New Testament era (AD 30–100)

Throughout Church history, Christians have used the term “dispensation” (Gr.: οἰκονομία) to convey a range of ideas pertaining to God’s administration of the earth throughout time. This is no less true today, despite the vast proliferation of the conservative theological movement that arose within fundamentalist Christian circles over the past two centuries, known as “dispensational theology” or “dispensationalism.” Nevertheless, even among those who identify as “dispensationalists,” no singularly accepted definition has been agreed upon which both defines and delimits its theological usage. The purpose of this paper is to draw meaning directly from the biblical text, as compared against Second Temple period and early Christian literature, and to observe how the Greek terms oikonomos and oikonomia were understood within their cultural-historical framework at the time when they were employed by Jesus and the Apostles. This will be accomplished by looking at Jesus’ usage of these terms as recorded in the Gospel of Luke (12:42; 16:1–8) and comparing it against Paul’s usage throughout the Epistles (1 Cor 4:1–2; 9:17; Eph 1:10; 3:2; Col 1:25; etc.). After looking at the historical and theological usage of this term in the earliest centuries of the Christian Church, a comparison of early Christian and recent evangelical usage will be presented, and a definition will be offered that takes full account of the historical, grammatical, and cultural milieu that surrounded Christ’s and the Apostle’s usage of the Greek term(s) oikonom(os/-ia).