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Sword (2)

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

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SWORD.—In Luke 2:35 and in some passages in the Apocalypse the word for ‘sword’ is ῥομαία elsewhere in the NT it is μάχαιρα. The former denoted a weapon used by barbarous nations, especially the Thracians (Livy, xxxi. 39: ‘Thracas quoque romphaeae ingentis et ipsae longitudinis, inter objectos undique ramos impediebant’). It thus appears to have been rather a lance or javelin than a sword, and so may reflect the Hebrew rômah. In the Syr. [Note: Syriac.] of Luke 2:35 the word used is romah, and the phrase is probably a reminiscence of Psalms 37:15 (LXX Septuagint ). The word μάχαιρα may denote nothing more than a knife or dagger, as in the LXX Septuagint of Joshua 5:2-3 of flint knives, but also a sword. The people who came to arrest Jesus were armed with swords and clubs: Jesus’ followers also had two swords, which Jesus declared to be enough; and one of them (Peter) drew his sword and wounded a servant of the high priest (Matthew 26:47-55, Mark 14:43-48, Luke 22:36-52, John 18:10-11).

Metaphorically the sword stands as a symbol for war (to ‘fall by the edge of the sword’ means to die in war), or for a divided state of society (Matthew 10:34 ‘I came not to send peace, but a sword’ [in Luke 12:51 ‘division’]). In Matthew 26:52 ‘They that take the sword shall perish with the sword,’ the sword probably denotes the use of physical force generally, although we have also the belief that a tyrant is despatched with the very weapon which he employs against the victims of his tyranny. The expression in Luke 2:35 ‘A sword shall pierce through thy own soul,’ was sometimes interpreted as a prediction of martyrdom (Epiphanius, Haer. 78).

T. H. Weir.