Figure

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Τύπος (Strong'S #5179 — Noun Masculine — tupos — too'-pos )

"a type, figure, pattern," is translated "figures" (i.e., representations of gods) in  Acts 7:43; in the RV of ver. 44 (for AV, "fashion") and in  Romans 5:14 , of Adam as a "figure" of Christ. See Ensample.

2: Ἀντίτυπος (Strong'S #499 — Adjective — antitupos — an-teet'-oo-pon )

an adjective, used as a noun, denotes, lit., "a striking back;" metaphorically, "resisting, adverse;" then, in a Passive sense, "struck back;" in the NT metaphorically, "corresponding to," (a) a copy of an archetype (anti, "corresponding to, and No. 1), i.e., the event or person or circumstance corresponding to the type,  Hebrews 9:24 , RV, "like in pattern" (AV, "the figure of"), of the tabernacle, which, with its structure and appurtenances, was a pattern of that "holy place," "Heaven itself," "the true," into which Christ entered, "to appear before the face of God for us." The earthly tabernacle anticipatively represented what is now made good in Christ; it was a "figure" or "parable" ( Hebrews 9:9 ), "for the time now present," RV, i.e., pointing to the present time, not "then present," AV (see below); (b) "a corresponding type,"  1—Peter 3:21 , said of baptism; the circumstances of the flood, the ark and its occupants, formed a type, and baptism forms "a corresponding type" (not an antitype), each setting forth the spiritual realities of the death, burial, and resurrection of believers in their identification with Christ. It is not a case of type and antitype, but of two types, that in Genesis, the type, and baptism, the corresponding type.

3: Παραβολή (Strong'S #3850 — Noun Feminine — parabole — par-ab-ol-ay' )

"a casting or placing side by side" (para, "beside," ballo, "to throw") with a view to comparison or resemblance, a parable, is translated "figure" in the AV of  Hebrews 9:9 (RV, "a parable for the time now present") and   Hebrews 11:19 , where the return of Isaac was (parabolically, in the lit. sense of the term) figurative of resurrection (RV, "parable"). See No. 2 (a). See Parable.

 1—Timothy 1:16 2—Timothy 1:13 1—Corinthians 4:6Fashion.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) To write over or under the bass, as figures or other characters, in order to indicate the accompanying chords.

(2): ( n.) To indicate by numerals; also, to compute.

(3): ( n.) Any short succession of notes, either as melody or as a group of chords, which produce a single complete and distinct impression.

(4): ( n.) To represent by a metaphor; to signify or symbolize.

(5): ( n.) To prefigure; to foreshow.

(6): ( n.) To embellish with design; to adorn with figures.

(7): ( n.) Any one of the several regular steps or movements made by a dancer.

(8): ( n.) To embellish.

(9): ( v. t.) To calculate; to contrive; to scheme; as, he is figuring to secure the nomination.

(10): ( v. t.) To make a figure; to be distinguished or conspicious; as, the envoy figured at court.

(11): ( n.) To represent by a figure, as to form or mold; to make an image of, either palpable or ideal; also, to fashion into a determinate form; to shape.

(12): ( n.) A form of melody or accompaniment kept up through a strain or passage; a musical or motive; a florid embellishment.

(13): ( n.) A horoscope; the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses.

(14): ( n.) The form of anything; shape; outline; appearance.

(15): ( n.) The representation of any form, as by drawing, painting, modeling, carving, embroidering, etc.; especially, a representation of the human body; as, a figure in bronze; a figure cut in marble.

(16): ( n.) A pattern in cloth, paper, or other manufactured article; a design wrought out in a fabric; as, the muslin was of a pretty figure.

(17): ( n.) A diagram or drawing; made to represent a magnitude or the relation of two or more magnitudes; a surface or space inclosed on all sides; - called superficial when inclosed by lines, and solid when inclosed by surface; any arrangement made up of points, lines, angles, surfaces, etc.

(18): ( n.) The appearance or impression made by the conduct or carrer of a person; as, a sorry figure.

(19): ( n.) Distinguished appearance; magnificence; conspicuous representation; splendor; show.

(20): ( n.) A character or symbol representing a number; a numeral; a digit; as, 1, 2,3, etc.

(21): ( n.) Value, as expressed in numbers; price; as, the goods are estimated or sold at a low figure.

(22): ( n.) A person, thing, or action, conceived of as analogous to another person, thing, or action, of which it thus becomes a type or representative.

(23): ( n.) A mode of expressing abstract or immaterial ideas by words which suggest pictures or images from the physical world; pictorial language; a trope; hence, any deviation from the plainest form of statement.

(24): ( n.) The form of a syllogism with respect to the relative position of the middle term.

King James Dictionary

FIG'URE, n. fig'ur. L. figura, from figo, to fix or set. See Feign.

1. The form of any thing as expressed by the outline or terminating extremities. Flowers have exquisite figures. A triangle is a figure of three sides. A square is a figure of four equal sides and equal angles. 2. Shape form person as a lady of elegant figure.

A good figure, or person, in man or woman, gives credit at first sight to the choice of either.

3. Distinguished appearance eminence distinction remarkable character. Ames made a figure in Congress Hamilton, in the cabinet. 4. Appearance of any kind as an figure a mean figure. 5. Magnificence splendor as, to live in figure and indulgence. 6. A statue an image that which is formed in resemblance of something else as the figure of a man in plaster. 7. Representation in painting the lines and colors which represent an animal, particularly a person as the principal figures of a picture a subordinate figure. 8. In manufactures, a design or representation wrought on damask, velvet and other stuffs. 9. In logic, the order or disposition of the middle term in a syllogism with the parts of the question. 10. In arithmetic, a character denoting a number as 2. 7. 9. 11. In astrology, the horoscope the diagram of the aspects of the astrological houses. 12. In theology, type representative.

