Strong's Concordance speira: anything wound up or coiled, by ext. a body (of soldiers), i.e. a cohort Original Word: σπεῖρα, ης, ἡPart of Speech: Noun, Feminine Transliteration: speira Phonetic Spelling: (spi'-rah) Short Definition: a cohort Definition: a cohort, the tenth part of a legion; a military guard. Thayer's Greek Lexicon STRONGS NT 4686: σπεῖρασπεῖρα (on the accent cf. Buttmann, 11; Chandler § 161; Tdf. Proleg., p. 102), ἡ, genitive σπείρης (Acts 10:1; Acts 21:31; Acts 27:1; see (Tdf. Proleg., p. 117; WH's Appendix, p. 156; and) μάχαιρα, at the beginning) (cognate with σπυρίς (which see)); a. Latinspira; anything rolled into a circle or ball, anything wound, rolled up, folded together. b. a military cohort (Polybius 11, 23, 1 τρεῖς σπείρας. τοῦτο δέ καλεῖται τό σύνταγμα τῶν πεζῶν παρά Ῥωμαίοις κωρτις), i. e. the tenth part of a legion (i. e. about 600 men (i. e. legionaries), or if auxilialies either 500 or 1,000; cf. Marquardt, Römisch. Alterth. III. ii., p. 371. But surely τοῦτο τό σύνταγμα in the quotation comprehends the τρεῖς σπεῖρα; hence, Polybius here makes a σπεῖρα equal to a maniple, cf. 2, 3, 2; 6, 24, 5; cf. Zonaras, Lex., p. 1664, σπεῖρα σύνταγμα διακοσίων ἀνδρῶν. On the other hand, "the later Greek writings almost uniformly employ σπεῖρα as the representative of cohors" (Smith, Dict. of Antiq., edition 2, under the word exercitus, p. 500); and the rise of χιλίαρχος (which was the equivalent of tribunus, the commander of a cohort) in connection with it (John 18:12; Acts 21:31), together with the uniform rendering of the word by cohors in the Latin versions, warrants the margin cohort uniformly added in R. V. to the rendering band): Matthew 27:27; Mark 15:16; Acts 10:1; Acts 21:31; Acts 27:1, and often in Josephus; a maniple, or the thirtieth part of a legion, often so in Polybius ((see above)); any band, company, or detachment, of soldiers (2 Macc. 8:23; Judith 14:11): John 18:3, 12. Of immediate Latin origin, but ultimately a derivative of haireomai in the sense of its cognate heilisso; a coil (spira, "spire"), i.e. (figuratively) a mass of men (a Roman military cohort; also (by analogy) a squad of Levitical janitors) -- band. see GREEK heilisso see GREEK haireomai Englishman's Concordance Strong's Greek 46867 Occurrences σπεῖρα — 1 Occ. σπεῖραν — 3 Occ. σπείρης — 3 Occ. Matthew 27:27 N-AFS GRK: ὅλην τὴν σπεῖραν NAS: the whole [Roman] cohort around KJV: him the whole band [of soldiers]. INT: all the battalion Mark 15:16 N-AFS John 18:3 N-AFS John 18:12 N-NFS Acts 10:1 N-GFS Acts 21:31 N-GFS Acts 27:1 N-GFS |