Dictionaries :: Mean (Adjective)

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Mean (Adjective):

lit., "without mark" (a, negative, sema, "a mark"), i.e., "undistinguished, obscure," was applied by the Apostle Paul negatively, to his native city, Tarsus, Act 21:39. Moulton and Milligan (Vocab.) have a note as follows: "This word occurs perpetually in the papyri to denote a man who is 'not distinguished' from his neighbors by the convenient scars on eyebrow or arm or right shin, which identify so many individuals in formal documents." Deissmann suggests that the word may have been the technical term for "uncircumcised," among the Greek Egyptians. In another papyrus document a pair of silver bracelets are described as of "unstamped" (asemos) silver.