Bible Dictionary
Sect
A sect is a religious party or group distinguished by a particular teaching or manner of life. In the New Testament the term can describe the Pharisees, Sadducees, Christians, or groups whose doctrines became destructive.
Definition
A sect is a chosen manner of life, school, religious party, or group united by common beliefs and practices. In the New Testament, the term can designate a party without implying error, though it may also refer to factions whose teaching or principles become destructive.
Biblical Usage
The term is applied to the Sadducees, Pharisees, Nazarenes or Christians, and other religious parties. In some passages it describes factions or destructive teachings; the sect itself might be harmless, while its principles could be harmful.
Historical Background
The Greek term originally denoted choice and then a chosen way of life or party. It was also used of schools of philosophy and did not initially carry the later ecclesiastical sense of heresy.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(Gr. hairesis, usually rendered “heresy”, Acts 24:14; 1 Chr. 11:19; Gal. 5:20, etc.), meaning properly “a choice,” then “a chosen manner of life,” and then “a religious party,” as the “sect” of the Sadducees (Acts 5:17), of the Pharisees (15:5), the Nazarenes, i.e., Christians (24:5). It afterwards came to be used in a bad sense, of those holding pernicious error, divergent forms of belief (2 Pet. 2:1; Gal. 5:20).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>sekt (hairesis): "Sect" (Latin, secta, from sequi, "to follow") is in the New Testament the translation of hairesis, from haireo, "to take," "to choose"; also translated "heresy," not heresy in the later ecclesiastical sense, but a school or party, a sect, without any bad meaning attached to it. The word is applied to schools of philosophy; to the Pharisees and Sadducees among the Jews who adhered to a common religious faith and worship; and to the Christians. It is translated "sect" (Ac 5:17, of the Sadducees; Ac 15:5, of the Pharisees; Ac 24:5, of the Nazarenes; Ac 26:5, of the Pharisees; Ac 28:22, of the Christians); also the Revised Version (British and American) Ac 24:14 (the King James Version and the English Revised Version margin "heresy"), "After the Way which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers" (just as the Pharisees were "a sect"); it is translated "heresies" (1Co 11:19, margin "sects," the American Standard Revised Version "factions," margin "Greek: `heresies' "; the English Revised Version reverses the American Standard Revised Version text and margin; Ga 5:20, the American Standard Revised Version "parties," margin "heresies"; the English Revised Version reverses text and margin; 2Pe 2:1, "damnable heresies," the Revised Version (British and American) "destructive heresies," margin "sects of perdition"); the "sect" in itself might be harmless; it was the teaching or principles which should be followed by those sects that would make them "destructive." Hairesis occurs in 1 Macc 8:30 ("They shall do it at their pleasure," i.e. "choice"); compare Septuagint Le 22:18,21.</p><p>See HERESY.</p><p>W. L. Walker</p>