Who was the figure of him that was to come.  Romans 5 .

13. In rhetoric, a mode of speaking or writing in which words are deflected from their ordinary signification, or a mode more beautiful and emphatical than the ordinary way of expressing the sense the language of the imagination and passions as, knowledge is the light of the mind the soul mounts on the wings of faith youth is the morning of life. In strictness, the change of a word is a trope, and any affection of a sentence a figure but these terms are often confounded. 14. In grammar, any deviation from the rules of analogy or syntax. 15. In dancing, the several steps which the dancer makes in order and cadence, considered as they form certain figures on the floor.

FIG'URE, fig'ur.

1. To form or mold into any determinate shape.

Accept this goblet, rough with figured gold.

2. To show by a corporeal resemblance, as in picture or statuary. 3. To cover or adorn with figures or images to mark with figures to form figures in by art as, to figure velvet or muslin. 4. To diversify to variegate with adventitious forms of matter. 5. To represent by a typical or figurative resemblance.

The matter of the sacraments figureth their end.

6. To imagine to image in the mind. 7. To prefigure to foreshow. 8. To form figuratively to use in a sense not literal as figured expressions. Little used. 9. To note by characters.

As though a crystal glass the figured hours are seen.

10. In music, to pass several notes for one to form runnings or variations.

FIG'URE, To make a figure to be distinguished. The envoy figured at the court of St. Cloud.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

See Parable

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

fig´ū̇r , fig´yur ( ע ֿ2 סמל נ ,סמל , ṣemel , ṣēmel  ; τύπος , túpos ): The translation of ṣemel , or ṣēmel , "a likeness or image"; perhaps a transposition of celem , the usual word for likeness; it is elsewhere translated "idol" and "image" ( Deuteronomy 4:16 , "the similitude of any figure," the Revised Version (British and American) "in the form of any figure"); of tabhnı̄th , "form or likeness" ( Isaiah 44:13 , "shapeth it (the idol) ... after the figure of a man"; compare  Deuteronomy 4:16 ); of miḳla‛ath , "carving," "carved work" ( 1 Kings 6:29 : "And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers, within and without," only here and in   1 Kings 6:32;  1 Kings 7:31 where the word is translated "carving" and "graying"); in the New Testament "figure" is the translation of tupos , primarily "a mark," "print," "impression," "something made by blows," hence, "figure," "statue," tropically "form," "manner"; a person bearing the form or figure of another, having a certain resemblance, preceding another to come, model, exemplar ( Acts 7:43 ), "the figures (images) which ye made to worship them";  Romans 5:14 , "who is the figure (Revised Version, "a figure") of him that was to come," that is, the first Adam was a type of the second Adam, Christ; of antı́tupon , that which corresponds to a type or model ( Hebrews 9:24 the King James Version, "Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself"); the meaning is simply the correspondence, or likeness (of the tabernacle to heaven), therefore the Revised Version (British and American) renders "like in pattern to the true" (  1 Peter 3:21 , "the like figure whereunto (even) baptism doth also now save us," i.e. baptism is the antitype of the ark "wherein ... eight souls were saved (or brought safely) through water," Revised Version "which also after a true likeness (m "in the antitype") doth now save you even baptism"); of parabolḗ , "a placing alongside", a "comparison," "similitude," hence, image, figure, type ( Hebrews 9:9 , "which was a figure for the time then present," the American Standard Revised Version "which is a figure for the time present," the English Revised Version "parable" and "(now) present," namely, the entrance of the high priest into the Holy of Holies was a type of Christ's entrance into heaven;  Hebrews 11:19 , "from whence (from the dead) also he received him in a figure," i.e. Abraham received Isaac back from the dead as it were , in the likeness of a resurrection, he not being actually dead, the American Standard Revised Version "from whence he did also in a figure receive him back," the English Revised Version "in a parable"); metaschēmatı́zō , "to change the form or appearance," "to transfer figuratively" ( 1 Corinthians 4:6 ,"These things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos"; the Geneva version reads "I have figuratively described in my own person"). Paul is "substituting himself and Apollos for the teachers most in repute at Corinth that he might thus avoid personality."

"Figure" is supplied in Ecclesiasticus 49:9, with en ómbrō , "He made mention of the enemies under the figure of the rain," the Revised Version (British and American) "He remembered the enemies in storm," margin "(Greek) rain."

The Revised Version (British and American) has "a figure" margin "an interpretation," for "the interpretation" ( Proverbs 1:6; the word is melı̄cāh , only here and  Habakkuk 2:6 , meaning properly what is involved and needs interpretation; in  Habakkuk 2:6 it is translated "taunting proverb," the Revised Version, margin "riddle"); "figured stone" for "image of stone" (  Leviticus 26:1 ); "figured stones" for "pictures" ( Numbers 33:52 ).

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

stands in the Auth. Vers. as the representative of the following words in the original: סֶמֶל , Se'Mel,  Deuteronomy 4:16, i.e. an Idol, as elsewhere rendered; מַקְלִעִת , nzikla'ath,  1 Kings 6:29, a Carving, as, elsewhere rendered; but usually, in a metaphorical sense, תִּבְּנַית , tabnith',  Isaiah 44:13, likeness or pattern, as elsewhere rendered; to which correspond in the N.T. Τύπος ,  Acts 7:43;  Romans 5:14, a Type; Άντίτυπον ,  Hebrews 9:24,  1 Peter 3:21, an Antitype; and Παραβολή , ,  Hebrews 9:9;  Hebrews 11:19, a Parable, as elsewhere rendered. (See Type); (See Parable).