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Chiliarch (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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CHILIARCH (χιλίαρχος).—The title of this military officer is twice used in the Gospels: John 18:12 and Mark 6:21 (Authorized Version ‘captain,’ ‘high captains’; Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ‘chief captain,’ ‘high captains’; (Revised Version margin) ‘military tribune(s), Gr. chiliarch(s)’). It is the Greek equivalent for the Roman office of tribunus militum, an office of great historical antiquity, from the analogy of which the famous tribuni plebis took their name. The tribunus militum is called by Mommsen ‘the pillar of the Roman military system’; he was an officer commanding a cohort. See, further, Legion.

A chiliarch with his ‘band’ (σπεῖρα) is represented by St. John as coming with Judas to take our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. If this is to be understood strictly as standing for a tribunus militum and his cohort, the use of so large a force would point to a great (real or assumed) fear of popular disturbance on the part of the authorities. The words may, however, be used in a general sense for a body of troops under an officer (see Westcott, ad loc.).

In St. Mark’s account of the martyrdom of John the Baptist, Herod the tetrarch of Galilee is represented as making a feast to his μεγιστᾶνες (highest civil officials), χιλίαρχοι (highest military officers), and πρῶτοι τῆς Γαλιλαίας (leading provincials). These ‘chiliarchs’ were officers of the army of the tetrarch, which would be organized on Roman models. For the association of μεγιστᾶνες and χιλίαρχοι cf. Revelation 6:15. (See Swete’s St Mark, ad loc.).

M. R. Newbolt.