DEGREE (מַעֲלָה֮, H5092, step, stair, ascent; ταπεινός, G5424, of low estate or rank, poor). A word of frequent occurrence in the KJV (2 Kings 20:9, 10, 11; 1 Chron 15:18; 17:17; Ps 62:9; in the titles of Pss 120-134; Isa 38:8; Luke 1:52; 1 Tim 3:13; James 1:9), but found only twice in the RSV (Luke 1:52; 2 Cor 3:18). When used of things it means “step,” “stair,” “ascent”; and when used of persons it means “rank,” “estate.” Nothing is known of the form of the sundial of Ahaz, but there is no doubt that the “degrees” upon it were “steps” (2 Kings 20:9-11; Isa 38:8). The Heb. word that it renders means “step,” “stair,” “ascent,” and the word “degree” that the KJV trs. employed, as the OED shows, once meant “a step in an ascent or descent; one of a flight of steps,” a sense now obsolete. The word also occurs in the titles of fifteen Psalms (Pss 120-134 “A Song of Ascents”). The reason for the titles is not clear, but two widely accepted views are that the Psalms were sung by the Levites as they ascended by fifteen steps from the court of the women to the court of the men—one Psalm being sung on each step; or that they were sung by the pilgrims during the ascent to Jerusalem at feast times (cf. 1 Sam 1:3; Ps 42:4; 122:4; Isa 30:29).

Applied to persons, the term “degree” means social or official rank, order, estate, grade. The KJV uses it in this sense in 1 Chronicles 15:18 (RSV “order”), 1 Chronicles 17:17 (here the Heb. text is bad and the RSV has a different reading), Psalm 62:9 (RSV “estate”). Both the KJV and the RSV use “degree” in the sense of “rank” in Luke 1:52. In James 1:9 where the KJV has “brother of low degree,” the RSV has “lowly brother.” In 1 Timothy 3:13, the KJV trs. bathmòn kalón “a good degree,” whereas the RSV has “a good standing,” but there is uncertainty regarding what Paul had in mind. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, where Paul says that the Christian is changed progressively into Christ’s image apò dóxēs eis dóxan, the KJV renders the Gr. words literally, “from glory to glory,” but the RSV trs. them, “from one degree of glory to another.” The RSV interprets the words of Paul to mean that the Christian goes forward from one stage of glory to another, but it is possible that Paul meant that the glory seen in Christ creates a similar glory in the Christian.