Christ with the crown of thorns,
1623, Oil on canvas,
106 cm x 136 cm,
Catharijneconvent, Utrecht
(larger image)

1. the chief leader, prince
   • of Christ
2. one that takes the lead in any thing and thus affords an example, a predecessor in a matter, pioneer
3. the author

Strong's Number: 747

Greek: archegos

Author:
translated "Prince" in Act 3:15 (marg., "Author") and Acts 5:31, but "Author" in Hebrews 2:10, RV, "Captain," RV marg., and AV, and "Author" in Hebrews 12:2, primarily signifies "one who takes a lead in, or provides the first occasion of,anything." In the Septuagint it is used of the chief of a tribe or family, Numbers 13:2 (RV, prince); of the "heads" of the children of Israel, Numbers 13:3; a captain of the whole people, Numbers 14:4; in Micah 1:13, of Lachish as the leader of the sin of the daughter of Sion: there, as in Hebrews 2:10, the word suggest a combination of the meaning of leader with that of the source from whence a thing proceeds. That Christ is the Prince of life signifies, as Chrysostom says, that "the life He had was not from another; the Prince or Author of life must be He who has life from Himself." But the word does not necessarily combine the idea of the source or originating cause with that of leader. In Hebrews 12:2 where Christ is called the "Author and Perfecter of faith," He is represented as the one who takes precedence in faith and is thus the perfect Exemplar of it. The pronoun "our" does not correspond to anything in the original, and may well be omitted. Christ in the days of His flesh trod never deviating the path of faith, and as the Perfecter has brought it to a perfect end in His own person. Thus He is the leader of all others who tread that path.

Note:
In Acts 28:16 some mss. have the word stratopedarches (lit., "camp-commander"), which some take to denote a praetorian prefect, or commander of the praetorian cohorts, the Emperor's bodyguard, "the captain of the praetorian guard." There were two praetorian prefects, to whose custody prisoners sent bound to the Emperor were consigned. But the word probably means the commander of a detached corps connected with the commissariat and the general custody of prisoners.

 

Prince:
primarily an adjective signifying "originating, beginning," is used as a noun, denoting "a founder, author, prince or leader," Acts 3:15, "Prince" (marg., "Author"); Acts 5:31

**Vines

Authenticity is also a technical term in existentialist philosophy. In this philosophy, the conscious self is seen as coming to terms with being in a material world and with encountering external forces, pressures and influences which are very different from, and other than, itself. Authenticity is the degree to which one is true to one's own personality, spirit, or character, despite these pressures. Existentialists see this process in different ways.

Views of authenticity

In the twentieth century, Anglo-American discussions of authenticity often center around the writers of a few key figures associated with existentialist philosophy, where the term originated; because most of these writers wrote in languages other than English, the process of translating and anthologizing has had a strong impact on the debate. Walter Kaufmann might be credited with creating a "canon" of existentialist writers which include:

• Søren Kierkegaard
• Martin Heidegger
• Jean-Paul Sartre

Authenticity is often "at the limits" of language; it is described as the negative space around inauthenticity, with reference to examples of inauthentic living. Sartre's novels are perhaps the easiest access to this mode of describing authenticity:

they often contain characters and anti-heroes who base their actions on external pressures — the pressure to appear to be a certain kind of person, the pressure to adopt a particular mode of living, the pressure to ignore one's own moral and aesthetic objections in order to have a more comfortable existence.

Sartre is concerned also with the "vertiginous" experience of absolute freedom. Under Sartre's view, this experience, necessary for the state of authenticity, can be sufficiently unpleasant that it leads people to inauthentic ways of living.

In all writers, authenticity is seen as a very general concept, not attached to any particular political or aesthetic ideology. This is a necessary aspect of authenticity: because it concerns a person's relation with the world, it can not be arrived at by simply repeating a set of actions or taking up a set of positions. In this manner, authenticity is connected with creativity: the impetus to action must arise from the person in question, and not be externally imposed. Martin Heidegger takes this notion to the extreme, by speaking in very abstract terms about modes of living; his terminology was adopted and simplified by Sartre in his philosophical works. Søren Kierkegaard's work (such as the "Panegyric Upon Abraham" from his Fear and Trembling) often focuses on biblical stories which are (naturally) not directly imitatable. Sartre, as has been noted above, focused on inauthentic existence as a way to avoid the paradoxical problem of appearing to provide prescriptions for a mode of living that rejects external dictates.

