Fair (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. Beautiful, as Sus v. 'a very fair woman ' («taX^ <r(pbSpa) ; Sir 24' ' I am the mother of fair love' (rrji d707ri)i7fus rrji icaX^s). So fre- quently in OT ; but in NT only Ac 7 [Moses] ' was exceeding fair ' (dcrxf los rip dap, lit. ' fair to God,' see under EXCEEDING. The adj. occurs also He 11^ and again of Moses ; AV ' proper' ; RV ' goodly,' the word in Ex 2' where the Heb. is 3io 'good'). 2. Unspotted, Zee 3°" 'a fair mitre' (imp). Cf. Pr. Bk. (1552) 'a fayre white lynnen clothe ' ; Ezk 1' Cov. ' fayre scoured metaU ' ; Wesley (1737), Works, i. 46, ' a paper book ; all the leaves thereof were fair, except one.' Wyclif s tr. of Zee 3" is (1382) 'acleene cappe' (138S, 'a cleene mytre ') ; Douay, 'a cleane mitre.' Coverdale gives ' fair,' and the other V.SS follow him. Amer. RV restores 'clean.' 3. Plausible, Gal Q'^ 'to make a fair show ' (eiiTrpoiraur^irai) ; elsewhere only of speech. In Sir 6° ' fair speaking ' is used in n food sense, ' a fair-speaking tongue will increase ind greetings ' (eOXaXos). The modem form ' fair- spoken ' had also a good meaning once, as Capgrave (l-f60), Chron. 81, ' He was . . . fayre-spokyn, but he spak but seldam.' In Ezk 27'-'- '«• "■ "■" ' fairs,' i.e. markets, is used in AV (after Wye. in v."" and Geneva through- out) as tr. of Heb. o'Jbiy, which Ls evidently ' wares ' as AV has it in v.", the only other occurrence of the word. RV gives ' wares ' (wh. see) throughout. J. HASTINGS. FAIR HAVENS (EaXo! At/i^ves), one of the places mentioned in connexion with St. Paul's voj'age to Rome (Ac 27''"'), is a small bay, two leagues E. of Cape Matala, on the S. coast of Crete. There does not seem to have been a town at the place, but there was one near it, called Lasea. Neither Fair Havens nor Lasea is mentioned in classical writings, but the former name survives in the modem Gr. dialect as AiiitCifas KaXoi/j, and archa'ological re- search has confirmed the identity of both places. It has been suggested that the name is euphemistic, and the fact that an attempt was made to reach Phoenix, the modem Lutro, a considerable dis- tance W. along the coast, in the circumstances mentioned in Ac, adds emphasis to the statement that the haven was not commodious to winter in. On the other hand, it proved a welcome shelter to St. Paul and those who were with him, for a con- siderable time, at a most critical part of their voyage. The difference between Fair Havens and Pliwnix was, that while the former was sheltered only from the N. and N.W. winds, the latter was ' the only secure harbour in all winds on the S. coast of Crete.' W. MuiB.