Greek word · G5069
τετράδιον
tetradion
squad of four
A group of four, and in military use a squad of four soldiers. The word appears only here in the New Testament.
Appears once in 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
A group of four, and in military use a squad of four soldiers. The word appears only here in the New Testament.
- Against the English
KJV and YLT keep 'quaternions', which was accurate in 1611 but is obscure today and now mostly a mathematical term. BSB and WEB's 'four squads of four soldiers' is clear and correct.
- Used elsewhere in the period
BDAG cites this military sense from Philo (Against Flaccus 111) and from papyri. The later Roman writer Vegetius (On Military Matters 3.8) describes dividing the night into four watches, which fits the Gospels' 'fourth watch' (Matthew 14:25; Mark 6:48).
Where it appears
Acts · 1
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Acts 12:4 τετραδίοις sets of four
He arrested him and put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out to the people after the Passover.
Here: A military unit of four men. Four of them gives sixteen soldiers, most likely rotating through the night watches around one prisoner.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.