador." Israel's commanded isolation rendered embassies an infrequent occurrence; they were mere nuncios rather than plenipotentiaries. The earliest instances occur in the case of Edom, Moab, and the Amorites (Num_20:14; Num_21:21). Gibeon feigned an ambassage (Jos_9:4). The ambassador's person was regarded as inviolable (2Sa_10:2-5; 2Sa_12:26-31).
Men of high rank usually; as Sennacherib sent his chief captain, Chief cupbearer, and chief eunuch, Tartan, Rabsaris, Rabshakeh, whom Hezekiah's chief men of the kingdom, Eliakim over the household, Shebna the secretary, and Joab the recorder, met (2Ki_18:17-18; Isa_30:4; Isa_33:7; compare Isa_18:2). Once in New Testament, "we are ambassadors for Christ" (2Co_5:20); treating with men "in Christ's stead": God "beseeching," and His ambassadors "praying" men to be reconciled to God. Majesty, faithfulness, yet withal tenderness, are implied. Our part is to send prayers, as our ambassage, to meet God's ambassadors, desiring His conditions of peace (Luk_14:32; Isa_27:5).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Ambassador. A person of high rank employed by a government to represent it and transact its business at the seat of government of some other power. The earliest examples of ambassadors employed occur in Num_20:14; Num_21:21; Jdg_11:7-19, afterwards in that of the fraudulent Gibeonites, Jos_9:4, etc., and in the instances of civic strife mentioned, Jdg_11:12, and Jdg_20:12.
Ambassadors are found to have been employed not only on occasions of hostile challenge or insolent menace, 1Ki_20:2; 1Ki_20:6; 2Ki_14:8, but of friendly compliment, of request for alliance or other aid, of submissive deprecation and of curious inquiry. 2Ki_14:8; 2Ki_16:7; 2Ki_18:14; 2Ch_32:31. Ministers are called ambassadors of Christ.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


a messenger sent by a sovereign, to transact affairs of great moment. Ministers of the Gospel are called ambassadors, because, in the name of Jesus Christ the King of kings, they declare his will to men, and propose the terms of their reconciliation to God, 2Co_5:20; Eph_6:20. Eliakim, Shebna, and Josh, the servants of king Hezekiah, were called “ambassadors of peace.” In their master's name they earnestly solicited a peace from the Assyrian monarch, but were made “to weep bitterly” with the disappointment and refusal, Isa_33:7.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


am-bas?a-dor (מלאך, mal'ākh, ?messenger?; לוּץ, 'lūc, ?interpreter?; ציר, cı̄r, ?to go?; hence a messenger; πρεσβεύω, presbeúō, ?to act as an ambassador,? literally, to be older): An ambassador is an official representative of a king or government, as of Pharaoh (Isa_30:4); of the princes of Babylon (2Ch_32:31); of Neco, king of Egypt (2Ch_35:21); of the messengers of peace sent by Hezekiah, king of Judah, to Sennacherib, king of Assyria (Isa_33:7). The same Hebrew term is used of the messengers sent by Jacob to Esau (Gen_32:3); by Moses to the king of Edom (Num_20:14). For abundant illustration consult ?Messenger? (מלאך, mal'ākh) in any concordance. See CONCORDANCE. The inhabitants of Gibeon made themselves pretended ambassadors to Joshua in order to secure by deceit the protection of a treaty (?covenant?) (Jos_9:4).
In the New Testament the term is used in a figurative sense. As the imprisoned representative of Christ at Rome Paul calls himself ?an ambassador in chains? (Eph_6:20); and in 2Co_5:20 includes, with himself, all ministers of the gospel, as ?ambassadors ... on behalf of Christ,? commissioned by Him as their sovereign Lord, with the ministry of reconciling the world to God. The Bible contains no finer characterization of the exalted and spiritual nature of the minister's vocation as the representative of Jesus Christ, the King of kings, and Saviour of the world.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


2Co_5:20 (a) This title is given to those Christians who carry GOD's message to a lost and hostile world. It probably does not apply to all believers for many of GOD's children are afraid to become His messengers, and they keep the good news to themselves The true ambassador comes out boldly for his king and for his country.

Eph_6:20 (a) Paul used the title in this passage because he was representing Heaven on earth. He carried the King's message to the rebels who were bent on killing him. He was GOD's representative to bring to men the Word of his Lord both for their salvation and their condemnation.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.


