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G4592 σημεῖον (sēmeîon)
Greek
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Quick Definition

σημεῖον, ου, τό n.n. a sign, miracle, indication

Strong's Definition

neuter of a presumed derivative of the base of 4591; an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturally

KJV Usage: miracle, sign, token, wonder

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament

noun, n. | -ου | σημαίνω

33.477 · Communication · Non-Verbal Communication

sign an event which is regarded as having some special meaning In translating σημεῖον in MAT 24:3, it may be necessary in some languages to say ‘tell us what will happen that will show that you are coming’ or ‘tell us what we will see that will make us know that you are coming.’
σημεῖον as an event with special meaning was inevitably an unusual or even miraculous type of occurrence, and in a number of contexts σημεῖον may be rendered as ‘miracle.’ Certainly that is the referent of the term σημεῖον in JHN 2:23 (πολλοὶ ἐπίστευσαν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦθεωροῦντες αὐτοῦ τὰ σημεῖα ἅ ἐποίει ‘many believed in him as they saw the signs he did’). For the Gospel of John, however, a σημεῖον is not simply a miraculous event but something which points to a reality with even greater significance. A strictly literal translation of σημεῖον as ‘sign’ might mean nothing more than a road sign or a sign on a building, and therefore in some languages σημεῖον in a context such as JHN 2:23 may be rendered as ‘a miracle with great meaning.’

MAT 12:38 · MAT 12:39 · MAT 12:39 · MAT 12:39 · MAT 16:1 · MAT 16:3 · MAT 16:4 · MAT 16:4 · MAT 16:4 · MAT 24:3 · MAT 24:24 · MAT 24:30 · MAT 26:48 · MRK 8:11 · MRK 8:12 · MRK 8:12 · MRK 13:4 · MRK 13:22 · MRK 16:17 · MRK 16:20 · LUK 2:12 · LUK 2:34 · LUK 11:16 · LUK 11:29 · LUK 11:29 · LUK 11:29 · LUK 11:30 · LUK 21:7 · LUK 21:25 · LUK 23:8 · JHN 2:11 · JHN 2:18 · JHN 2:23 · JHN 3:2 · JHN 4:48 · JHN 4:54 · JHN 6:2 · JHN 6:14 · JHN 6:26 · JHN 6:30 · JHN 7:31 · JHN 9:16 · JHN 10:41 · JHN 11:47 · JHN 12:18 · JHN 12:37 · JHN 20:30 · ACT 2:19 · ACT 2:22 · ACT 2:43 · ACT 4:16 · ACT 4:22 · ACT 4:30 · ACT 5:12 · ACT 6:8 · ACT 7:36 · ACT 8:6 · ACT 8:13 · ACT 14:3 · ACT 15:12 · ROM 4:11 · ROM 15:19 · 1CO 1:22 · 1CO 14:22 · 2CO 12:12 · 2CO 12:12 · 2TH 2:9 · 2TH 3:17 · HEB 2:4 · REV 12:1 · REV 12:3 · REV 13:13 · REV 13:14 · REV 15:1 · REV 16:14 · REV 19:20

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament © United Bible Societies, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

