στίγμα, στιγματος, τό (from στίζω to prick; (cf. Latinstimulus, etc.; German stechen, English stick, sting, etc.; Curtius, § 226)), a mark pricked in or branded upon the body. According to ancient oriental usage, slaves and soldiers bore the name or stamp of their master or commander branded or pricked (cut) into their bodies to indicate what master or general they belonged to, and there were even some devotees who stamped themselves in this way with the token of their gods (cf. Deyling, Observations, iii., p. 423ff); hence, τά στίγματα τοῦ (κυρίου so Rec.) Ἰησοῦ, the marks of (the Lord) Jesus, which Paul in Gal_6:17 says he bears branded on his body, are the traces left there by the perils, hardships, imprisonments, scourgings, endured by him for the cause of Christ, and which mark him as Christ's faithful and approved votary, servant, soldier (see Lightfoots Commentary on Galatians, the passage cited). (Herodotus 7, 233; Aristotle, Aelian, Plutarch, Lcian, others.)

στίγμα stigma 1x a mark, brand, Gal_6:17

στίγμα -τος , τό ( < στίζω , to prick ), [in LXX : Son_1:11 ( H5351 ) * ;] a tattoed mark or brand: τὰ σ . τοῦ Ἰησοῦ , Gal_6:17 ( v. Lft ., in l ; Deiss., BS , 349; LAE , 303; MM , xxiii).†

στίγμα [page 590] mark, brand, occurs in the NT only in Gal_6:17 τοῦ λοιποῦ κόπους μοι μηδεὶς παρεχέτω , ἐγὼ γὰρ τὰ στίγματα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματί μου βαστάζω , where there is general agreement in understanding by the στίγματα the scars or wounds which Paul received in the course of his Apostolic labours (cf. 2Co_6:4-6 ; 2Co_11:23-27 ). The exact origin of the metaphor is, however, by no means clear, and though our sources do not help us much in the present instance, it may be well to refer to some of the interpretations which have been suggested. (1) A common tendency is to derive the figure from the practice of branding slaves, especially those who had run away, or otherwise misbehaved. And here, to the numerous reff. in Wetstein ad l. , we may add two exx. of the corresponding verb in the papyri P Lille I. 29 .14 (iii/B.C.) μηθενὶ ἐξέστω σώματα πωλεῖν [ἐπ᾽ ἐξαγωγῆι , μηδὲ στίζειν , μηδ̣[ὲ ] μ̣α̣[στ ]ί [ζε ]ι [ν , let no one be permitted to sell slaves for export, nor to brand them, nor to scourge them, and P Par 10 .8 (B.C. 156) (= UPZ i. p. 573), where a runaway slave is described as ἐστιγμένος τὸν δεξιὸν καρπὸν γράμμασι βαρβαρικοῖς δυσίν , branded on the right wrist with two barbaric letters : cf. Herodas V. 66 with Headlam s note. But the idea of punishment is wholly alien to the thought of the passage before us. Nor is there any evidence that the practice of soldiers tattooing themselves with their commanders names, which others prefer, was at all general. (2) In his BS p. 349 ff. Deissmann works out at some length another line of interpretation with the aid of a bilingual Leyden papyrus of iii/A.D. The text runs μή με δίωκε ὅδε . . . βαστάζω τὴν ταφὴν τοῦ Ὀσίρεώς καὶ ὑπάγω κατα [στ ]ῆσαι αὐτὴν ε (ἰ )ς Ἄβιδος . . . ἐάν μοι ὁ δεῖνα κόπους παράσχῃ , προσ (τ )ρέψω αὐτὴν αὐτῷ , persecute me not, thou there! I carry the corpse of Osiris, and I go to convey it to Abydos. Should anyone trouble me, I shall use it against him. Without going into details, the general meaning, according to Deissmann, is clear : the βαστάζειν of a particular amulet associated with a god acts as a charm against the κόπους παρέχειν on the part of an adversary. Similarly, he thinks, the Apostle counsels his Galatian converts, Do be sensible, do not imagine that you can hurt me I am protected by a charm. The explanation is ingenious and has gained the weighty support of Zahn Galaterbrief , p. 286 : cf. also a note by J. H. Moulton in Exp T xxi. p. 283 f. But, apart from other objections, it is not easy to imagine the Apostle s deriving the suggestion of divine protection from a magical charm, or adopting a smiling, half-mocking attitude towards the Galatians, which Deissmann pictures, in a letter that is in general so severe. [For a discussion of the Leyden papyrus from a different point of view, see de Zwaan in JTS vi. (1905), P. 418 ff.] (3) On the whole, accordingly, it would seem best to give the passage a wider and more general reference, and to take it as indicating simply the personal relation of Paul to his Master with all the security which that brought with it. For such a meaning the commentators have supplied various parallels. Thus in Herod, ii. 113 it is provided that a slave in Egypt may secure virtual emancipation by going to a certain temple of Herakles and having branded upon him στίγματα ἱρά , to denote his consecration to the god (cf. T. R. Glover Paul of Tarsus , p. 98 f., citing L. R. Farnell Greece and Babylon , p. 194) : similarly in Lucian de Dea Syr. 59 it is stated στίζονται δε πάντες οἱ μὲν ἐς καρπούς , οἱ δὲ ἐς αὐχένας , καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦδε ἅπαντες Ἀσσύριοι στιγματηφορέουσι , and once more in 3Ma_2:29 Ptolemy Philopator is described as compelling the Jews to be branded with the ivy-leaf of Dionysus τούς τε ἀπογραφομένους χαράσσεσθαι , καὶ διὰ πυρὸς εἰς τὸ σῶμα παρασήμῳ Διονύσῳ κισσοφύλλῳ . [See also s.v. χάραγμα for σῆμα as a mark of identity in P Oxy XIV. 1680 .11 .] Most recently Wilcken in the Festgabe fόr Adolf Deissmann (Tόbingen, 1927) p. 8 f. has revived the reference to the practice of the followers of the Syrian goddess, and thinks that the Galatian passage need not mean more than that Paul has given himself over to Jesus for His own ( dass er sich Jesu zu eigen gegeben habe ). An ex. of the medical use of στίγμα is afforded by the account of a cure in the temple of Aesculapius at Epidaurus, Syll 802 (= .3 1168) 48 ( c. B.C. 320) Πάνδαρ ]ος Θεσσαλὸς στίγματα ἔχων ἐν τῶι μετώπωι· οὗτος [ἐγκαθεύδων ὄ ]ψ̣ιν εἶδε , cf. 62 .

στίγμα στίγμα, ατος, τό, [Etym: στίζω] "the mark of a pointed instrument, a tattoo-mark, brand", Hdt. , NTest.

στίγμα -τος, τό (στίζω, to prick), [in LXX: Sng.1:11 (נְקֻדָּה) * ;] a tattoed mark or brand: τὰ σ. τοῦ Ἰησοῦ, Gal.6:17 (see Lft., in l; Deiss., BS, 349; LAE, 303; MM, xxiii).† (AS)