Acts 23:23

And he called unto him two centurions, saying, Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen threescore and ten, and spearmen two hundred, at the third hour of the night;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(23) Spearmen two hundred . . .—Literally, right hand graspers. The word was a strictly technical one, and seems to have been applied to those light armed troops who carried a light spear or javelin in their right hands, as contrasted with those who carried the old spear, with a heavier shaft, which had to be wielded by both. They are coupled by the military writers of the Byzantine empire with archers and peltastæ, or light shield-bearers. The escort seems a large one for a single prisoner, but the tumults of the previous days, and the information just received as to the conspiracy, gave the chiliarch good reason to apprehend a formidable attack.

At the third hour of the night.—Assuming that St. Luke uses the Jewish reckoning, this would be about 9 or 10 p.m. It was evidently the object of the chiliarch to place the prisoner beyond the reach of an attack before daybreak. With this view, all, as well as the horsemen, were to be mounted.

Benson Commentary

Acts 23:23-30. And he called two centurions — In whom he could particularly confide; saying, Make ready two hundred soldiers — Thus the chief captain prudently sends Paul away to Cesarea by night, under a strong guard, to the governor Felix. Provide them beasts — If a change should be necessary; to set Paul on — So we read of his riding once, but not by choice. And he wrote a letter, &c. — To Felix on the occasion; which may be considered as a specimen of the Roman method of writing letters, and is certainly a model of brevity, simplicity, and perspicuity. This man was taken of the Jews — Was seized by a multitude of them, who made a sudden insurrection on his account. Then came I with an army — With a party of soldiers, and rescued him from their furious assault; having understood that he was a Roman — True; but not before he rescued him. He here uses art.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:12-24 False religious principles, adopted by carnal men, urge on to such wickedness, as human nature would hardly be supposed capable of. Yet the Lord readily disappoints the best concerted schemes of iniquity. Paul knew that the Divine providence acts by reasonable and prudent means; and that, if he neglected to use the means in his power, he could not expect God's providence to work on his behalf. He who will not help himself according to his means and power, has neither reason nor revelation to assure him that he shall receive help from God. Believing in the Lord, we and ours shall be kept from every evil work, and kept to his kingdom. Heavenly Father, give us by thy Holy Spirit, for Christ's sake, this precious faith.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And he called unto him two centurions ... - Each centurion had under him 100 men. The chief captain resolved to place Paul beyond the power of the Jews, and to protect him as became a Roman citizen.

Two hundred soldiers - These foot soldiers were designed only to guard Paul until he was safely out of Jerusalem. The horsemen only were intended to accompany him to Caesarea. See Acts 23:32.

And horsemen - These were commonly attached to foot soldiers. In this case, however, they were designed to attend Paul to Caesarea.

And spearmen - δεξιολάβους dexiolabous." This word is found nowhere else in the New Testament, and occurs in no Classical writer. It properly means those who take, or apprehend by the right hand; and might be applied to those who apprehend prisoners, or to those who hold a spear or dart in the right hand for the purpose of throwing it. Some have conjectured that it should be read δεξιοβόλους dexiobolous - those who cast or throw (a spear) with the right hand. So the Vulgate, the Syriac, and the Arabic understand it. They were probably those who were armed with spears or darts, and who attended on the tribune as a guard.

At the third hour of the night - At nine o'clock. This was in order that it might be done with secrecy, and to elude the band of desperadoes that had resolved to murder Paul. If it should seem that this guard was very numerous for one man, it should be remembered:

(1) That the number of those who had conspired against him was also large; and,

(2) That they were men accustomed to scenes of blood; men of desperate characters who had solemnly sworn that they would take his life.

In order, therefore, to deter them effectually from attacking the guard, it was made very numerous and strong. Nearly 500 men were appointed to guard Paul as he left Jerusalem.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23, 24. two hundred soldiers—a formidable guard for such an occasion; but Roman officials felt their honor concerned in the preservation of the public peace, and the danger of an attempted rescue would seem to require it. The force at Jerusalem was large enough to spare this convoy.

the third hour of the night—nine o'clock.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Make ready two hundred soldiers; two hundred were the usual proportion or number of men which were under the two centurions; so that they were commanded to have their companies in readiness.

