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Bible Dictionaries
Rod
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or 1. An Instrument of punishment or correction.-The term denotes an instrument of punishment or correction.
(a) In his enumeration of the hardships and sufferings endured by him in the course of his apostolic labours, St. Paul employs the verb ῥαβδίζειν, ‘to beat with rods,’ to describe the punishment to which he was subjected on three occasions by Roman magistrates (2 Corinthians 11:25). ‘The rods’ was the customary expression for Roman scourging. In the one instance recorded in the Acts, the scourging was inflicted by the lictors (ῥαβδοῦχοι, translation ‘sergeants’ in Authorized Version and Revised Version , lit. [Note: literally, literature.] “rod-holders’) by order of the duumviri (16:22f., 16:35, 38). It was the duty of the lictors to carry the fasces, consisting of rods bound in the form of a bundle, with an axe in the middle which projected from them. These, usually made of birch, were the instruments with which St. Paul and Silas were cruelly maltreated at Philippi.
(b) The term is used figuratively in 1 Corinthians 4:21 to denote the stern treatment called for in the event of continued recalcitrancy on the part of Church members, chastisement with the rod being a familiar method of enforcing obedience and submission to parental authority (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:11 f.).
2. The symbol of sovereignty.-The ‘rod’ or sceptre is also used as the symbol of sovereignty (Hebrews 1:8; cf. Psalms 45:6; Psalms 110:2). Quotations in the Apocalypse [Revelation 12:5; Revelation 19:15] from Psalms 2:9, which represents the theocratic king as ruling (ποιμανεῖς, Septuagint ) the nations with a rod of iron, are applied to the mediatorial reign of Christ, in which His servants also share. The rod of empire, regarded as a shepherd’s staff, is transformed into an instrument of penal authority which subdues or crushes all opposition (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:24 f.).
W. S. Montgomery.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Rod'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/r/rod.html. 1906-1918.