σημεῖον, -ov, τό, (σημαίνω [or σῆμα), ir. Aeschyl. and Hdt. down, Hebr. nix, @ sign, mark, token; aM uniy. that by which a pers. or a thing is distinguished from others and known: Mt. xxvi. 48; Lk. ii.12; 2 Th. iii. 17; σημεῖον περιτομῆς (explanatory gen. [ef. B. § 123, 4]), equiv. to σημεῖον, 6 ἐστι περιτομή, circumcision which should be a sign of the covenant formed with God, Ro. iv. 11; τὰ σημεῖα τοῦ ἀποστόλου, the tokens by which one is proved to be an apostle, 2 Co. xii. 12; a sign by which anything future is pre-announced, Mk. xiii. 4; Lk. xxi. 73 TO σημ. τῆς σῆς παρουσίας, gen. of the obj., Mt. xxiv. 35 Tov υἱοῦ Tov ἀνθρώπου, the sign which indicates that the Messiah will shortly, or forthwith, come from heaven in visible manifestation, ibid. 30; with a gen. of the subj. τὰ σημεῖα τῶν καιρῶν, i.e. the indications of future events which of καιροί furnish, what of καιροί portend, Mt. xvi. 3 [T br. WH reject the pass.]; a sign by which one is warned, an admonition, 1 Co. xiv. 22. used of noteworthy personages, by whom God forcibly admonishes men and indicates to them what he would have them do: thus σημεῖον ἀντιλεγόμενον is said of Jesus Christ, Lk. ii. 34; Ἰωνᾶς ἐγένετο σημεῖον τοῖς Νινευΐταις (Jon. iii. 4), Lk. xi. 30; hence, τὸ σημεῖον Ἰωνᾶ, ib. 29, is i.q. τὸ σημεῖον like to that ὃς ἦν Iwvas, i.e. to the sign which was given by the mission and preaching of Jonah, to prompt men to seek salvation [W. 189 (177)]; in the same sense, 6 υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου says that he will be a σημεῖον to the men of his generation, ib. 30; but in Mt. xii. 39; xvi. 4 τὸ σημεῖον ᾿Ιωνᾶ is the miraculous experience which befell Jonah himself, cf. xii. 40; that Luke reproduces Christ’s words more correctly than Matthew is shown by De Wette and Bleek on Mt. xii. 40, by Neander, Leben Jesu, p. 265 sq. ed. 1 [Eng. trans. (3d ed. N.Y. 1851) ὃ 165 p. 245 sq.], and others; [but that Luke’s report is less full than Matthew’s, rather than at variance with it, is shown by Meyer, Weiss, Keil, and others (on Mt. 1. e.)]. 2. a sign, prodigy, portent, i.e. an unusual occurrence, transcending the common course of nature ; a. of signs portending remarkable events soon to happen: Lk. xxi. 11, 25; Acts ii. 19; Rev. xii. 1, 3; xv. 1. b. of miracles and wonders by which God authenticates the men sent by him, or by which men prove that the cause they are plea‘ling is God’s: Mt. xii. 88 54ᾳ.; xvi. 1,4; Mk. viii. 11 sq; xvi. 17, 20; Lk. xi. 16, 29; xxiii. 8; Jn. ii. 11, 18, 23; iii. 2; iv. 54: vi. 2,14, 26,30; vii. 31; ix. 16; x.41; xi 47; xii onNMELOW 18, 37; xx. 30; Acts ii. 22,43; viii.6; 1Co.i.22; but the power διδόναι σημεῖα, by which men are deceived, is ascribed also to false teachers, false prophets, and to demons: Mt. xxiv. 24; Mk. xiii. 22; Rev. xiii. 13 sq.; xvi. WAS ΟΣ ῖΣ 0» 5 {ΠῊ; πἰ 9. σημεῖα kK. τέρατα (MINS Dan) or (yet less freq.) τέρατα x. σημεῖα (terms which differ not in substantial meaning but only in origin; cf. Fritzsche, Rom. vol. iii. p. 270sq.; [Trench ὃ xci.]) are found conjoined: Mt. xxiv. 24; Mk. xiii. 22; Jn. iv. 48; Acts.ii. 19, 43; iv.30; v.12; vi.8; vil. 36; xiv. 3; xv. 12; Ro. xv. 19; 2 Th. ii. 9, (Deut. xxviii. 46; xxxiv. 11; Neh. ix. 10; Is. viii. 18; xx.3; Jer. xxxix. (xxxii.) 20; Sap. viii. 8; x. 16; Polyb. 3, 112, 8; Philo, vit. Moys. i. 16; Joseph. antt. 20, 8, 6; b. j. prooem. 11; Plut. Alex. 75; Ael.v.h.12,57); with «. δυνάμεις added, 2 Co. xii. 12; Heb. ii. 4; σημεῖα x. δυνάμεις, Acts vill. 13; δυνάμεις x. τέρατα κ. σημεῖα, Acts ii. 22; διδόναι σημεῖα (see δίδωμι, Β. [1.1 a.): Mt. xxiv. 24; Mk. xiii. 22 (here Tdf. ποιεῖν onu-, see rovéw, I. 1¢.); σημεῖα are said γίνεσθαι διά twos in Acts ii. 43; iv. [16], 30; v.12; xiv. 3; xv. 12 [here ποιεῖν σημ-.» see above]; τὸ σημεῖον τῆς ἰάσεως, the miracle, which was the healing, Acts iv. 22.

Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary

σημεῖον sēmeion 77x

a sign, a mark, token, by which anything is known or distinguished, Mt. 16:3; 24:3; 2 Thess. 3:17; a token, pledge, assurance, Lk. 2:12; a proof, evidence, convincing token, Mt. 12:38; 16:1; Jn. 2:18; in NT a sign, wonder, remarkable event, wonderful appearance, extraordinary phenomenon, 1 Cor. 14:22; Rev. 12:1, 3; 15:1; a portent, prodigy, Mt. 24:30; Acts 2:19; a wonderful work, miraculous operation, miracle, Mt. 24:24; Mk. 16:17, 20; meton. a sign, a signal character, Lk. 2:34

Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon

σημεῖον, -ου, τό

[in LXX chiefly for אוֹת ;]

a sign, mark, token;

of that which distinguishes a person or thing from others: Mt 26:48, Lk 2:12, II Th 3:17 (cf. Deiss., LAE, 1532); seq. gen. epexeg., Ro 4:11; c. gen. obj., Mt 24:8, 30, II Co 12:12; c. gen. subj., Mt 16:3;

a sign of warning or admonition: Mt 12:39 16:4, Lk 2:34 11:29, 30, I Co 14:22;

a sign portending future events (Soph., Plat. al.): Mk 13:4, Lk 21:7, 11, 25, Ac 2:19, Re 12:1, 3 15:1;

of miracles and wonders (MM, xxii), regarded as signs of a divine authority: Mt 12:38, 39 16:1, 4, Mk 8:11, 12 Lk 11:16, 29 23:8, Jo 2:11, 18, 23 4:54 6:30 10:41 12:18, Ac 4:16, 22; pl., Mk 16:[17, 20], Jo 2:11, 23 3:2 6:2, 14, 26 7:31 9:16 11:47 12:37 20:30, Ac 8:6, I Co 1:22 (Lft., Notes, 162); the same ascribed to false teachers and demons: Mt 24:24, Mk 13:22, II Th 2:9, Re 13:13, 14 16:14 19:20; σ. καὶ τέρατα (τ. καὶ σ.; cf. Tr., Syn., § xci), Mt 24:24, Mk 13:22, Jo 4:48, Ac 2:19, 43 4:30 5:12 6:8 7:36 14:3 15:12, Ro 15:19, II Th 2:9; id. seq. καὶ δυνάμεις, II Co 12:12, He 2:4; σ. καὶ δυνάμεις, Ac 8:13; δ. καὶ τ. καὶ σ., Ac 2:22; σ. διδόναι, Mt 24:24, Mk 13:22.†

