Guard:
(1.) Heb. tabbah [properly a "cook," and in a secondary sense "executioner," because this office fell to the lot of the cook in Eastern countries], the bodyguard of the kings of Egypt (Gen 37:36) and Babylon (2Ki 25:8; Jer 40:1; Dan 2:14).
(2.) Heb. rats, properly a "courier," one whose office was to run before the king's chariot (2Sa 15:1; 1Ki 1:5). The couriers were also military guards (1Sa 22:17; 2Ki 10:25). They were probably the same who under David were called Pelethites (1Ki 14:27; 2Sa 15:1).
(3.) Heb. mishmereth, one who watches (Neh 4:22), or a watch-station (7:3; 12:9; Job 7:12).
In the New Testament (Mar 6:27) the Authorized Version renders the Greek spekulator by "executioner," earlier English versions by "hangman," the Revised Version by "soldier of his guard." The word properly means a "pikeman" or "halberdier," of whom the bodyguard of kings and princes was composed. In Matt. 27:65, 66; 28:11, the Authorized Version renders the Greek kustodia by "watch," and the Revised Version by "guard," the Roman guard, which consisted of four soldiers, who were relieved every three hours (Act 12:4). The "captain of the guard" mentioned Act 28:16 was the commander of the Praetorian troops, whose duty it was to receive and take charge of all prisoners from the provinces.
Guard:
gard:
(1) sar ha-Tabbachim, "captain of the guard," literally, "slaughterers" (Ge 37:36; 39:1; 40:3,1; 41:10,12); rabh Tabbachim (2Ki 25:8,11,20; Jer 39:9, etc.); rabh tabbachayyah (Da 2:14); ratsim, "guard," the King James Version "footmen" (1Sa 22:17); sare ha-ratsim, "chief of the guard" the King James Version "captains of the guard" (1Ki 14:27); ta' ha-ratsim, "guard-chamber" (1Ki 14:28; compare Eze 40:21, etc., where "lodges" are "guardrooms"; see A.B. Davidson at the place).
(2) mishmar, "guard," a defense to a point of danger (Ne 4:22 f; Eze 38:7).
(3) mishma‘ath, "guard" (2Sa 23:23, where the American Revised Version, margin and the Revised Version, margin have "council," the body over which Benaiah was set by David and whose functions were perhaps those of consultation)
(4) spekoulator, "guard" (Mr 6:27, "a man of Herod's guard," where, as in one or two other cases, Mark, writing for Romans, simply transliterates the Latin speculator "a scout," "an executioner," as in loc.).
(5) stratopedarches, "captain of the guard" the King James Version, "captain of the praetorian guard" the Revised Version, margin, Ac 28:16. See CAPTAIN.
(6) (koustodia), "watch" the King James Version, "guard" the American Standard Revised Version and the Revised Version (British and American) (Mt 27:65,66; 28:11).
1. Royal Body-Guard:
An oriental monarch's body-guard consisted of picked men attached to his person and ready to fulfill his pleasure in important and confidential concerns. At the courts of Egypt and Babylon the members of the guard were known as "slaughterers," "executioners" (Ge 37:36 King James Version margin, the American Revised Version, margin and the Revised Version, margin, where Potiphar is called their captain); 2Ki 25:8, where Nebuzaradan is called their captain (King James Version margin "chief marshal"). Whether it had ever been the function of the body-guard to kill meat for the royal table there is little directly to show; that they acted as executioners can be well understood. In Israel they were known as "the footmen" (1Sa 22:17 the King James Version, the American Revised Version, margin and the Revised Version, margin "runners") who acted as royal messengers or couriers from the time of Saul onward (2Ki 10:25; 11:6); and this designation connects them with the couriers of the kings of Persia (Es 3:13,15; 8:14, where our versions render "posts," though the Hebrew is ratsim).
