Category:Magistrate

Mag"is*trate, n. Etym: [L. magistratus, fr. magister master: cf. F. magistrat. See Master.]

Defn: A person clothed with power as a public civil officer; a public civil officer invested with the executive government, or some branch of it. "All Christian rulers and magistrates." Book of Com. Prayer. Of magistrates some also are supreme, in whom the sovereign power of the state resides; others are subordinate. Blackstone.

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Magistrate - A public civil officer invested with authority. The Hebrew shophetim, or judges, were magistrates having authority in the land (Deuteronomy 1:16, Deuteronomy 1:17). In Judges 18:7 the word "magistrate" (A.V.) is rendered in the Revised Version "possessing authority", i.e., having power to do them harm by invasion. In the time of Ezra (Ezra 9:2) and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:16; Nehemiah 4:14; Nehemiah 13:11) the Jewish magistrates were called seganim, properly meaning "nobles." In the New Testament the Greek word archon, rendered "magistrate" (Luke 12:58; Titus 3:1), means one first in power, and hence a prince, as in Matthew 20:25, 1 Corinthians 2:6, 1 Corinthians 2:8. This term is used of the Messiah, "Prince of the kings of the earth" (Revelation 1:5). In Acts 16:20, Acts 16:22, Acts 16:35, Acts 16:36, Acts 16:38, the Greek term strategos, rendered "magistrate," properly signifies the leader of an army, a general, one having military authority. The strategoi were the duumviri, the two praetors appointed to preside over the administration of justice in the colonies of the Romans. They were attended by the sergeants (properly lictors or "rod bearers").