Trench — Synonyms of the New Testament

παράδοξον, θαυμάσιον. THESE words have this in common, that they are all used to characterize the supernatural works wrought by Christ in the days of his flesh; thus σημεῖον, John ii. 11; Acts ii. 19; τέρας, Acts ii. 22; John iv. 48; δύναμις, Mark vi. 2 ; Acts ii. 22; μεγαλεῖον, Luke i. 49; ἔνδοξον, Luke xiii. 17; παράδοξον, Luke v. 26; θαυμάσιον, Matt. xxi. 15 ; while the first three and the most usual are in like manner employed of the same supernatural works wrought in the power of Christ by his Apostles (2 Cor. xii. 12); and of the lying miracles of Antichrist no less (2 Thess. ii. 9). They will be found, on closer examination, not so much to represent different kinds of miracles, as miracles contemplated under different aspects and from different points of view. Tépas and σημεῖον are often linked together in the N. T. (John iv. 48; Acts ii. 22; iv. 30; 2 Cor. xii. 12); and times out of number in the Septuagint (Exod. vii. 3, 9; Deut. iv. 34; Neh. ix. 10; Dan. vi. 27); the first=nnin, and the second=nix; often also in profane Greek, in Josephus (Antt. xx. 8.6; Bell. Jud. Proém. 11); in Plutarch (Sept. Sap. Conv. 3); in Polybius (iii. 112. 8) ; in Philo (De Vit. Mos. i. 16); and in others. The ancients were fond of drawing a distinction between them, which however ὃ χοῖ. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 241 will not bear a moment’s serious examination. It is sufficiently expressed in these words of Ammonius: τέρας σημείου διαφέρει" τὸ μὲν yap τέρας παρὰ φύσιν γίνεται, τὸ δὲ σημεῖον παρὰ συνήθειαν ; and again by Theophylact (in Rom.xv. 19): διαφέρει δὲ σημεῖον καὶ τέρας τῷ τὸ μὲν σημεῖον ἐν τοῖς κατὰ φύσιν λέγεσθαι; καινοπρεπῶς μέντοι γινομένοις, οἷον ἐπὶ τοῦ τὴν πενθερὰν Πέτρον πυρέττουσαν εὐθέως ἰαθῆναι [Matt. viii. 15], τὸ δὲ τέρας ἐν τοῖς μὴ κατὰ φύσιν, οἷον τὸ τὸν ἐκ γενετῆς τυφλὸν ἰαθῆναι [John ix. 77 ; compare Suicer, Thes. s. v. σημεῖον. But in truth this distinction breaks down so entirely the instant it is examined, as Fritzsche, in a good note on Rom. xv. 19, has superabundantly shown, that it is difficnlt to understand how so many, by repeating, have given allowance to it. An earthquake, however rare, cannot he esteemed παρὰ φύσιν, cannot therefore, according to the distinction traced above, be called a τέρας, while yet Herodotus (vi. 98) gives this name to the single earthquake which in his experience had visited Delos. As little can a serpent snatched up in an eagle’s talons and dropped in the midst of the Trojan army be called beyond and beside nature, which yet Homer (Il. xii. 209) calls Διὸς τέρας αἰγιόχοιο. I notice here that the Homeric idea of the τέρας is carefully discussed by Niigelsbach, Homerische Theologie, Ὁ. 168 sqq. On the other hand, beyond and beside nature are the healing with a word of a man lame from his mother’s womb, the satisfying of many thousand men with a few loaves, the raising of a man four days dead from the grave, which all in Scripture go by the name of σημεῖα (Acts iv. 16; John vi. 14; xi. 47); compare Plutarch, Sept. Sap. Conv. 3, where a monstrous birth is styled both a τέρας and a σημεῖον. It is plain then that the distinction must be sought elsewhere. Origen has not seized it, who finds a prophetic element in the σημεῖον, which is wanting in the τέρας (in Rom. xv. 19): ‘ Signa [σημεῖα] appellantur in quibus cum sit 342 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. § xct. aliquid mirabile, indicatur quoque aliquid futurum. Prodigia [τέρατα vero in quibus tantummodo aliquid mirabile ostenditur. Rather the same miracle is upon one side a τέρας, on another a σημεῖον, and the words most often refer, not to different classes of miracles, but to different qualities in the same miracles; in the words of Lampe (Comm. in Joh. vol. 1. p. 513): ‘Hadem enim miracula dici possunt signa, quatenus aliquid seu occultum seu futurum docent; et prodigia, quatenus aliquid extraordinarium, quod stuporem excitat, sistunt. Hine sequitur signorum notionem latius patere, quam prodigiorum. Omnia prodigia sunt signa, quia in illum usum ἃ Deo dispensata, ut arcanum indicent. Sed omnia signa non sunt prodigia, quia ad signanduin res celestes aliquando etiam res communes adhibentur.’ Tépas, certainly not derived from τρέω, the terrifying, but now put generally in connexion with τηρέω, as being that which for its extraordinary character is wont to be observed and kept in the memory, is always rendered ‘wonder’ in our Version. It is the miracle regarded as a startling, imposing, amazement-wakening portent or prodigy; being elsewhere frequently used for strange appearances in the heavens, and more frequently still for monstrous births on the earth (Herodotus, vii. 57; Plato, Crat. 393 δὴ). It is thus used very much with the same meaning as the Latin ‘ monstrum’!=monestrum (Virgil, Ain. ii. 171: € Nec dubiis ea signa dedit Tritonia monstris’), or the Homeric σῆμα (Il. ii. 308: ἔνθ᾽ ἐφάνη μέγα σῆμα, δράκων). Origen (in Joh. tom. xiii. ὃ 60; in Rom. lib. x. § 12) long ago called attention to the fact that the name τέρατα is never in the N. T. applied to these words of wonder, except in associationwith some other name. They 1 On the similar group of synonymous words in the Latin, Augustine writes (De Civ. Det, xxi. 8): ‘ Monstra sane dicta perhibent a monstrando, quod aliquid significando demonstrant, et ostenta ab ostendendo, et portenta a portendendo, id est, preeostendendo, et prediyia quod porro dicant, id est, futura preedicant.” Compare Cicero, Divin. i. 42. §xcr. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 343 are often called σημεῖα, often δυνάμεις, often τέρατα καὶ onpeta, more than once τέρατα; σημεῖα, καὶ δυνάμεις, but never tepataalone. The observation was well worth the making ; for the fact which we are thus bidden to note is indeed eminently characteristic of the miracles of the N. T.; namely, that a title, by which more than any other these might seem to hold on to the prodigies and portents of the heathen world, and to have something akin to them, should thus never be permitted to appear, except in the company of some other necessarily suggesting higher thoughts about them. But the miracles are also σημεῖα. The σημεῖον Basil the Great (in Esai. vii. ὃ 198) defines well: ἔστι σημεῖον πρᾶγμα φανερόν, κεκρυμμένου Tivos καὶ ἀφανοῦς ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὴν δήλωσιν ἔχον : and presently after, ἡ μέντοι Τϊραφὴ τὰ παράδοξα, καὶ παραστατικά τινος μυστικοῦ λόγου σημεῖα καλεῖ. Among all the names which the miracles bear, their ethical end and purpose comes out in σημεῖον with the most distinctness, as in τέρας with the least. It is involved and declared in the very word that the prime object and end of the miracle is to lead us to something out of and beyond itself; that, so to speak, it is a kind of finger-post of God (διοσημεία, a sign from Zeus, is no unfrequent word in later Greek), pointing for us to this (Isai. vii. 11; xxxviii. 