Lexical Summary stigma: a bed of leaves or rushes Original Word: στίγμαTransliteration: stigma Phonetic Spelling: (stig'-mah) Part of Speech: Noun, Neuter Short Definition: a bed of leaves or rushes Meaning: mark -- a bed of leaves or rushes Strong's Concordance mark, brandFrom a primary stizo (to "stick", i.e. Prick); a mark incised or punched (for recognition of ownership), i.e. (figuratively) scar of service -- mark. Thayer's Greek Lexicon STRONGS NT 4742: στίγμαστίγμα, 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 Galatians 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.) |