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Bible Dictionaries
Governor
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or GOVERNOR . This word represents various Heb. and Gr. words, technical and non-technical. In Genesis 42:6 (Joseph, cf. 41:40) it is probably the Ta-te , the second after the king in the court of the palace; cf. 1 Kings 18:3 , Daniel 2:48 for similar offices. It frequently represents an Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] word, pechah , used of Persian satraps in general ( Esther 3:12; Esther 8:8 ), and of Assyrian generals ( 2 Kings 18:24 , cf. 1 Kings 20:24 ). It is applied particularly to Tattenai, the governor of the large Persian province of which Judæa was a sub-district ( Ezra 5:3; Ezra 6:6 etc., cf. Nehemiah 2:7 ). It is also, like tirshatha (wh. see), applied to the subordinate governor of Judæa ( Ezra 5:14 [Sheshbazzar] 6:7 [Nehemiah], Haggai 1:1; Haggai 1:14 [Zerubbabel]). The first passage shows that the subordinate pechah was directly appointed by the king.
In the NT the word usually represents Gr. hçgemôn , and is used of Pontius Pilate ( Luke 3:1 etc.), of Felix ( Acts 23:26 ), and of Festus ( Acts 26:30 ). The proper title of these governors was ‘ procurator ’ (Tac. Ann . xv. 44), of which originally eparchos and then epitropos were the Gr. equivalents. Josephus, however, uses hçgemôn , as well as these words, for the governor of Judæa, so that there is no inaccuracy in its employment by NT writers. But, being a general word, it does not help us to decide the nature of the ‘governorship’ of Quirinius ( Luke 2:2 ). The procurator, originally a financial official, was appointed directly by the Emperor to govern provinces, such as Thrace, Cappadocia, and Judæa, which were in a transitional state, being no longer ruled by subject kings, but not yet fully Romanized, and requiring special treatment. The procurator was in a sense subordinate to the legate of the neighbouring ‘province,’ e.g. Cappadocia to Galatia, Judæa to Syria; but except in emergencies he had full authority, military, judicial, and financial. In 1 Peter 2:14 the word is specially appropriate to any provincial governor, as ‘sent’ by the Emperor. In 2 Corinthians 11:32 it represents ‘ ethnarch ,’ a word apparently used originally of the ruler of a nation ( ethnos ) living with laws of its own in a foreign community; but as applied to Aretas it may mean no more than petty king. In Galatians 4:2 it means ‘ steward ’ (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), the ‘tutor’ controlling the ward’s person, the steward his property (Lightfoot, ad loc. ). In James 3:4 RV [Note: Revised Version.] has ‘steersman.’ The ‘ governor of the feast ’ ( John 2:8 , RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘ruler’) was probably a guest, not a servant, chosen to control and arrange for the feast; It is doubtful whether he is to be identified with the ‘friend of the bridegroom’ or best man.
C. W. Emmet.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Governor'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/g/governor.html. 1909.