7); valuable, not so much for what it is, as for what it indicates of the grace and power of the doer, or of his immediate connexion with a higher spiritual world (Mark xvi. 20; Acts xiv. 3; Heb. ii. 4; Exod. vii. 9, 10; I Kin. xiii. 3). Lampe has put this well: ‘ Designat sane σημεῖον naturé sua rem non tantum extraordinariam, sensusque percellentem, sed etiam talem, que in rei alterius, absentis licet et future, significationem atque adumbrationem adhibetur, unde et prognostica (Matt. xvi. 3) et typi (Matt. xii. 39; Luc. xi. 29) nec non sacramenta, quale est illud circumcisionis (Rom. iv. 11), eodem nomine in N.T. exprimi solent. Aptissime ergo 244 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. § xct hee vox de miraculis usurpatur, ut indicet, quod non tantum admirabili modo fuerint perpetrata, sed etiam sapientissimo consilio Dei ita directa atque ordinata, ut fuerint simul characteres Messie, ex quibus cognoscendus erat, sigilla doctrine quam proferebat, et beneficiorum gratie per Messiam jam prestande, nec non typi viarum Dei, earumque circumstantiarum per quas talia beneficia erant applicanda.’ It is to be regretted that σημεῖον is not always rendered ‘sign’ in our Version; that in the Gospel of St. John, where it is of very frequent recurrence, ‘sign’ too often gives place to the vaguer ‘ miracle’; and sometimes not without serious loss: thus see ili. 2; vii. 31; x. 41; and above all, vi. 26. Bnt the miracles are also ‘ powers’ (δυνάμεις =‘ virtutes’), outcomings of that mighty power of God, which was inherent in Christ, Himself that “great Power of God” which Simon blasphemously allowed himself to be named (Acts viii. 10); these powers being by Him lent to such as were his witnesses and ambassadors. One must regret that in our Version δυνάμεις is translated now “ wonderful works” (Matt. vii. 22) ; now “ mighty works” (Matt. xi. 20; Luke x. 13); and still more frequently ‘ miracles’ (Acts ii. 22; 1 Cor. xii. 10; Gal. iii. 5); in this last case giving such tautologies as “ miracles and wonders” (Acts ii. 22; Heb. ii. 4); and always.causing something to be lost of the true intention of the word—pointing as it does to new and higher forces (ἐνέργειαι, ἐνεργήματα, τ Cor. xii. 6, 10), ‘ powers of the world to come’ (Heb. vi. 5), which have _ entered and are working in this lower world of ours. Delitzsch : ‘ Jedes Wunder ist eine Machtiiusserung der in die Welt der Schépfung, welche dem Tode verfallen ist, eintretenden Welt der Erlésung.’ With this is closely connected the term μεγαλεῖα, only occurring at Luke i. 49 (= magnalia’) and at Acts ii. 11, in which, as in δυνάμει», the miracles are contemplated as outeomings of the great. ness of God’s power and glory. δ xc. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 345 They are further styled ἔνδοξα (Luke xiii. 17), as being works in which the δόξα or glory of God and of the Son of God shone manifestly forth (John ii. 11; xi. 40; Luke v. 25; Acts iii. 13) They are παράδοξα (Luke v. 26), as being “new things” (Num. xvi. 30), not hitherto seen (Mark ii. 12), and thus beside and beyond all opinion and expectation of men. The word, though finding place only this once in the N.T., is of very frequent occurrence in ecclesiastical Greek. They are θαυμάσια (Matt. xxi. 15), as provoking admiration and astonishment (viii. 27 ; ix. 8, 333 xv. 31; Mark v. 20; Actsiii. 11). Θαύματα they are never called in the N.T., though often in the writings of the Greek Fathers. A word which conjurers, magicians, and impostors of various kinds had so long made their own could only after a while be put to nobler uses again. ὃ xcii. κόσμιος, σεμνός, ἱεροπρεπής. Κόσμιος and σεμνός are both epithets applied occasionally to things, but more frequently to persons. They are so nearly allied in meaning as to be often found together ; but at the same time are very clearly distinguishable the one from the other. Kéopuos, related to κόσμος in its earlier sense as “ ornament,’ while κοσμικός (Tit. ii. 12; Heb. ix. 1) is related to it in its secondary sense as ‘ world,’ occurs twice in the N. T., being rendered in our Version on one occasion ‘modest’ (1 Tim. ii. 9), on the other, ‘ of good behaviour’ (i Tim. iii. 2: marg. modest); and corresponds very nearly to the ‘compositus’ of Seneca (Hp. 114), to the ‘compositus et ordinatus’ (De Vit. Beat. 8), of the same. The ‘ ornatus,’ by which it is both times rendered in the Vulgate, is strangely at fault, though it is easy enough to see how the fault arose. It is a very favourite word with Plato, and is by him and others constantly applied to the citizen who is quiet in the land, who duly fulfils in his 346 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. § xcu. place and order the duties which are incumbent on hin as such; and isin nothing ἄτακτος (1 Thess. v. 14; ef. 2 Thess, 111. 6, 7, 11); but τεταγμένος rather. It is associated by him, as by St. Paul, with σώφρων (Legg. vii. 802 e)—this indeed is everywhere its most constant companion (thus see Lysias, Orat. xxi. 163; Plutarch, Quom. Adul. ab Am. 36, and often) ; with ἥμερος (Plato, Rep. 111. 410 e); with νέμιμος (Gorg. 504 d); with ἐγκρατής (Phedr. 256 ὃ): with εὐσταλής (Meno, 90 a) ; with φρόνιμος (Phedo, τοῦ a); with στάσιμος (Rep. vii. 539 d); with εὔκολος (10. i. 329 d); with ἀνδῥεῖος (Id. iii. 399 6) ; with καλός (Ib. iii. 403 a); with εὔτακτος by Aristotle; with αἰδήμων by Epictetus (Enchir. 40); and by Plutarch (De Garrul. 4); with γενναῖος (Ib.); with εὐάγωγος (Phil. eum Princ. 