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Bible Lexicons
Old & New Testament Greek Lexical Dictionary Greek Lexicon
Strong's #4686 - σπεῖρα
- Thayer
- Strong
- Mounce
- anything rolled into a circle or ball, anything wound, rolled up, folded together
- a military cohort
- the tenth part of legion
- about 600 men i.e. legionaries
- if auxiliaries either 500 or 1000
- a maniple, or the thirtieth part of a legion
- any band, company, or detachment, of soldiers
- the tenth part of legion
- Book
- Word
- Parsing
did not use
this Strong's Number
σπεῖρα, ἡ,
anything twisted or wound, ποιεῖν τι οἷον σπεῖραν twist it into a ball, Hp. Morb. 2.33 .
2. pl., coils or spires of a serpent, S. Fr. 535 (anap.), Ar. Fr. 500; πολύπλοκοι ς . E. Med. 481, cf. Ion 1164: so in sg., Nic. Th. 156, A.R. 4.151, Arat. 47, 89, etc.
3. rope, cord, Nic. Fr. 74.21, f.l. in Hp. Steril. 235; σπείραισι δικτυοκλώστοις with the net's meshy folds, S. Ant. 346 (lyr.); ship's cable, Plu. 2.507b; padded circle used by women carrying weights on their head, Aët. 12.55; so by Atlas, Apollod. 2.5.11; as a lamp-stand, ἀρτεμισίας ς. ἐπὶ τὸν λύχνον PMag.Lond. 121.601 (cf. σπειρίον 111 ); round cushion, IG 5(1).1390.24 (Andania, i B.C. ).
4. a mode of dressing the hair, Poll. 2.31, 4.149 .
5. ς. βόειαι thongs or straps of ox-hide to guard and arm a boxer's fist, Theoc. 22.80 .
6. knot or curl in wood, Thphr. HP 5.2.3, Plin. HN 16.198 .
7. a kind of cheesecake (al. σπῖρα ), Chrysipp. Tyan. ap. Ath. 14.647d .
8. rounded moulding in the base of an Ionic or Corinthian column, torus, IG 12.372.64, Sardis 7(1) No.181 (i A.D.), CIG 2713-14 ( Labranda ), Poll. 7.121, Vitr. 3.5.3.
9. Geom., anchor-ring, tore, produced by revolution of a circle about a line in its plane but not passing through the centre, Hero *Deff. 97, Procl. in Euc. p.119 F.
II Milit., tactical unit, in the Ptolemaic army, BGU 1806.4 (i B.C.); used to translate the Roman manipulus, Plb. 11.23.1, al., Str. 12.3.18, Plu. Aem. 17; κατὰ σπείρας,= Lat. manipulatim, Plb. 3.115.12; later, cohort, Acts 10:1, J. BJ 3.4.2, IGRom. 1.10 ( Massilia ), 1373 ( Egypt ), al., OGI 208.2 (Nubia, ii A.D. ), al. (gen. in this sense always σπείρης, Act. l.c., POxy. 477.3 (ii A.D.), BGU 73 (ii A.D.), OGI l.c., etc.).
2. = θίασος, religious college or guild, gen. σπείρης IG 14.925 (Portus Trajani); dat. σπείρῃ ib.977 ( Rome ), Inscr.Perg. 319,320; nom. σπεῖρα AEM 14.28 ( Roumania ); Lat. spira, CIL 6.261 ( Rome ), al. (cf. σπειράρχης ).
σπεῖρα (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.
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** σπείρα , -ης
(on this form of gen., v. M, Pr., 38, 48; Bl., § 7, 1; Mayser, 12; Deiss., BS, 186),
[in LXX: Judith 14:11, 2 Maccabees 8:23; 2 Maccabees 12:20; 2 Maccabees 12:22 *;]
1. (= Lat. spira) anything wound or rolled up, a coil.
2. As a military term used (by Polyb. and later writers) of a body of soldiers, a maniple (third part of a cohort) or cohort (v. Swete, Mk., 375; Westc., Jo., 251 f.): Matthew 27:27, Mark 15:16, John 18:3; John 18:12, Acts 10:1; Acts 21:31; Acts 27:1.†
Copyright © 1922 by G. Abbott-Smith, D.D., D.C.L.. T & T Clarke, London.
";mix together,"; ";compound"; (1 Corinthians 12:24) : cf. Kaibel 547.14 (i/A.D.) συνκεράσαι ψυχ [ῆι ] πνεῦμα φιλανδροτάτηι, and for the pass., as in Hebrews 4:2, Syll.3 783.33 (after B.C. 27) Ἐπιγόνη Ἀρτέμωνος α ̣ι ̣̔̓σ [ίοις ] γάμοις συνκερασθεῖσα. See also Apoc. Petr. 3 συνεκέκρατο δὲ τὸ ἐρυθρὸν αὐτῶν τῷ λευκῷ. The subst. σύνκρασις occurs in P Lond 121.512 (iii/A.D.) (= I. p. 100) ὁ ἔχων ἐν σεαυτῷ τὴν τῆς κοσμικῆς φύσεως σύγκρασι (ν).
Copyright © 1914, 1929, 1930 by James Hope Moulton and George Milligan. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
Derivative Copyright © 2015 by Allan Loder.
