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Bible Dictionaries
Malefactor
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or MALEFACTOR.—Two Gr. words, whose shades of meaning are indistinguishable, are thus translated in NT: (1) κακοποιός or κακὸν ποιῶν (lit. ‘evil-doer’), John 18:30, 1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 2:14; 1 Peter 4:15; (2) κακοῦργος (lit. ‘evil-worker’), Luke 23:32-33; Luke 23:39, 2 Timothy 2:9. Authorized Version renders κακοποιός ‘malefactor’ in John 18:30, ‘evil-doer’ elsewhere; but Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 gives ‘evil-doer’ throughout. Again Authorized Version renders κακοῦργος ‘malefactor’ in Luke 23:32-33; Luke 23:39, ‘evil-doer’ in 2 Timothy 2:9, while Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 makes it always ‘malefactor.’ This illustrates the NT Revisers’ uniformity in the translation of words.
In Luke 23:32 the best attested text is ἔτεροι κακοῦργοι δύο, not ἕτεροι δύο κακοῦργοι (Textus Receptus ). Hence it is maintained by Alford and others that we ought to read ‘two other malefactors’ (without a comma after ‘other’) instead of ‘two others, malefactors’ (Authorized Version and Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885 ). There is really no difficulty about adopting this rendering, which does not imply that St. Luke assents to the judgment that Jesus was a malefactor, but merely states the fact that He was led to execution as such.
D. A. Mackinnon.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Malefactor'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/m/malefactor.html. 1906-1918.