2); opposed by Plato to ἀκόλαστος (Gorg. 494 a). Keeping company as κόσμιος does with epithets such as these, it must be admitted that an explanation of it like the following, ‘of well ordered demeanour, decorous, courteous’ (Webster), dwells too much on the outside of things; the same with still greater truth may be affirmed of Tyndale’s rendering, ‘ honestly apparelled ’ (1 Tim. 111. 2. No doubt the κόσμιος is all this; but he is much more than this. The well ordering is not of dress and demeanour only, but of the inner life ; uttering indeed and expressing itself in the outward conversation. Even Bengel has taken a too superficial view of the word, when at 1 Tim. 111. 2 he says, ‘ Quod σώφρων est intus, id κόσμιος est extra;’ though I cannot refuse the pleasure of quoting what he says in one of his most characteristic notes, unfolding more fully his idea of what in these two epithets is implied: ‘Homo novus festum quiddam est, et abhorret ab omni eo quod pollutum, confusum, inconditum, immoderatum, vehemens, dissolutum, affectatum, tetricum, perperum, lacerum, sordidum est: ipsi necessitati nature materieque, que ingerendo, digerendo, egerendo agitatur, parce et dissimulanter paret, §xcn. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 347 corporis que corruptibilis tecta habet vestigia.’? This, it must be confessed, goes a good deal deeper than does Philemon, the comic poet, in four lines preserved by Stobeus (Meineke, Fragm. Com. Gr. p. 822), describing who is κόσμιος, and who is not. I hardly know whether they are worth quoting, but they follow here: οὐκ ἂν λαλῇ τις μικρόν, ἐστὶ κόσμιος οὐδ᾽ ἂν πορεύηταί τις εἰς τὴν γῆν βλέπων " ὁ δ᾽ ἡλίκον μὲν ἡ φύσις φέρει λαλῶν, μηδὲν ποιῶν δ᾽ ἄσχημον οὗτος κόσμιος. But whatever may be implied in κόσμιος, and there is much, something more is involved in σεμνός. If the κόσμιος orders himself well in that earthly πολιτεία, of which he is a support and an orna.nent, the σεμνός has a grace and dignity not lent him from earth; but which he owes to that higher citizenship ‘which is also his; being one who inspires not respect orly, but reverence and worship. In profane Greek σεμνός is a constant epithet of the gods—of the Eumenides, the σεμναὶ θεαὶ, above all. It is used also constantly to qualify such things as pertain to, or otherwise stand in any very near relation with, the heavenly world. All this will appear the more clearly, when we enumerate some of the epithets wherewith it habitually is linked ; which are these: ἅγιος (Plato, Sophist. 249 a; cf. Clement of Rome, Cor. 1, where it is joined to ἁγνός and ἄμωμος); ὀρθός (Defin. 412) ; μέγας ( Theetet. 203 6); τίμιος (Crito, 51 a); μέτριος (Clement of Rome, Cor. 1); βασιλικός (Plutarch, Quom. A yd. Poét. 8); ἔντιμος (Prec. Ger. Reip. 31); μεγαλοπρεπής (De Def. Orac. 30) ; θεῖος and φοβερός. From all this it is plain that there lies something of majestic and awe-inspiring in σεμνός, which does not at all lie in κόσμιος, although this has nothing about it to repel, but all rather to invite and to attract, μαλακὴ καὶ εὐσχήμων βαρύτης being Aristotle’s happy definition of σεμνότης (Rhet. ii. 17), making it as he does the golden mean between dpecxeia, or unmanly 348 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. §xcn. assentation, at one extreme, and αὐθάδεια, or churlish bearishness, pleasing itself, and careless how much it displeases others, at the other; even as in Plutarch σεμνός is associated with φιλικός (Quom. Am. ab Adul. 26); with ἡδύς (Conviv. 4, Proém.) ; with φιλάνθρωπος, with ἐπιεικής, and other like words; so too with προσηνής in Josephus (Anté. xi. 6.9). Butall this does not exclude the fact that the σεμνός is one who, without in as many words demanding, does yet challenge and inspire reverence and, in our earlier use of the word, worship, the word remaining true to the σέβω with which it is related. How to render it in English is not very easy to determine. On the one occasion that it qualifies things rather than persons (Phil. iv. 8), we have translated it by ‘honest,’ an unsatisfactory rendering (marg. venerable) ; and this, even though we include in ‘honest’ all which was included in it at the time when our Translation was made. Alford has here changed ‘honest’ into ‘ seemly’; if changed at all, I should prefer ‘honorable.’ On the other three occasions it is rendered ‘grave’ (1 Tim. lii. 8,11; Tit. ii. 2); while σεμνότης is once ‘honesty (1 Tim. ii. 2), and twice ‘ gravity’ (1 Tim. iil. 4; Tit. ii. 7). Here too it must be owned that ‘ grave’ and ‘ gravity ’ are renderings which fail to cover the full meaning of their original. Malvolio in Twelfth Night is ‘ grave,’ but his very gravity is itself ridiculous; and the word we want is one in which the sense of gravity and dignity, and of these as inviting reverence, is combined; a word which I fear we may look for long without finding. ‘Iepomperns belongs to the best age of the Greek language, being used by Plato (Theag. 122 d) and by Xenophon (Conv. viii. 40), in this unlike ὁσιοπρεπής and dytompeT ys, which are of later ecclesiastical formation. Like κόσμιος it belongs to that large group of noticeable words, which, being found nowhere else in St. Paul’s Epistles, and indeed nowhere else in the N. T., are yet found in the Pastoral Epistles, some of them occurring several times over in ὃ χο. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 349 these. The number and character of these words, the new vein of Greek which St. Paul in these later Epistles opens,’ constitute a very remarkable phenomenon, one for which no perfectly satisfactory explanation has hitherto been offered. Alford indeed in his Prolegomena to these Epistles has made a valuable contribution to such an explanation ; but after all has been said, it remains perplexing still. Tt will follow from what has been already claimed for σεμνός that ἱεροπρεπής is more nearly allied in meaning to it than to κόσμιος. It expresses that which beseems a sacred person, thing, or act. On the one occasion of its use in the N. T. (Tit. ii. 3-5), it is joined with σώφρων, being an epithet applied to women professing godliness, who shall be in their bearing or behaviour ἱεροπρεπεῖς, or “‘as becometh holiness ”’ (cf. 1 Tim. ii. 10), or ‘reverent in demeanour’ as it is rendered in our Revised Version. That such behaviour will breed reverence and awe, we may reasonably expect, but this is not implied in ἱεροπρεπής as it is in σεμνός, and here we must find the distinction between them.

