Bible Dictionaries
Woman

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

for which see also WIFE , is used of a "woman" unmarried or married, e.g., Matthew 11:11; 14:21; Luke 4:26 , of a "widow;" Romans 7:2; in the vocative case, used in addressing a "woman," it is a term not of reproof or severity, but of endearment or respect, Matthew 15:28; John 2:4 , where the Lord's words to His mother at the wedding in Cana, are neither rebuff nor rebuke. The question is, lit., "What to Me and to thee?" and the word "woman," the term of endearment, follows this. The meaning is "There is no obligation on Me or you, but love will supply the need." She confides in Him, He responds to her faith. There was lovingkindness in both hearts. His next words about "His hour" suit this; they were not unfamiliar to her. Cana is in the path to Calvary; Calvary was not yet, but it made the beginning of signs possible. See also John 4:21; 19:26 .

In Galatians 4:4 the phrase "born of a woman" is in accordance with the subject there, viz., the real humanity of the Lord Jesus; this the words attest. They declare the method of His Incarnation and "suggest the means whereby that humanity was made free from the taint of sin consequent upon the Fall, viz., that He was not born through the natural process of ordinary generation, but was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit ... To have written 'born of a virgin' would have carried the argument in a wrong direction ... Since that man is born of woman is a universal fact, the statement would be superfluous if the Lord Jesus were no more than man" (Notes on Galatians, by Hogg and Vine, pp. 184f.).

a diminutive of No. 1, a "little woman," is used contemptuously in 2 Timothy 3:6 , "a silly woman."

"elder, older," in the feminine plural, denotes "elder women" in 1 Timothy 5:2 . See ELDER , A, No. 1

the feminine of presbutes, "aged," is used in the plural and translated "aged women" in Titus 2:3 .

the feminine of the adjective thelus, denotes "female," and is used as a noun, Romans 1:26,27 . See FEMALE.