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Novice

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Dictionaries
American Tract Society
• Novice
Holman Bible Dictionary
• Novice
Hastings' BibleDictionary
• Novice
Hastings' NT Dictionary
• Novice
King James Dictionary
• Novice
Morrish Bible Dictionary
• Novice
1910 New Catholic Dictionary
• Novices, Master of
• Novice Master
• Novice
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Vines' Expository Dictionary
• Novice
Webster Dictionary
• Novice
Encyclopedias
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
• Novice
Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia
• Novice
McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
• Novice
The Catholic Encyclopedia
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Lexicons
• νεόφυτος

Novice or Neophyte, one newly converted (literally newly planted), not yet matured in Christian experience (). The word continued to be in use in the early church; but it gradually acquired a meaning somewhat different from that which it bore under the Apostles, when 'newly converted' and 'newly baptized' described, in fact, the same condition, the converted being at once baptized. For when, in subsequent years, the church felt it prudent to put converts under a course of instruction before admitting them to baptism and the full privileges of Christian brotherhood, the term Novices was sometimes applied to them, although more usually distinguished by the general term of Catechumens.