Greek word · G4173
πολιτάρχης
politarchēs
city authority
"City ruler": the title of the board of chief magistrates in Macedonian cities, especially Thessalonica. They presided over the citizen assembly (dēmos, v. 5), kept order, and dealt with matters touching loyalty to Rome.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
πολιτάρχης, -ου, ὁ
= πολίαρχος (Pind., Eur.),
the ruler of a city, a politarch: Acts 17:6, 8 (see MM, xx).†
(AS)
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
"City ruler": the title of the board of chief magistrates in Macedonian cities, especially Thessalonica. They presided over the citizen assembly (dēmos, v. 5), kept order, and dealt with matters touching loyalty to Rome.
- Against the English
"Rulers of the city" (KJV, WEB), "city officials" (BSB) and "city authorities" are accurate but generic; they hide that Luke uses a very specific local title.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Almost never found in literary Greek, but attested in dozens of inscriptions, most from Macedonia; several from Thessalonica itself, including the inscription from the Vardar Gate (now in the British Museum) that lists the city's politarchs. G. H. R. Horsley's study counts over thirty such inscriptions. Thessalonica seems to have had five or six politarchs in the first century.
Where it appears
Acts · 2
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Acts 17:6 πολιτάρχας city authorities
But when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have now come here,
Here: The proper title of the chief magistrates of Thessalonica and other Macedonian cities, a small board that ran local affairs and kept public order. Luke uses exactly the right local term.
-
Acts 17:8 πολιτάρχας city authorities
On hearing this, the crowd and city officials were greatly disturbed.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.