And horsemen threescore and ten; horsemen being usually added for defence of their foot soldiers.

Spearmen, as they are called here, were such as handled, or threw, their javelins or darts with their right hand. Some think them to have been such as our serjeants, who take men into custody; others, that they were soldiers raised out of foreign nations, and lightly armed.

At the third hour of the night; partly because in those hot countries it is very troublesome to travel by day, and partly for the greater security of Paul and such as went with him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he called to him two centurions,.... Who had each of them an hundred soldiers under them:

saying, make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea; which was formerly called Strato's tower, a sea port town, where Felix the Roman governor now was; it was six hundred furlongs, or seventy five miles (f) from Jerusalem: these two hundred soldiers were foot soldiers, as appears by their being distinguished from horsemen in the next clause, and were just the number that the two centurions had the command of; the making of them ready, was their seeing to it, that they were properly clothed, and accoutred with arms and ammunition, and with sufficient provision for their journey:

and horsemen threescore and ten; the Ethiopic version reads, "a hundred"; but without support from any copy: "and spearmen two hundred"; who carried spears in their right hand; the word used signifies such who receive, lay hold on, or hold anything in their right hand: some think it designs such who were employed in the militia, to lay hold on guilty persons, and hold them; the Alexandrian copy reads, "those that cast with the right hand"; and so reads the Syriac version, to which the Arabic agrees, which renders it "darters"; such as carried darts in their hands, and did not shoot out of a bow, but cast darts with their hands: now these being got ready, were ordered to march,

at the third hour of the night; at nine o'clock at night, that they might go out unobserved, and before the petition from the sanhedrim was presented to him.

(f) Joseph. de Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 3. sect. 5. Egesip de Excid. urb. l. 1. c. 7.

Geneva Study Bible

And he called unto him two centurions, saying, Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen threescore and ten, and spearmen two hundred, at the third hour of the night;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Acts 23:23. Δύο τινάς] some two; see on Acts 19:14. Comp. Thuc. viii. 100. 5 : τινὲς δύο. Luke 7:19. It leaves the exact number in uncertainty; Krüger, § li. 16. 4.

So considerable a force was ordered, in order to be secure against any possible contingency of a further attempt.

στρατιώτας] is, on account of the succeeding ἱππεῖς, to be understood of the usual Roman infantry (πεζοὶ στρατιῶται, Herodian, i. 12. 19), milites gravis armaturae, distinguished also from the peculiar kind of light infantry afterwards mentioned as δεξιολάβοι.

δεξιολάβους] a word entirely strange to ancient Greek, perhaps at that time only current colloquially, and not finding its way into the written language. It first occurs in Theophylactus Simocatta,[150] and then again in the tenth century in Constant. Porphyr. Themat. i. 1 (see Wetstein). At all events, it must denote some kind of force under the command of the tribune, and that a light-armed infantry, as the δεξιολ. are distinguished both from the cavalry and from the στρατιώτ. That they were infantry, their great number also proves. It is safest to regard them as a peculiar kind of the light troops called rorarii or velites, and that either as jaculatores (javelin-throwers, Liv. Acts 22:21) or funditores (slingers), for in Constant. Porphyr. (οἱ δὲ λεγόμενοι τουρμάρχαι εἰς ὑπουργίαν τῶν στρατηγῶν ἐτάχθησαν. Σημαίνει δὲ τοιοῦτον ἀξίωμα τὸν ἔχοντα ὑφʼ ἑαυτὸν στρατιώτας τοξοφόρους πεντακοσίους, καὶ πελταστὰς τριακοσίους, καὶ δεξιολάβους ἑκατόν) they are expressly distinguished from the sagittarii, or bowmen (τοξοφόρ.), and from the targeteers, the peltastae (or cetrati, see Liv. xxxi. 36). Detailed grounds are wanting for a more definite decision.[151] The name δεξιολ. (those who grasp with the right hand) is very naturally explained from their kind of weapon, which was restricted in its use to the right hand (it was otherwise with the heavy-armed troops, and also with the bowmen and peltastae). This word has frequently been explained (following Suidas: παραφύλακες) halberdiers, life guardsmen (who protect the right side of the commander), to which, perhaps, the translation of the Vulgate (also Ath. and Sahidic): lancearios (from the spear which the halberdiers carried), is to be referred. Already the Coptic and Syriac p. translate stipatores. Meursius (in the Glossar.), on the other hand: military lictors (“Manum nimirum injiciebant maleficis”). But even apart from the passages of Theophyl. Simocatta, and Constant. Porphyr., of whom the latter particularly mentions the δεξιολ. alongside of the purely light-armed soldiers, and indeed alongside of mere ordinary soldiers: the great number of them is decisive against both views. For that the commander of a cohort should have had a body-guard, of which he could furnish two hundred men for the escort of a prisoner, is just as improbable, as that he should have had as many lictors at his disposal. On the whole, then, the reading ΔΕΞΙΟΒΌΛΟΥς in A (Syr. jaculantes dextra; Erp. jaculatores), approved by Grotius and Valckenaer, is to be considered as a correct interpretation, whether they be understood to be javelin-throwers or slingers.