Ambassador
a public minister sent from one sovereign prince, as a representative of his person, to another. At Athens ambassadors mounted the pulpit of the public orators, and there acquainted the people with their errand. At Rome they were introduced to the senate, and there delivered their commissions (Smith's Dict. of Class. Antiq. s.v. Legatus).
In the Old Testament, the word צַיר, tsir, one who goes on an errand, is thus rendered in Jos_9:4; Pro_13:17; Isa_18:2; Jer_49:14; Oba_1:1; and this translation is used for מֵלַיוֹ, melits', an interpreter, in 2 Chronicles 22:31; also for מִלְאָךְ, malac', messenger, in 2Ch_35:21; Isa_30:4; Isa_33:7; Eze_17:15. Ministers of the Gospel in the New Testament are said to be ambassadors (πρεσβεύω), because they are appointed by God to declare his will to amen, and to promote a spiritual alliance with Him (2Co_5:20; Eph_6:20). SEE ALLIANCE. The relations of the Hebrew with foreign nations were too limited to afford much occasion for the services of ambassadors. Still, the long course of their history affords some examples of the employment of such functionaries, which enable us to discover the position which they were considered to occupy. Of ambassadors resident at a foreign court they had, of course, no notion, all the embassies of which we read being “extraordinary," or for special services and occasions, such as to congratulate a king on his accession or victories, or to condole with him in his troubles (2Sa_8:15; 2Sa_10:2; 1Ki_5:1), to remonstrate in the case of wrong (Jdg_11:12), to solicit favors (Num_20:14), or to contract alliances (Jos_9:3 sq.; 1Ma_8:17).
The notion that the ambassador represented the person of the sovereign who sent him, or the dignity of the state from which he came, did not exist in ancient times in the same sense as now. He was a highly distinguished and privileged messenger, and his dignity (2Sa_10:1-5) was rather that of our heralds than of our ambassadors. It may have been owing, in some degree, to the proximity of all the nations with which the Israelites had intercourse that their ambassadors were intrusted with few, if any, discretionary powers, and could not go beyond the letter of their instructions. In general, their duty was limited to the delivering of a message and the receiving of an answer; and if this answer was such as required a rejoinder, they returned for fresh instructions, unless they had been authorized how to act or speak in case such an answer should be given.
The largest act performed by ambassadors appears to have been the treaty of alliance contracted with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9), who were supposed to have come from "a far country;" and the treaty which they contracted was in agreement with the instructions with which they professed to be furnished. In allowing for the effect of proximity, it must be remembered that the ancient ambassadors of other nations, even to countries distant from their own, generally adhered to the letter of their instructions, and were reluctant to act on their own discretion. Generals of armies must not, however, be confounded with ambassadors in this respect. The precept given in Deu_20:10, seems to imply some such agency; rather, however, that of a mere nuncio, often bearing a letter (2Ki_5:5; 2Ki_19:14), than of a legate empowered to treat. The inviolability of such an officer's person may perhaps be inferred from the only recorded infraction of it being followed with unusual severities toward the vanquished, probably designed as a condign chastisement of that offense (2Sa_10:2-5; comp. 12:26-31). The earliest examples of ambassadors employed occur in the cases of Edom, Moab, and the Amorites (Num_20:14; Num_21:21; Jdg_11:17-19), afterward in that of the fraudulent Gibeonites (Jos_9:4, etc.), and in the instances of civil strife mentioned in Jdg_11:12; Jdg_20:12 (see Cunaeus de Rep. Hebr. 2, 20, with notes by Nicolaus in Ugolini Thesaur. 3, 771-774). They are mentioned more frequently during and after the contact of the great adjacent monarchies of Syria, Babylon, etc., with those of Judah and Israel, e.g. in the invasion of Sennacherib. They were usually men of high rank, as in that case the chief captain, the chief cup-bearer, and chief of the eunuchs were deputed, and were met by delegates of similar dignity from Hezekiah (2Ki_18:17-18; see also Isa_30:4). Ambassadors are found to have been employed, not only on occasions of hostile challenge or insolent menace (2Ki_14:8; 1Ki_20:2; 1Ki_20:6), but of friendly compliment, of request for alliance or other aid, of submissive deprecation, and of curious inquiry (2Ki_14:8; 2Ki_16:7; 2Ki_18:14; 2Ch_32:31). The dispatch of ambassadors with urgent haste is introduced as a token of national grandeur in the obscure prophecy in Isa_18:2. SEE MESSENGER.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.





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