Stature

Maturity of life; age; adultness.

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his STATURE? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ( Matthew 6:27-29 )

STATURE

stat'-ur (madh, middah, "measure" (Numbers 13:32, etc.), qomah, "standing up" (1 Samuel 16:7, etc.); helikia, "greatness"):

This last word means "height of the body," "stature," in Luke 2:52; 19:3; Ephesians 4:13, but it can mean "length of life" equally well and has this force in John 9:21,23; Hebrews 11:11. And this meaning, not "stature" (as in the King James Version), is fixed for Matthew 6:27 parallel Luke 12:25, for to add some 18 inches (see CUBIT) to one's "stature" would be a grotesque feat, while it is the smallness of the act that is emphasized. Hence, the translation "able to extend his long path of life by a single cubit" (the Revised Version (British and American) "measure of life"). Compare also "great of stature" Baruch 3:26 (eumegethes).

Burton Scott Easton