Used in a political authority sense (as it was by at least one king of Israel, and by Caesar Augustus), it would not necessarily be connected to scientific knowledge, right?
And there is good reason to think that politics is at least part of what they had in mind, given that Jesus engages in repeated conflicts with the rulers of his day, and ends up sharing God's authority (at the right hand of the father, and given the name that is above every name).
Not to mention that in the miracle of stilling the storm, authority is still very much on the minds of the disciples ("who is this, that he commands even the wind and the waves, and they obey him?"
John Dominic Crossan's "God and Empire", Bart Ehrman's "How Jesus Became God" and Robin Parry's "The Biblical Cosmos" are good books with more on this topic, and the original sources for my own understanding.
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