Bible Lexicons

This important word is not very common in the vernacular, but it can be illustrated in the sense of a full ";company"; or ";complement."; From Egypt we have P Petr III. 43(3).12 (B.C. 240) ἔγραψάς μοι μὴ ἀποσπάσαι τὸ π [λή ]ρωμα ἐκ Φιλωτέριδος ἕως οὗ τὰ ἔργα συντελέσαι, ";you wrote me not to withdraw the gang from Philoteris before they had finished the work"; (Ed.), cf..15, .19, and an inscr. from near Sebastopol Syll 326 (= .3 709).40 (c. B.C. 107) παραλαβὼν δὲ καὶ τῶν πολιτᾶν ἐπιλέκτους ἐμ πληρώμασι τρισί (";in three shiploads";). In P Hib I. 100.95 (c. B.C. 255) (= Chrest. I. p. 514) ἀπ ̣[ὸ τοῦ ] πληρώματος, Wilcken thinks the reference is to ";the ship’s crew"; : cf. Romans 11:25. See also P Par 60 Bisi. 2 (c. B.C. 200) τὸ ἀνήλωμα εἰς Ἀλεξάνδρειαν ἀπὸ τῶν πληρωμάτων [ἀρ ]χαίων.

The very common word πλήρωσις does not occur in the NT, but its restriction to commercial phraseology accounts for this : cf. Ostr 464.7 (A.D. 85–6), P Lips I. 105.32 (i/ii A.D.), and P Strass I. 19.5, .12 (A.D. 105). That πλήρωμα should take its place as a nomen actionis (as in Romans 13:10) is not strange, as the –σις and –μα nouns are drawing together a good deal : the shortened penultimate of θέμα, κρίμα, χρίσμα etc., due to the analogy of the –σις words, illustrates the closeness of association.

As against the so-called pass. sense of πλήρωμα for which Lightfoot contends (Col..2 p. 257 ff.), see the elaborate note by Armitage Robinson in Eph. p. 255 ff. Cf. also the art. ";Pleroma"; by W. Lock in Hastings DB iv. p. 1 f., and for illustrations of the word from Hermetic literature see Reitzenstein Poimandres p. 25 n.1.