σπέρμα

spevrma spevrma,
spevrmato",
tov (
speivrw, which see), from Homer down, Hebrew  [r'z<, the seed (from which anything springs); a. from which a plant germinates;
a. properly, the seed i. e. the grain or kernel which contains within itself the germ of the future plant: plural, ; ; (; ); the singular is used collectively of the grains or kernels sown: ,,f; (here L Tr
spovro").
b. metaphorically, a seed i. e. a residue. or a few survivors reserved as the germ of a new race (just as seed is kept from the harvest for the sowing), after , where the Septuagint for dyrIc' (so also Sap. ; Esdr. (87); Josephus, Antiquities 11,5,3; 12,7,8; Plato, Tim., p. 23{c}). b. the semen virile;
a. properly: ;f, etc.; (probably also , cf.
katabolhv 1, and see below); often in secular writings. By metonymy the product of this semen, seed, children, offspring, progeny; family, race, posterity (so in Greek chiefly in the tragic poets, cf. Passow, under the word, 2 b. ii., p. 1498 (Liddell and Scott, under the word, II. 3); and  [r'z< very often in the O. T. (cf. Winer's Grammar, 17, 30)); so in the singular, either of one, or collectively of many: f;
eij"
katabolhvn
spevrmato" (see (above, and)
katabolhv, 2) ;
ajnistanai and
ejxanistanai
spevrma
tivni, ; ; ();
e[cein
spevrma, ;
ajfievnai
spevrma
tivni, ;
tov
spevrma
tivno", ; ; ,; ; f; ; ; (4:13); ; ; ; ; ; ; in plural:
pai'"
ejk
bailikwn
spermavtwn, of royal descent, Josephus, Antiquities 8, 7, 6;
tw'n
Abramiaivwn
spermavtwn
ajpovgonoi, ; equivalent to tribes, races,
a[nqrwpoi
tev
kaiv
ajnqrwvpwn
spermasi
nomoqetoumen
tav
nu'n, Plato, legg. 9, p. 853 c. By a rabbinical method of interpreting, opposed to the usage of the Hebrew  [r'z<, which signifies the offspring whether consisting of one person or many, Paul lays such stress on the singular number in ; as to make it denote but one of Abraham's posterity, and that the Messiah: , also ; and yet, that the way in which Pard presses the singular here is not utterly at variance with the genius of the Jewish-Greek language is evident from
Abramiaivwn
spermavtwn
ajpovgonoi, , where the plural is used of many descendants ((cf. Delitzsch, Br. a. d. R?m., p. 16 note 2; Lightfoot on Galatians, the passage cited)).
tov
spevrma (
!Abraavm)
tov
ejk
tou'
novmou,