ἀπὸ τρίτης ὥρας τῆς νυκτός] from this time (about nine in the evening) they were to have this force in readiness, because the convoy was to start, for the sake of the greatest possible security from the Jews, at the time of darkness and of the first sleep.

[150] In the seventh century. The passage in question, v. 1, is as follows: προστάττει δὲ καὶ δεξιολάβοις δυνάμεσιν ἰχνηλατεῖν κ. τὰς ἀτραποὺς πάσας κατασφαλίζεσθαι. From this it only follows that they must have been a light-armed force.

[151] Ewald, p. 577, now explains it from λαβή, grasp of the sword; holding that they were spiculatores cum lanceis (Sueton. Claud. 35); and that they carried their sword, not on the left, but on the right. But we do not see why this was necessary for the sake of using their spears by the right hand. The sword on the left side would, indeed, have been least a hindrance to them in the use of the spear. Earlier, Ewald took them to be slingers.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 23:23. See critical note; if we place τινάς before δύο, Blass, Weiss, Knaben bauer take it of two centurions whom he could specially trust, see their notes in loco, and Blass, Gram., p. 174. In Luke 7:19 the order is different, Blass compares Herman, Vis., i., 4, 3, δύο τινὲς ἄνδρες (but see on the other hand Page’s note, and Wendt, edit. 1899).—ἑτοιμάσατε: here only in Acts, but frequent in Luke’s Gospel, more so than in Matthew or Mark, in John only twice. On the aorist imperfect see Winer-Moulton, xliii., 3, “have immediately … in readiness to march”.—στρατ. διακ.: milites gravis armaturæ. Blass brackets the first διακ., and καὶ before ἱππεῖς, so that στρατ. includes under it both ἱππεῖς and δεξιολάβους, see critical note.—δεξιολ.: apparently a special class of light-armed soldiers (javelin-throwers, Livy, Acts 22:21, or slingers), Schürer, Jewish People, div. i., vol. ii., p. 56, E.T., who says that this much only is certain. The word only occurs elsewhere twice, and that in later Greek literature of the seventh and tenth century (see references in Grimm-Thayer, sub v., and Meyer—Wendt, in loco), where they are distinguished from the τοξοφόροι and πελτασταί. Probably from δεξιός and λαμβάνω, grasping their weapons by the right hand, so here of those who carried their light weapon, a lance, in their right hand, Vulgate, lancearios. This is more probable than the derivation from λαβή, a sword-hilt, as if the word referred to spiculatores cum lanceis, who wore their swords fastened not on the left but on the right (so Ewald). Still more fanciful is the derivation of Egli who accented thus δεξιολάβοι, and took the word to refer to those who were unable to use the right hand, Jdg 3:15; Jdg 20:16, so “lefthanded” slingers. Others interpret as if the word meant military lictors who guarded captives bound by the right hand, but their large number here seems to conflict with such an interpretation (Grimm-Thayer), see the full notes of Meyer—Wendt, 1888, 1899, and cf. Renan, Saint Paul, p. 532, Overbeck for various interpretations, and Winer-Schmiedel, p. 69. A reads δεξιοβόλους (Syr. Pesh. jaculantes dextra, Are jaculatores), which would be a correct interpretation if we understood the word of javelin-throwers or slingers.—ἀπὸ τρίτης ὥρας: about nine in the evening; the journey was to commence from that time, so that by daybreak Paul would be in safety, cf. Acts 10:30. The number of the escort was meant to guard against surprise.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

