Greek word · G1202
δεσμώτης
desmōtēs
prisoner
'One in bonds': a prisoner, captive, detainee. Prisoners in transit were usually chained, sometimes to a soldier.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
'One in bonds': a prisoner, captive, detainee. Prisoners in transit were usually chained, sometimes to a soldier.
- Against the English
'Prisoners' is accurate. It can suggest convicts serving a sentence. In the Roman world, custody was mainly a way of holding people until trial or execution, not a punishment in itself.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Common in classical and Hellenistic Greek (Herodotus, Thucydides, papyri). In the Greek OT see Genesis 39:20 (Joseph among the king's prisoners). In the NT only Acts 27:1 and 27:42.
Similar words
Where it appears
Acts · 2
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Acts 27:1 δεσμώτας prisoners
When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment.
Here: Literally 'one in bonds': a person held in custody, often chained. Luke uses this word only here and in 27:42. Elsewhere he uses the near-synonym desmios.
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Acts 27:42 δεσμώτας prisoners
The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners so none of them could swim to freedom.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.