Dictionaries :: Fair

Fair:

far: The word translated in the King James Version from 9 Hebrew and 4 Greek expressions has nowhere in the Bible the modern sense of "blond," "fair-skinned." The translation of Isa 54:11, "fair colors," refers to the cosmetic use of pukh, stibium, antimony powder, with which black margins were painted around the eyelids, so as to make the eyes appear large and dark. The stones of rebuilt Jerusalem, beautifully laid in their black mortar, are compared with such eyes. We can distinguish the following varieties of meaning:

(1) Beautiful, attractive, Tobh, yaphah, yapheh; Aramaic shappir; Septuagint kalos; in the New Testament asteios. This latter word is in both places where it is found used of Moses (Ac 7:20; Heb 11:23, the Revised Version (British and American) "goodly"), and means literally, town bred (as opposed to boorish), polite, polished in manners, urbane, then nice, pretty.

(2) Pure, free of defilement, the Revised Version (British and American) "clean," Tahor (Zec 3:5).

(3) "Fair speech," plausible, persuasive (leqah, Pr 7:21; eulalos, Sirach 6:5; compare eulogia, Ro 16:18).

(4) Making a fine display (euprosopein, Ga 6:12, "to make a fair show").

(5) Good (of weather) (zahabh, "golden," "clear," Job 37:22, the Revised Version (British and American) "golden splendor"); eudia (Mt 16:2).

Written by H. L. E. Luering

Fair:

lit., "of the city" (from astu, "a city;" like Lat. urbanus, from urbs, "a city;" Eng., "urbane;" similarly, "polite," from polis, "a town"), hence, "fair, elegant" (used in the papyri writings of clothing), is said of the external form of a child, Act 7:20, of Moses "(exceeding) fair," lit., "fair to God;" Hbr 11:23 (RV, "goodly," AV, "proper").
See BEAUTIFUL, GOODLY, Note.

Fair:

denotes "fair weather," Mat 16:2, from eudios, "calm;" from eu, "good," and dios, "divine," among the pagan Greeks, akin to the name for the god Zeus, or Jupiter. Some would derive Dios and the Latin deus (god) and dies (day) from a root meaning "bright." Cp. the Latin sub divo, "under a bright, open sky."

Fair:

"beautiful, fair, in appearance," is used as part of the proper name, Fair Havens, Act 27:8.
See BETTER, GOOD.

Notes:

(1) In Rom 16:18 eulogia, which generally signifies "blessing," is used in its more literal sense, "fair speech," i.e., a fine style of utterance, giving the appearance of reasonableness.

(2) In Gal 6:12 the verb euprosopeo, "to look well," lit., "to be fair of face" (eu, "well," and prosopon, "a face"), signifies "to make a fair of plausible show," used there metaphorically of making a display of religious zeal.