Bible dictionaries
Potentate
What Bible dictionaries say about “Potentate”, one article after the other.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
Potentate - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)
PO'TENTATE, n. A person who possesses great power or sway; a prince; a sovereign; an emperor, king or monarch.
Exalting him not only above earthly princes and potentates, but above the highest of the celestial hierarchy.
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)
po'-ten-tat (dunastes, "mighty one," from dunamai, "to be able"): A person who possesses great power and authority. Only in 1Ti 6:15, "the blessed and only Potentate" (= God). The same Greek word is used of Zeus in Sophocles (Ant. 608), and of God in Apocrypha (e.g. Sirach 46:5; 2 Macc 15:3,13). It is used of men in Lu 1:52 (the King James Version "the mighty," the Revised Version (British and American) "princes") and Ac 8:27 ("of great authority").
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2
The article in ISBE 1915