Captain:
(1.) Heb. sar (1Sa 22:2; 2Sa 23:19). Rendered "chief," Gen 40:2; 41:9; rendered also "prince," Dan 1:7; "ruler," Jdg 9:30; "governor,' 1Ki 22:26. This same Hebrew word denotes a military captain (Exd 18:21; 2Ki 1:9; Deu 1:15; 1Sa 18:13, etc.), the "captain of the body-guard" (Gen 37:36; 39:1; 41:10; Jer 40:1), or, as the word may be rendered, "chief of the executioners" (marg.). The officers of the king's body-guard frequently acted as executioners. Nebuzar-adan (Jer 39:13) and Arioch (Dan 2:14) held this office in Babylon.
The "captain of the guard" mentioned in Act 28:16 was the Praetorian prefect, the commander of the Praetorian troops.
(2.) Another word (Heb. katsin) so translated denotes sometimes a military (Jos 10:24; Jdg 11:6,11; Isa 22:3 "rulers; Dan 11:18) and sometimes a civil command, a judge, magistrate, Arab. kady, (Isa 1:10; 3:6; Mic 3:1,9).
(3.) It is also the rendering of a Hebrew word (shalish) meaning "a third man," or "one of three." The LXX. render in plural by tristatai; i.e., "soldiers fighting from chariots," so called because each war-chariot contained three men, one of whom acted as charioteer while the other two fought (Exd 14:7; 15:4; 1Ki 9:22; 2Ki 9:25). This word is used also to denote the king's body-guard (2Ki 10:25; 1Ch 12:18; 2Ch 11:11) or aides-de-camp.
(4.) The "captain of the temple" mentioned in Act 4:1 and 5:24 was not a military officer, but superintendent of the guard of priests and Levites who kept watch in the temple by night. (1Ch 9:11; 2Ch 31:13; Neh 11:11.)
(5.) The Captain of our salvation is a name given to our Lord (Hbr 2:10), because he is the author and source of our salvation, the head of his people, whom he is conducting to glory. The "captain of the Lord's host" (Jos 5:14,15) is the name given to that mysterious person who manifested himself to Abraham (Gen 12:7), and to Moses in the bush (Exd 3:2,6, etc.) the Angel of the covenant. (See ANGEL.)
The Blue Letter Bible ministry and the BLB Institute hold to the historical, conservative Christian faith, which includes a firm belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. Since the text and audio content provided by BLB represent a range of evangelical traditions, all of the ideas and principles conveyed in the resource materials are not necessarily affirmed, in total, by this ministry.
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