Judgment

Summary

The act of governing, administering, and discerning right from wrong; also the ruling made or executed. Condemnation is only one aspect, and good judgment follows God’s law and statutes.

The fuller book and notebook trail is available in Justice and Judgment, research-justice-judgment.md.

Definitions

Symbolic Definition

The act of governing, administering, and discerning right from wrong; also the ruling made or executed. Condemnation is only one aspect, and good judgment follows God’s law and statutes.

Literal Biblical Definition

Not yet stated separately. This is a research gap: the literal sense must be derived from ordinary biblical uses, not copied from Webster.

Webster’s Definition

Webster’s 1913 entry for judgment begins: “The act of judging; the operation of the mind, involving comparison and discrimination, by which a knowledge of the values and relations of thins, whether of moral qualities, intellectual concepts, logical propositions, or material facts, is obtained; as, by careful judgment he avoided the peril; by a series of wrong judgments he forfeited confidence.”

These definitions may agree, but they are independent evidence. A biblical passage may use the term literally, symbolically, or both at the same time; the literal properties remain part of the logic when Scripture uses the object as a symbol.

The Short Case

Judgment is defined as the ruler’s office, the law’s ruling, and deliverance, operating as a broader kingly function of governance where condemnation is merely one possible verdict.

“He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.” — Deuteronomy 10:18

“Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.” — Psalms 119:160

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” — Matthew 23:23

“That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.” — 1 Samuel 8:20

“For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.” — Isaiah 33:22

“Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” — Daniel 7:22

The definition stays with the relationship these passages establish. Literal appearances preserve the image; they do not require every occurrence to be symbolic.

Dictionary Comparison

Webster’s 1913 entry for judgment begins:

“Judg”ment, n. Etym: [OE. jugement, F. jugement, LL. judicamentum, fr. L. judicare. See Judge, v. i.] 1. The act of judging; the operation of the mind, involving comparison and discrimination, by which a knowledge of the values and relations of thins, whether of moral qualities, intellectual concepts, logical propositions, or material facts, is obtained; as, by careful judgment he avoided the peril; by a series of wrong judgments he forfeited confidence. I oughte deme, of skilful jugement, That in the salte sea my wife is deed. Chaucer.”

The dictionary supplies the ordinary sense. The definition above is narrower or figurative only where Scripture’s own cross-references require that transfer.

Corpus and Method

This study checks the glossary’s defining citations first, then compares them with every KJV verse that prints judgment. The English-form sweep found 408 verses. It is exhaustive for those printed forms, but it is not a substitute for a Strong’s-number sweep where several Hebrew or Greek words share one English translation.

Evidence by Sense

The entry currently states one controlling sense:

1. Core sense: The act of governing, administering, and discerning right from wrong; also the ruling made or executed. Condemnation is only one aspect, and good judgment follows God’s law and statutes.
2. Defining witnesses: Deut 10:18; Ps 119:160; Matt 23:23; 1 Sam 8:20; Isa 33:22; Dan 7:22
3. Boundary: the sense applies where the passage activates the same relationship; ordinary literal uses remain literal.

Competing Definitions Tested

• The consensus already defines judgment broadly as just evaluation yielding either vindication or condemnation and explicitly lists deliverance of the oppressed; therefore the book could be treated as merely emphasizing an accepted aspect rather than materially refining the meaning. Against that objection, the book’s identification of judgment with the ruler’s office and its explicit subordination of condemnation to one verdict materially shifts the boundary beyond emphasis alone.

• One could argue for DIVERGENT: the consensus core identifies judgment as an evaluative verdict-event (paradigmatically eschatological), whereas the book identifies it as an office of governance, and saying ‘condemnation is one verdict of the office, not the office’ directly rejects the consensus’s central framing rather than merely adjusting its boundary. If the elevation of a listed alternative into the definitional center while demoting the consensus’s paradigm counts as replacing the referent, the verdict should be DIVERGENT rather than REFINED.

• The New Testament frequently uses ‘judgment’ (krisis) to refer specifically to the final eschatological tribunal and its resulting punitive or rewarding verdict, which functions distinctly from general kingly governance.

These tests identify the boundary the definition must explain. A shared phrase or nearby theme is not enough by itself; the cited passages must establish the proposed identity and account for the countertexts without changing senses whenever the reading becomes difficult.

Relationship to Other Symbols

No reciprocal opposite is assigned. Related images may share a scene or a consequence without becoming aliases.

This definition does not depend on another glossary term.

Occurrence Register

Conclusion

The act of governing, administering, and discerning right from wrong; also the ruling made or executed. Condemnation is only one aspect, and good judgment follows God’s law and statutes.

This is the glossary conclusion. The occurrence register and competing-reading section show where further evidence would strengthen, narrow, or test it without silently changing the definition.