Bible Lexicons

From meaning originally ";put up for sale"; (uendito) πωλέω came to mean simply ";sell"; (uendo). This later sense, which alone is found in the NT, can be fully illustrated from the papyri, e.g. PSI IV. 356.7 (B.C. 253–2) οὐθεὶς οὖν ἐν τοῖς τόποις πωλεῖ πρὸς σῖτον, ἀλλὰ πρὸς ἀργύριον, P Ryl II. 113.8 (A.D. 133) μόλις πάντα τὰ ἐμαυτοῦ πωλήσας ἐδυνήθην πληρῶσαι, ";I was with difficulty able to complete this by selling all my property"; (cf. Mark 10:21), P Oxy III. 494.19 (a Will—A.D. 156) ἐξέστω δι᾽ αὐτῆς πωλεῖν καὶ ὑποτίθεσθαι ἃ ἐὰν αἱρῆται, ";she shall have the right to sell or mortgage on her own authority whatever she chooses,"; ib. VI. 932.10 (late ii/A.D.) τὰ χοιρίδια χωρὶς μοῦ μὴ πώλι, ";do not sell the young pigs without me,"; P Tebt II. 421.8 (iii/A.D.) (= Selections, p. 106) θέλις αὐτὸ πωλῆσα [ι ], πώλησον, ";if you wish to sell it, sell it,"; and P Oxy I. 83.16 (A.D. 327), where an egg-seller undertakes to offer his eggs only in the public market, and not ";to sell secretly or in his own house";—κρυβῆ ἢ καὶ ἐν τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ οἰκίᾳ πωλῖν. For the rare pass. (cf. Rutherford NP p. 213) see the question to an oracle in ib. XII. 1477.3 (iii/iv A.D.) εἶ πωλοῦμαι; ";am I to be sold up?"; (Edd.), and for the subst. πώλησις see BGUI. 184.1 (A.D. 72).