Salutation

Salutation - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

"Eastern modes of salutation are not unfrequently so prolonged as to become wearisome and a positive waste of time. The profusely polite Arab asks so many questions after your health, your happiness, your welfare, your house, and other things, that a person ignorant of the habits of the country would imagine there must be some secret ailment or mysterious sorrow oppressing you, which you wished to conceal, so as to spare the feelings of a dear, sympathizing friend, but which he, in the depth of his anxiety, would desire to hear of. I have often listened to these prolonged salutations in the house, the street, and the highway, and not unfrequently I have experienced their tedious monotony, and I have bitterly lamented useless waste of time" (Porter, Through Samaria, etc.). The work on which the disciples were sent forth was one of urgency, which left no time for empty compliments and prolonged greetings (Luke 10:4).

Salutation - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

SALUTA'TION, n. [L. salutatio. See Salute.]

The act of saluting; a greeting; the act of paying respect or reverence by the customary words or actions; as in inquiring of persons their welfare, expressing to them kind wishes, bowing, _c. Luke 1. Mark 12.

In all public meetings and private addresses, use the forms of salutation, reverence and decency usual among the most sober people.

sal-u-ta'-shun (aspasmos): A greeting which might be given in person, orally (Lu 1:29,41,44), or in writing, usually at the close of a letter (1Co 16:21; Col 4:18; 2Th 3:17; compare use of chairein, "greeting," "joy" in Jas 1:1). The Pharisaic Jews loved salutations in public places (Mt 23:7; Mr 12:38, the King James Version "greeting," the Revised Version (British and American) "salutation"; Lu 11:43; 20:46). Often these salutations were very elaborate, involving much time in prostrations, embracings, etc. When Jesus therefore sent out the Seventy, He forbade salutation by the way (Lu 10:4), though He ordinarily encouraged proper civilities of this sort (Mt 5:47; 10:12).

Edward Bagby Pollard