Moulton & Milligan — Vocabulary of the Greek NT

σημεῖον (ii/B.c.) (= Witkowski®, p. 111) περὶ μὲν [ο]Ἱῦν τῶν ἄλλων [οὔ σοι γέγραφα, Μ΄. . .o]s γάρ σοι σημα[ν]εῖ ἕκαστα, 20. IV. 12069 (B.c. 28) οὔπωι σεσήμαγκε τί ἐκβέβη[κ]ε, and τὸ. 10784 (A.D. 39) (= Chest. L. p. 83) οὐ καλῶς δὲ ἐπόησας ἐκπορευομένων πολλῶν φίλων μὴ σημᾶναί por μηδὲ ἕν. For the two forms σημᾶναι and σημῆναι, see Mayser Gr. i. p- 360, Psaltes Gr. p. 223. The pass. is seen in such passages as P Rein 71" (B.C. 141?) ἐν τῶν σημανθέντι χρόνωι, ‘ within the stipulated time,’ P Amh II. 318 (8.6. 112) σημανθέντος, ‘it having been reported,” P Oxy 11. 2831 (A.D. 45) τὸν σημαινόμένον δοῦλον, ‘the above-mentioned slave,” P Tebt II. 2782 (nursery acrostic—early i/A.D.) onpe(= at)veral μοι, τηρῖ ple] γάρ, “he is indicated to me, for he watches me (Ὁ) ᾿᾿ (Edd.), P Oxy I. 768 (A.D. 179) ὃ σημαινόμενός μου πατήρ, ‘‘my above-mentioned father,’’ 74. 79* (notice of death—A.p. 181-192) (= Selections, p. 88) 6 σημαινόμενός μου υἱὸς... ἄτεχνος dy ἐτελεύτησεν [τ]ῷ ἐνεστῶτι ἔτι, *€my son who is here indicated died childless in the present year,” and BGU I. 25014 (after A.D. 130) (= Chvest. I. p. 7115) προσφων[ῶ] . . τεθυκέναι pe Tov δηλούμί(ενον) μόσχ[ο]ν τῷ σημαι[νο]μέϊν]ῳ χρόνῳ. The verb is used as a ¢erm. tech. for the pronouncement of the Delphic oracle by Heraclitus in Plut. Mor. 404 Ἐ οὔτε λέγει, οὔτε κρύπτει, ἀλλὰ σημαίνει : Bauer HZNT? ad Jn 12%3 compares Jn 2178, Rev 11, Ac 1178, and Epict. 1. ΤΕ ΤΟ By a hitherto unknown usage the subst. σημασία is found introducing the ‘‘ address ’’ of the person to whom a letter is sent, e.g. P Oxy XIV. 1678? (iii/A-b.) σημασίσ)ία ἐν Tevpevotre ἐν τῷ ῥυμείῳ ἀντεὶ τοῦ φλητρος (/. φρέατος), ‘‘address, at the Teumenous quarter in the lane opposite the well’ (Edd.): cf. 26. 17735° (iii/A.D.).

