Word study

Magistrate

2 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: magistrates, magistrate. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “magistrate” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • תִּפְתַּי tiphtayjudicial, lawyertranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H8614Noun  ·  Translated: magistrates 2

    Daniel 3:2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other officials of the provinces to attend the dedication of the statue he had set up.

    Daniel 3:3 So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the rulers of the provinces assembled for the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • שְׁפַט shephaṭjudgetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H8200Verb  ·  Translated: magistrates 1

    Ezra 7:25 And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God, which you possess, are to appoint magistrates and judges to judge all the people west of the Euphrates — all who know the laws of your God. And you are to teach these laws to anyone who does not know them.

    Full study and its 1 verse →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • στρατηγός stratēgósa general, magistrate, captain of the templetranslated this way 5 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G4755Noun  ·  Translated: magistrates 5, captain 3, officers 1, temple officers 1

    Acts 16:20 They brought them to the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews and are throwing our city into turmoil

    Acts 16:22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered that they be stripped and beaten with rods.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • ἄρχων árchōna ruler, prince, leadertranslated this way 1 time of its 37 uses · Strong’s G758Noun  ·  Translated: rulers 14, prince 7, ruler 6, synagogue leader 2

    Luke 12:58 Make every effort to reconcile with your adversary while you are on your way to the magistrate. Otherwise, he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and the officer may throw you into prison.

    Full study and all 36 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

What the Bible says about magistrate: passages by topic →

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.