Greek word · G4463

ῥαβδίζω

rabdizō

to beat with a rod

To beat with a rod or stick. In Roman settings it is the technical punishment by lictors' rods (virgae), the birch or elm rods carried in the fasces.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

ῥαβδίζω

(ῥάβδος), [in LXX: Judges 6:11 Ruth 2:17 (חָבַט) * ;]

to beat with a rod: Acts 16:22, 2 Corinthians 11:25.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Acts 16:22

Range of meaning

To beat with a rod or stick. In Roman settings it is the technical punishment by lictors' rods (virgae), the birch or elm rods carried in the fasces. Magistrates used it for summary discipline (coercitio, a magistrate's power to punish disorder without a full trial) and as a preliminary to execution.

Against the English

KJV's 'commanded to beat [them]' drops the rods entirely. 'Beaten with rods' (BSB, WEB, YLT) is correct, but a modern reader may picture a schoolroom caning. This was a public, bloody punishment that could cripple or kill.

Used elsewhere in the period

Paul's own list of sufferings: 'three times I was beaten with rods' (errabdisthēn, 2 Cor 11:25). He lists this separately from the synagogue punishment of 'forty lashes less one' (2 Cor 11:24), a different penalty under Jewish law. Livy 2.5.8 describes condemned men stripped and beaten with rods. Cicero (Against Verres 2.5.162) is outraged that a Roman citizen, Gavius, was beaten with rods in the forum at Messana while crying 'I am a Roman citizen.' The Porcian laws and the Julian law on public violence (lex Julia de vi publica) barred such treatment of citizens.

Where it appears

Acts · 1

  1. Acts 16:22 ῥαβδίζειν· to beat with rods;

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

    Here: The Roman punishment of beating with the lictors' rods (Latin virgis caedere). The present tense suggests a drawn-out beating, and v. 23 confirms there were 'many blows.'

2 Corinthians · 1

  1. 2 Corinthians 11:25 ἐρραβδίσθην, I was beaten with rods,

    Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.