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Bible Dictionaries
Nobleman
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or NOBLEMAN.—This word is derived from the Lat. nobilis (= gnô-bilis), ‘well-known,’ ‘notable.’ In usage the ennobling which makes a man notable may come (a) from rank inherited or conferred, (b) from office, or (c) from character. With the meaning (c) ‘nobleman’ does not occur in the NT, nor has it often this significance in English authors. ‘A noble man’ should be used, when it is desired to convey the thought expressed in Dryden’s lines;
‘A nobleman is he whose noble mind
Is filled with inborn worth.’
In the Authorized and Revised Versions ‘a certain nobleman’ is the translation of two different Gr. phrases, viz. (1) ἄνθρωπός τις εὐγενής, Luke 19:12; (2) τις βασιλικός, John 4:46; John 4:49.
1. In the parable of the Pounds (Luke 19:11 ff.) the literal rendering of the Gr. phrase is ‘a certain well-born man,’ or, more idiomatically expressed, ‘a man of noble family’ (Weymouth). The nobility comes from inherited rank. Inadequate translations are those of Wyclif ‘a worthi man,’ and of most early English versions ‘a noble man.’ The ‘nobleman’ of this parable is probably Archelaus, who, on the death of his father, Herod the Great, went to Rome in order to urge his claims to the kingdom. An ‘ambassage’ of fifty Jews followed Archelaus from Jerusalem to the ‘far country’ in order to protest against his being made king; in other words, they went to Rome to say, ‘We will not that this man reign over us’ (Luke 19:14).
2. The Gr. word used in John 4:46; John 4:49 means ‘belonging to a king’ (cf. James 2:8 ‘royal’). Wyclif ‘a litil kyng,’ like the Vulgate regulus, follows the false reading βασιλίσκος. More adequate renderings are AVm [Note: Vm Authorized Version margin.] ‘courtier,’ or ‘ruler’; (Revised Version margin) ‘king’s officer.’ The nobility comes from office. Weymouth expresses the meaning well: ‘a certain officer of the king’s court.’ Josephus (BJ vii. v. 2, Ant. xv. viii. 4) uses the word to distinguish the courtiers and other officers of the king from those, of Rome. The ‘king’ in whose court this officer served was Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. The title ‘king’ was not his by right, but was given to him in courtesy (Matthew 14:9). It is not known who this king’s officer was, nor whether his duties were civil or military. He has wrongly been identified with the ‘centurion’ (ἑκατόνταρχος) referred to in Matthew 8:5 and Luke 7:2,—a Gentile officer in the army of Antipas. To identify the healing of the nobleman’s son with the healing of the centurion’s servant is not only to manufacture discrepancies, but also to lose the light which the earlier miracle casts upon the later one. This is well brought out by Chadwick (Expositor, 4th series, v. 443 ff.); the strong faith of the centurion (Matthew 8:10) ‘becomes intelligible, without ceasing to be admirable, when we reflect that he was evidently aware of the miracle formerly wrought for another inhabitant of the same city, an eminent person, one of the court which his own sword protected.’
J. G. Tasker.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Nobleman'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/n/nobleman.html. 1906-1918.
