foun-da'-shun: In Hebrew the words for "foundation" are mostly derivatives from yacadh, "to found," and in Greek two words are used: one, katabole, of "foundation of the world" (Mark 13:35; 25:34; Luke 11:50; John 17:24, etc.); the other, themelios, of the foundation of a building (Luke 6:48-49; 14:29; Acts 16:26, etc.), in which sense it is also used metaphorically in various connections (Christ the foundation of the church, 1 Corinthians 3:11; or the apostles and prophets the foundation, with Christ as corner-stone, Ephesians 2:20; the foundation of repentance, Hebrews 6:1, etc.). In Psalms 11:3, "if the foundations be destroyed," the Hebrew word is shath. In Jeremiah 50:15, the Revised Version (British and American) reads "bulwarks" for "foundations"; conversely in Psalms 89:14; 97:2, for the King James Version "habitation," the Revised Version (British and American) reads "foundation," and in Isaiah 6:4 for the King James Version "posts," reads "foundations."

James Orr

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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