2. Composed of Foreigners:
The men of the royal body-guard were usually foreigners like the janissaries of oriental monarchs down to modern times, who prefer to have around their persons warriors uninfluenced by family connection with the people of the land. Rameses II had such a body-guard whose commanders ranked with the great officers of the crown (Maspero, Struggle of the Nations, 766). David's body-guard of 600, known also as the gibborim or "mighty men," consisted of Cherethites, Pelethites, and Gittites (2Sa 15:18; 20:23), and we read of Carites (2Ki 11:19), who may have been Carians or Cretans, as forming part of the guard at the coronation of King Jehoash.
3. Connection with the Temple:
That this guard had duties in connection with the temple as well as the king's house seems clear. That they were employed as slaughterers of the sacrifices before the Levites were entrusted with the office is unlikely, inasmuch as this guard is not said to have been composed of "slaughterers" but of "runners." But they accompanied King Rehoboam when he visited the temple (1Ki 14:28), and to their captains were committed the shields of brass which took the place of the shields of gold which Solomon had hung up in the temple; Jehoiada employed their captains to put Athaliah to death and to exterminate the worshippers of Baal who had fled to the temple precincts (2Ki 11:4 ); the temple gate leading to the palace was called "the gate of the guard" (2Ki 11:19). At this time, and for this occasion, at least, the royal body-guard were the temple guards; and when Ezekiel drew up his plans for the temple which he conceived to replace the temple destroyed by Nebuchadrezzar, the "lodges" or "little chambers" were rooms for the accommodation of the temple guard (Eze 40:7,10,21,33, etc.).
LITERATURE.
Robertson Smith, OTJC, 262, and note.
Written by T. Nicol
Guard:
See WATCHMAN
Captain:
kap'-tin: In the King James Version there are no fewer than 13 Hebrew words, and 4 different Greek words, which are rendered by this one English word. In the Revised Version (British and American) some of these are rendered by other English words, and so we find for "captain": "marshal" (Jer 27; Na 3:17), "prince" (1Sa 9:16), "governor" (Jer 51:23,28), while in the case of one of these Hebrew words a different construction is found altogether (Jer 13:21).
1. In the Old Testament:
Of Hebrew words in the Old Testament rendered by "captain"
(1) the most frequent is sar, which denotes "a military commander," whether of thousands or hundreds or fifties (Nu 31:48; 1Sa 8:12 and many other places). Sar is the chief officer of any department, civil and religious, as well as military-captain of the guard the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American), chief of the executioners the Revised Version, margin (Ge 37:36); chief butler (Ge 40:9); chief baker (Ge 40:16); chief of a district (Ne 3:15); chiefs of tribes (Naphtali; Zebulun, Ps 68:27); chiefs over gangs of slaves (Ex 1:11); chiefs of the priests and the Levites (Ezr 8:29).
(2) rabh, later Hebrew for chief of the executioners or captain of the guard, a title always given to Nebuzar-adan (2Ki 25:8 ff; Jer 39:9 ff) and to Arioch (Da 2:14). Compare also RAB-MAG, chief of the magicians (Jer 39:13), and Ashpenaz, chief of the eunuchs (Da 1:3).
(3) ro'sh, "head" over a host (Israel in the wilderness, Nu 14:4), over tribes (De 29:10, where the Revised Version (British and American) renders "heads"), over thousands (1Ch 12:20). Abijah, king of Judah, before joining battle against Jeroboam, claimed "God himself is with us for our captain" the King James Version, "with us at our head" the Revised Version (British and American) (2Ch 13:12).
(4) shalish, originally the third man in the chariot, who, when the chief occupant was the king, or commander-in-chief, was of the rank of captain (2Ki 7:2; 9:25), the term "third man" being generalized to mean "a captain" in 2Ki 10:25; 2Ch 8:9, where "chief of his captains" combines (1) and (4).
(5) naghidh, leader by Divine appointment: of Saul (1Sa 9:16, "captain," the King James Version, "prince" the Revised Version (British and American) 1Sa 10:1); of David (2Sa 5:2); of Hezekiah (2Ki 20:5); with a charge in connection with the temple (2Ch 31:13). It is the word used of Messiah "the prince" (Da 9:25), who is also Prince of the Covenant (Da 11:22).
