BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
GREEK · G3942
paroimia — proverb
παροιμία, -ας, ἡ (πάροιμος, by the way), [in LXX. Pr title Pro.1:1 25:1, (מָשַׁל) subscr., Sir.6:35 8:8 18:29 39:3 47:17 * ;] 1. a wayside saying (Hesych.; see LS, see word), a byword, maxim, proverb: 2Pe.2:22. 2. In NT, of figurative discourse (as מָשַׁל, Isa.14:4, al.), a parable, allegory: Jhn.10:6 16:25, 29 (see Abbott, Essays, 82 ff.).† SYN.: παραβολή, q.v (AS)
4 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →Used only in Gal. 4:24, where the apostle refers to the history of Isaac the free-born, and Ishmael the slave-born, and makes use of it allegorically. Every parable is an allegory. Nathan (2 Sam. 12:1-4) addresses David in an allegorical narrative. In the eightieth Psalm there is a beautiful allegory: “Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt,” etc. In Eccl. 12:2-6, there is a striking allegorical description of old age.
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.