23. to go to Cesarea] The residence of the Roman governor and the seat of the chief jurisdiction. The preposition is not the usual one. Hence the Rev. Ver. gives “to go as far as Cæsarea.” The distance between Jerusalem and Cæsarea is about 70 miles.

and spearmen] The Greek word is an unusual one, and signifies ‘graspers by the right hand.’ Hence it has been explained, as in the A. V., of soldiers who carried a spear in their right hand; others have thought a military guard was meant who kept on the right hand of the prisoners of whom they had charge. The Vulgate gives lancearii, lancers.

at the third hour of the night] This would be, according to Jewish reckoning, at 9 p. m.

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 23:23. Δεξιολάβους διακοσίους, two hundred body-guards)[133] Whether we read ΔΕΞΙΟΛΆΒΟΥς, or from one very old MS., ΔΕΞΙΟΒΌΛΟΥς, the word expresses an unknown kind of soldiers; and concerning each of the two readings, Grotius has made a very few remarks. Therefore we may the more wonder that two hundred of them were in this case ordered to be got ready. An Arabic rendering, mentioned in Erpenius and Ludovicus de Dieu, has eighty. If other witnesses were added to this Arabian one, we might suppose that διακοσἱους crept in from what goes before. At all events for too large a number of soldiers was put in motion against more than forty zealots.[134]

[133] Lit. satellites, who protect the right side of a person, from δέξιος.—E. and T.

[134] BE read δεξιολάβους; but A, δεξιοβόλους. Vulg. and e have lanciarios; Syr. jaculantes dextrâ; Memph. and later Syr. stipatores.—E. and T.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 23. - Of the centurions for centurions, A.V.; and said for saying, A.V.; as far as for to, A.V. Two hundred soldiers; one hundred for each centurion; στρατιώτας, foot-soldiers, who alone would be under the command of the centurions. The ἱππεῖς and the δεξιολάβοι would be under the command perhaps of a τουρμάρχης, or decurio, captain of a turma, or squadron. Here there would seem to be two turmae because a turma consisted of thirty-three men - here possibly of thirty-five. Spearmen; δεξιολάβοι. This word occurs nowhere else in Scripture or in any ancient Greek author. It is first found in" Theophylactus Simocatta, in the seventh century, and then again in the tenth century in Constantine Porphyrogenitus" (Meyer). It seems most probable that it was the name of some particular kind of light infantry. But it is not easy to explain the etymology. Perhaps they were a kind of skirmishers thrown out on a march to protect the flanks of an army; as Plutarch speaks of javelin-men and slingers being placed to guard, not only the rear, but also the flanks of the army on the march (Steph., 'Thesaur.,' under οὐραγία). "Holding or taking the right" might be the force of the compound, somewhat after the analogy of δεξιόσειρος δεξιοστάτης, etc.; which agrees with the explanations of Phavorinus παραφύλακας, and with that of Beza, "Qui alicui dextrum latus [meaning simply latus] munit." Only, instead of the improbable notion of these men being a body-guard of the tribune - which their number makes impossible - it should be understood of the troops which protect the flank of an army on the march. Other improbable explanations are that δεξιολάβος means the soldier to whom the right hand of prisoners was fastened, or those who grasp with the right hand their weapon, the lance or javelin. The object of Lysias in sending so large a force was to guard against the possibility of a rescue in the feverish and excited state of the Jewish mind. And no doubt one reason for sending Paul away was his dread of a Jewish riot. Acts 23:23

Vincent's Word Studies

Soldiers (στρατιώτας)

Heavy-armed footmen: legionaries.

Spearmen (δεξιολάβους)

Only here in New Testament, and not in classical Greek. From δεξιός right, and λαμβάνω, to take. The exact meaning is uncertain. Some explain it as those who take the right side of the prisoners whom they have in charge; others, those who grasp (their weapon) with the right hand; others, again, those who hold (a second horse) by the right hand. They are here distinguished from the heavy-armed legionaries and the cavalry. They were probably light-armed troops, javelin-throwers or slingers. One of the principal manuscripts reads δεξιοβόλους "those who throw with the right hand."