COURSE (from Lat. cursus, “to run”):

1. εὐθυδρομέω, G2312, “run a straight course,” as of a ship (Acts 16:11), cf. KJV, NEB.

2. מְסִלָּה, H5019, “highway,” LXX τρίβος, G5561, “their courses,” as of the stars (Judg 5:20).

3. מְרוּצָה֒, H5297, “race, running”: “Everyone turns to his own course” (Jer 8:6; 23:10). LXX and NT δρόμος, G1536, fig. of a man’s life: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race” (2 Tim 4:7, cf. KJV); Acts 13:25; 20:24.

4. τρέχω, G5556, “to proceed quickly and without hindrance” (2 Thess 3:1), cf. KJV.

5. τροχός, G5580, a wheel, i.e., the course of life (James 3:6).

6. αἰών, G172, “age, course of things: according to the ‘course of this world’” (Eph 2:2).

7. חֲלִיפָה, H2722, orderly succession, in turn, as Solomon’s laborers who worked in relays of 10,000 a month (1 Kings 5:14); מַחְלְקָה, H10412, machleqa the courses of the priests and Levites (Ezra 6:18); מַחֲלֹ֫קֶת, H4713, LXX and NT ἐθημερία, a class or division of priests who performed the daily (hence the name) duties in the Temple at Jerusalem. Organized by David, each of twenty-four divisions took care of the Temple duties by turn for one week at a time, from Sabbath to Sabbath (1 Chron 23:6; 24:1f.; 28:13; 2 Chron 8:14, etc.; Neh 12:24; so served Zechariah, father of John the Baptist (Luke 1:5, 8).

Bibliography A, Edersheim, The Temple, Its Ministry and Services (n.d.), 86-88, 90, 91; W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (1957).