Liddell-Scott-Jones — Greek-English Lexicon

σημεῖον (sēmeion) — sign. σημεῖον, τό, Ionic dialect σημήϊον, Doric dialect σᾱμήϊον [Refs 4th c.BC+], σᾱμεῖον [Refs 2nd c.BC+], σᾱμᾶον [Refs] —= σῆμα in all senses, and more common in Prose, but never in [Refs 8th c.BC+]: mark by which a thing is known, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; sign of the future, τυραννίδος σ. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; trace, track, σημεῖα δ᾽ οὔτε θηρὸς οὔτε του κυνῶν.. ἐξεφαίνετο [Refs 5th c.BC+]; of a cork on a buoy, [Refs 2nd c.AD+] __b Doric dialect, tomb, [Refs 4th c.BC+]

2. sign from the gods, omen, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; wonder, portent, [LXX+2nd c.BC+]; especially of the constellations, regarded as signs, δύεται σημεῖα [Refs 5th c.BC+]

3. sign or signal to do a thing, made by flags, ἀνέδεξε σημήϊον τοῖσι ἄλλοισι ἀνάγεσθαι he made signal for the rest to put to sea, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; signal for battle, τὰ σ. ἤρθη, κατεσπάσθη, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; καθαιρεῖν τὸ σ. to take it down, strike the flag, as a sign of dissolving an assembly, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας σ. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ὕστερος ἐλθεῖν τοῦ σ. [Refs]: generally, signal, σ. ὑποδηλῶσαί τινι ὅτι.. [Refs 5th c.BC+]; signal to commence work, [ἡ] τοῦ σημείου ἄρσις [Refs]; σημείῳ ἀβαστάκτῳ, σημείοις ἀβαστάκτοις with unremoved signal (s), of gymnasia, i.e. never closed, [Refs 2nd c.AD+]

4. standard or flag, on the admiral's ship, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; on the general's tent, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἔξω τῶν σ. out of the lines, [Refs]

4. b body of troops under one standard or flag, [Refs 2nd c.BC+]

5. landmark, boundary, limit, ἔξω τῶν σ. τοῦ ὑμετέρου ἐμπορίου out of the limits of your commercial port, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; of milestones, [Refs 1st c.AD+]

6. device upon a shield, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; upon ships, figure-head, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

7. signet on ring, etc., [Refs 5th c.BC+]; figure, image, Διὸς κτησίου [Refs 3rd c.BC+]; badge, τρίαιναν σ. θεοῦ [Refs 4th c.BC+]: plural, written characters, γράψαι σημήϊα.. φωνῆς [Refs]

7. b plural (Doric dialect) σαμεῖα, stripes, [Refs 1st c.BC+]; clavi· σημεῖα, [Refs]

8. watchword, war-cry, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

9. birthmark or distinguishing feature, Wilcken [Refs 2nd c.AD+]

II. sign, token, indication of anything that is or is to be, [NT+5th c.BC+]

II.2. in reasoning, a sign or proof, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ὅτι ἀγαθὸς ἦν.., τοῦτο μέγιστον σ. [Refs]; τὸ μὴ ἐκδυθῆναι οὐδὲν σ. ἐστι is no proof to the contrary, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; also, instance, example, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; σημεῖον δέ· to introduce an argument, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

II.3. in the Logic of [Refs 4th c.BC+], a sign used as a probable argument in proof of a conclusion, opposed to τεκμήριον (a demonstrative or certain proof), [Refs]

II.3. b in Stoic and Epicurean philosophical, sign as observable basis of inference to the unobserved or unobservable, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; περὶ σημείων (uncertain meaning), title of work by Zeno, [Refs]

II.4. in Medicine texts, symptom, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

II.4. b = Latin lenticula, a kind of skin-eruption, [Refs 1st c.AD+]

II.5. plural, shorthand symbols, [Refs 1st c.AD+]

II.6. critical mark, [Refs 3rd c.AD+]

III. ={στιγμή}, mathematical point, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; also ς. (with or without χρόνου) point of time, instant, [Refs 4th c.BC+]

III.2. in Prosody and Music, unit of time, [Refs 3rd c.AD+]

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