UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament

Sense 1: sign

Semantic entry: 33.477

Semantic domains: Communication

Subdomains: Non-Verbal Communication

Definition: an event which is regarded as having some special meaning

Notes: In translating σημεῖον in RV MAT 24:3 · LV MAT 24:3 · Read together MAT 24:3, it may be necessary in some languages to say ‘tell us what will happen that will show that you are coming’ or ‘tell us what we will see that will make us know that you are coming.’|σημεῖον as an event with special meaning was inevitably an unusual or even miraculous type of occurrence, and in a number of contexts σημεῖον may be rendered as ‘miracle.’ Certainly that is the referent of the term σημεῖον in RV JHN 2:23 · LV JHN 2:23 · Read together JHN 2:23 (πολλοὶ ἐπίστευσαν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦθεωροῦντες αὐτοῦ τὰ σημεῖα ἅ ἐποίει ‘many believed in him as they saw the signs he did’). For the Gospel of John, however, a σημεῖον is not simply a miraculous event but something which points to a reality with even greater significance. A strictly literal translation of σημεῖον as ‘sign’ might mean nothing more than a road sign or a sign on a building, and therefore in some languages σημεῖον in a context such as RV JHN 2:23 · LV JHN 2:23 · Read together JHN 2:23 may be rendered as ‘a miracle with great meaning.’