Furtherance (zpoxomy). Only here, ver. 25, and 1 Tim. iv. 15. The metaphor is uncertain, but is supposed to be that of pioneers cutting (xomrw) a way before (mpd) an army, and so furthering its march. The opposite is expressed by éyxémt@ to cut into ; hence to throw obstacles in the way, hinder. Gal. v. 7. See on 1 Pet. iii. 7.
13. My bonds in Christ are manifest (tods Secpovs pou pavepovs ev XpioT@ yevéoSat). Bonds and Christ, in the Greek, are too far apart to be construed together. Better, as Rev., my bonds became manifest in Christ. His imprisonment became known as connected with Christ. It was understood to be for Christ’s sake. His bonds were not hidden as though he were an ordinary prisoner. His very captivity proclaimed Christ.
In all the palace (év dkw 76 mpactwplw). Rev., throughout the whole praetorian guard. So Lightfoot, Dwight, Farrar. This appears to be the correct rendering. The other explana- tions are, the imperial residence on the Palatine, so A. V.; the praeorian barracks attached to the palace, so Eadie, Ellicott, Lumby, and Alford; the praetorian camp on the east of the city, so Meyer.*
The first explanation leaves the place of Paul’s confinement uncertain. It may have been in the camp of the Praetorians, which was large enough to contain within its precincts lodgings for prisoners under military custody, so that Paul could dwell “in his own hired house,” Acts xxviii. 30. This would be dif- ficult to explain on the assumption that Paul was confined in the barracks or within the palace precincts.
The Praetorians, forming the imperial guard, were picked men, ten thousand in number, and all of Italian birth. The
* The whole subject is elaborately discussed in Lightfoot’s note. He shows that there is no satisfactory authority for applying the term to either the palace, the barracks, or the praetorian camp, and cites numerous instances of its application to a body of men, for instance, to a council of war, and espec- ially to the imperial guard. The reference to the palace is defended by Merivale, ‘‘ History of the Romans under the Empire,” vi., 263.
420 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. I.
body was instituted by Augustus and was called by him prae- toriae cohortes, praetorian cohorts, in imitation of the select troop which attended the person of the praetor or Roman gen- eral. Augustus originally stationed only three thousand of them, three cohorts, at Rome, and dispersed the remainder in the adjacent Italian towns. Under Tiberius they were all assem- bled at Rome in a fortified camp. They were distinguished by double pay and special privileges. Their term of service was originally twelve years, afterward increased to sixteen. On completing his term, each soldier received a little over eight hundred dollars. They all seem to have had the same rank as centurions in the regular legions. They became the most pow- erful body in the state; the emperors were obliged to court their favor, and each emperor on his accession was expected to bestow on them a liberal donative. After the death of Per- tinax (A.D. 193) they put up the empire at public sale, and knocked it down to Didius Julianus. They were disbanded the same year on the accession of Severus, and were banished ; but were restored by that emperor on a new plan, and increased to four times their original number. They were finally sup- pressed by Constantine.
The apostle was under the charge of these troops, the soldiers relieving each other in mounting guard over the prisoner, who was attached to his guard’s hand by a chain. In the allusion to his bonds, Eph. vi. 20, he uses the specific word for the coupling-chain. Tis contact with the different members of the corps in succession, explains the statement that his bonds had become manifest throughout the praetorian guard.