Robbery

Robbery - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

Practised by the Ishmaelites (Gen. 16:12), the Chaldeans and Sabeans (Job 1:15, 17), and the men of Shechem (Judg. 9:25. See also 1 Sam. 27:6-10; 30; Hos. 4:2; 6:9). Robbers infested Judea in our Lord's time (Luke 10:30; John 18:40; Acts 5:36, 37; 21:38; 2 Cor. 11:26). The words of the Authorized Version, "counted it not robbery to be equal," etc. (Phil. 2:6, 7), are better rendered in the Revised Version, "counted it not a prize to be on an equality," etc., i.e., "did not look upon equality with God as a prize which must not slip from his grasp" = "did not cling with avidity to the prerogatives of his divine majesty; did not ambitiously display his equality with God."

"Robbers of churches" should be rendered, as in the Revised Version, "of temples." In the temple at Ephesus there was a great treasure-chamber, and as all that was laid up there was under the guardianship of the goddess Diana, to steal from such a place would be sacrilege (Acts 19:37).

Robbery - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

ROB'BERY, n.

1. In law, the forcible and felonious taking from the person of another any money or goods, putting him in fear, that is, by violence or by menaces of death or personal injury. Robbery differs from theft, as it is a violent felonious taking from the person or presence of another; whereas theft is a felonious taking of goods privately from the person, dwelling, _c. of another. These words should not be confounded.

2. A plundering; a pillaging; a taking away by violence, wrong or oppression.