'Patriarchal dispensation' definitions:

Definition of 'Patriarchal dispensation'

From: GCIDE
  • Patriarchal \Pa`tri*ar"chal\, a. [Cf. F. patriarcal.]
  • 1. Of or pertaining to a patriarch or to patriarchs; possessed by, or subject to, patriarchs; as, patriarchal authority or jurisdiction; a patriarchal see; a patriarchal church. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Characteristic of a patriarch; venerable. [1913 Webster]
  • About whose patriarchal knee Late the little children clung. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. (Ethnol.) Having an organization of society and government in which the head of the family exercises authority over all its generations. [1913 Webster]
  • Patriarchal cross (Her.), a cross, the shaft of which is intersected by two transverse beams, the upper one being the smaller. See Illust. (2) of Cross.
  • Patriarchal dispensation, the divine dispensation under which the patriarchs lived before the law given by Moses. [1913 Webster]