(6) nasi', rendered "captain" in the King James Version Nu 2:3,5,7 only, there in the Revised Version (British and American) and in other places, both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American), rendered "prince." In 1Ch 7:40 "chief of the princes" combines (3) and (6).
(7) pechah, is found almost entirely in a foreign title denoting "governor," and belongs to the later history of Israel (Ne 2:7,9; Ezr 8:36; Hag 1:1), rendered "captain" in exclusively foreign associations (1Ki 20:24; 2Ki 18:24; Da 3:27 f).
(8) qatsin (from root of qadi, Arabic for "judge"), denotes "dictator," almost "usurper," and is found in "rulers of Sodom" the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American), "judges of Sodom" the Revised Version, margin (Isa 1:10), used of Jephthah in sense of "captain" the King James Version, "chief" the Revised Version (British and American) (Jud 11:6), found combined with (3), "head and captain" (King James Version, "head and chief" the Revised Version (British and American) Jud 11:11). In Jos 10:24 it denotes commanders of troops, the King James Version "captains of the men of war," the Revised Version (British and American) "chiefs of the men of war."
(9) kar, in Eze 21:22 "to set captains" the King James Version, is translated "to set battering rams" the Revised Version (British and American).
(10) baal, only once in "captain of the ward" (Jer 37:13).
(11) Tiphcar, a dignitary belonging to an oriental court, in the King James Version rendered "captain," in the Revised Version (British and American) "marshal" (Na 3:17; Jer 51:27).
(12) shallit, in Da 2:15 of Arioch, the king's captain; in Ec 8:8 "having power over," and in Ec 7:19 used of "mighty men" (the Revised Version (British and American) "rulers").
2. In the New Testament:
Of Greek words rendered by "captain" in New Testament there are the following:
(1) archegos, rendered "captain" in Hebrews 2:10 the King James Version but relegated to the margin in the Revised Version (British and American), where "author" (of their salvation) is preferred, this being the rendering of Hebrews 12:2 the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American), "author" (and finisher of our faith), "captain" being still retained in the Revised Version, margin. Compare Ac 3:15 and Ac 5:31, where the same Greek word is rendered "Prince," the Revised Version, margin of the former passage giving "Author." In the Risen and Ascended Christ the various conceptions thus expressed are found to blend.
(2) chiliarchos, the Latin tribunus militum of which there were six to a legion, commanding the six cohorts of which it was composed. In its lit. acceptation it would be "commander of a thousand," and it is so used in Ac 22:28 where it designates the commander of the Roman garrison in Jerusalem, consisting of a cohort, and is rendered "chief captain" (Joh 18:12; Ac 21:31; 22:24; 24:22). It is used more vaguely in the sense of "military officer" in Mr 6:21; Re 6:15; 19:18.
(3) strategos, used only by Luke in the New Testament, and almost exclusively of
(a) officials in charge of the Temple (Lu 22:4,52; Ac 4:1; 5:24,26). The captain of the Temple had the superintendence of the Levites and priests who were on guard in and around the Temple, and under him were strategoi, who were also captains of the Temple police, although they took their instruction from him as their head. He was not only a priest, but second in dignity only to the high priest himself;
(b) the exception to Luke's general usage is where the word is used of the chief authorities in civil affairs at Philippi; where "the magistrates," as the word is rendered (Ac 16:20 f), called themselves "praetors" (strategoi). In the case of Paul and Silas they placed themselves in peril of removal from their office by ordering them to be beaten, being Romans and uncondemned.
(4) stratopedarches, the captain of the guard to whom Julius of the Augustan band (according to the Textus Receptus of the New Testament, Ac 28:16) delivered Paul and his fellow-prisoners. The word has disappeared from the Revised Version (British and American), but the passage in which it occurs has attestation which satisfies Blass, Sir William Ramsay, and other scholars. It was supposed that this was the captain of the Praetorian guard, but Mommsen and Ramsay believe him to be the princeps peregrinorum castrorum.
Written by T. Nicol
See AUGUSTAN BAND
See ARMY, ROMAN
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