These considerations aside, it is the case that authenticity has been associated with various human activities. For Sartre, Jazz music was a representation of freedom; this may have been in part because Jazz was associated with African-American culture, and was thus in opposition to Western culture generally, which Sartre considered hopelessly inauthentic. Theodor Adorno, however, another writer and philosopher concerned with the notion of authenticity, despised Jazz music because he saw it as a false representation that could give the appearance of authenticity but that was as much bound up in concerns with appearance and audience as many other forms of art. Yet, as improvisation is often a key element in the jazz musical form, one might say the act of improvisation is as authentic as the autheticity of the improvisor, who responds to the stimulous of the music, in the moment. Heidegger in his later life associated authenticity with non-technological modes of existence, seeing technology as distorting a more "authentic" relationship with the natural world.

Most writers on inauthenticity in the twentieth century considered the predominant cultural norms to be inauthentic; not only because they were seen as forced on people, but also because, in themselves, they required people to behave inauthentically towards their own desires, obscuring true reasons for acting. Advertising, in as much as it attempted to give people a reason for doing something that they did not already possess, was a "textbook" example of how Western culture distorted the individual for external reasons. Race relations are seen as another limit on authenticity, as they demand that the self engage with others on the basis of external attributes. An early example of the connection between inauthenticity and capitalism was made by Karl Marx, whose notion of "alienation" can be linked to the later discourse on the nature of inauthenticity.

Hence those concerned with living authentically have often led unusual lives that opposed cultural norms; the rise of the counter-culture in the 1960s in Europe and America was seen by many as a new opportunity to live an authentic existence. Many, however, have pointed out that just because one lives unusually, one is not necessarily in an authentic state of being. The connection of the violation of cultural norms to authenticity, however, is strong and real, and continues today: among artists who explicitly violate the conventions of their profession, for example. The connection of inauthenticity to capitalism is contained in the notion of "selling out," used to describe an artist whose work has become inauthentic after achieving commercial success and thus becoming to an extent integrated into an inauthentic system.

If authenticity can only be described in very abstract terms, or as the negative of inauthenticity, what can be said about it directly? All writers agree that authenticity is:

• Something to be pursued as a goal intrinsic to "the good life."
• Intrinsically difficult, due in part to social pressures to live inauthentically, and in part due to a person's own character.
• A revelatory state, where one perceives oneself, other people, and sometimes even things, in a radically new way.

• Requires self-knowledge.
• Alters radically one's relationships with other people.
• Carries with it its own set of moral obligations.
• Can be obtained regardless of race, gender and class.

• Requires authenticity among its citizens to exist, or
• Would remove physical and economic barriers to pursuing authenticity.

Criticisms of authenticity

Stated as a doctrine authenticity can be thought to be self-defeating. This is because it is thereby classified and becomes part of the non-self, an object of perhaps methodical study among others. This is opposed to the notion of the individual self which seeks its own solution independently of competing external ideologies.

Another criticism is that the solution to Sartre's difficulties involves some compromise to allow unique individuals to co-exist in a way which is acceptable to all of them. Therefore public ethics or morality may be a limit on authenticity.

Because authenticity is such a slippery concept, and because it can never be rigorously defined, it can be seen as a threat to rationality or to Enlightenment ideas about the transparency of laws.

Authenticity today

American philosophy has eagerly pursued the authenticity ideal, seeing it as central to the values of individuality and independence prevalent in American society.

Those who advocate social reform value the study of authenticity since it can provide a radical manifesto and an overview of the shortcomings of social structures.

References

• Erich Fromm Fear of Freedom; Routledge & Kegan Paul 1942
• Lionel Trilling Sincerity and Authenticity; ISBN 0-192-81166-5; Harvard UP 1974
• Charles Taylor The Ethics of Authenticity; ISBN 0-674-26863-6; Harvard UP 1992
• Alessandro Ferrara Reflective Authenticity; ISBN 0-415-13062-X; Routledge 1998
• Walter Kaufmann, whose life increasingly focused on a search for authenticity.
  • http://www.indiecult.com/2006-04/television-personalities-my-dark-places Homeward Bound. Towards a Post-Gendered Pop Music: Television Personalities’ My Dark Places April 10th, 2006 by Godfre Leung Television Personalities My Dark Places (Domino, 2006)
  • Wood, A. M., Linley, P. A., Maltby, J., Baliousis, M., Joseph, S. The authentic personality: A theoretical and empirical conceptualization, and the development of the Authenticity Scale.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55, 385-399.
  • Athabasca University
  • Existential Psychology Retrieved 4/5/2010
  • Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-158591-6.

** Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words was published in 1940 and without copyright. Vine's fell into the Public Domain in the United States according to the UCC convention. Under the URAA a reliance party can continue to use the restored copyright work until a Notice of Intent to Enforce (NIE) is filed by the holder of the copyright. Timothy Ministries is not aware of any NIE for Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.