Greek word · G3773
Οὐρβανός
ourbanos
Urbanus
A personal name, the Latin Urbanus, meaning "belonging to the city" (urbs), and by extension refined or urbane.
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
A personal name, the Latin Urbanus, meaning "belonging to the city" (urbs), and by extension refined or urbane.
- Against the English
The KJV's "Urbane" anglicises the name and accidentally suggests the English adjective. YLT's "Arbanus" is an odd spelling not supported by the Greek.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Frequent in Latin inscriptions from Rome, including those of slaves and freedmen. J. B. Lightfoot (Philippians, essay on "Caesar's household") noted the name among members of the imperial household, though identifying any of them with Paul's Urbanus is speculative.
Where it appears
Romans · 1
-
Romans 16:9 Οὐρβανὸν Urbanus
Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys.
Here: The Latin name Urbanus, "city-man", someone from the city (Rome) or refined, written in Greek letters. It was a common name in Rome, especially among slaves and freed slaves, so it suggests a man of ordinary or servile background in the Roman population.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.