Strengthen your faith in God's word

(1.) Heb. sar (1 Sam 22:2; 2 Sam 23:19). Rendered “chief,” Gen 40:2; Gen 41:9; rendered also “prince,” Dan 1:7; “ruler,” Judg 9:30; “governor,’ 1 Kgs 22:26. This same Hebrew word denotes a military captain (Ex 18:21; 2 Kgs 1:9; Deut 1:15; 1 Sam 18:13, etc.), the “captain of the body-guard” (Gen 37:36; Gen 39:1; Gen 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 Acts 28:16 was the Praetorian prefect, the commander of the Praetorian troops.

(2.) Another word (Heb. katsin) so translated denotes sometimes a military (Josh 10:24; Judg 11:6, Judg 11:11; Isa 22:3 “rulers;” Dan 11:18) and sometimes a civil command, a judge, magistrate, Arab. kady, (Isa 1:10; Isa 3:6; Mic 3:1, Mic 3:9).

(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 (Ex 14:7; Ex 15:4; 1 Kgs 9:22; comp. 2 Kgs 9:25). This word is used also to denote the king’s body-guard (2 Kgs 10:25; 1 Chr 12:18; 2 Chr 11:11) or aides-de-camp.

(4.) The “captain of the temple” mentioned in Acts 4:1 and Acts 5:24 was not a military officer, but superintendent of the guard of priests and Levites who kept watch in the temple by night. (Comp. “the ruler of the house of God,” 1 Chr 9:11; 2 Chr 31:13; Neh 11:11.)

(5.) The Captain of our salvation is a name given to our Lord (Heb 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” (Josh 5:14, Josh 5:15) is the name given to that mysterious person who manifested himself to Abraham (Gen 12:7), and to Moses in the bush (Ex 3:2, Ex 3:6, etc.) the Angel of the covenant. (See Angel.)