Bible Dictionaries
Fair

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

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, Acts 7:20 , of Moses "(exceeding) fair," lit., "fair to God;" Hebrews 11:23 (RV, "goodly," AV, "proper"). See BEAUTIFUL , GOODLY , Note.

denotes "fair weather," Matthew 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."

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

Notes: (1) In Romans 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 Galatians 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.