Bible dictionaries
Administer; Administration
What Bible dictionaries say about “Administer; Administration”, one article after the other.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
Administration - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)
ADMINISTRA'TION, n.
1. The act of administering; direction; management; government of public affairs; the conducting of any office or employment.
2. The executive part of government, consisting in the exercise of the constitutional and legal powers, the general superintendence of national affairs, and the enforcement of laws.
3. The persons collectively, who are entrusted with the execution of laws, and the superintendence of public affairs; the chief magistrate and his council; or the council alone, as in Great Britain.
4. dispensation; distribution; exhibition; as the administration of justice, of the sacrament, or of grace.
5. the management of the estate of an intestate person, under a commission from the proper authority. This management consists in collecting debts, paying debts and legacies, and distributing the property among the heirs.
6. The power, office or commission of an administrator.
Surrogates are authorized to grant administration.
It is more usual to say, letters of administration.
7. This name is given by the Spaniards, to the staple magazine or warehouse, at Callao, in Peru, where foreign ships must unload.
Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)
The article in Easton + Webster 1828International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)
ad-min'-is-ter ad-min-is-tra'-shun diakoneo, diakonia: Terms used in the King James Version in 1Co 12:5; 2Co 8:19,20; 2Co 9:12 respectively, and replaced in the Revised Version (British and American) by "minister" and "ministration." The root idea of both words is "service," hence to supply, or conduct or attend to anything; the performance of official duty, the conduct of affairs, the various forms of spiritual or social service. "Minister," used either of an act or of an office, is the term that best represents the apostolic thought and ideal.
Dwight M. Pratt
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2
The article in ISBE 1915