Greek word · G930
βασανιστής
basanistēs
torturer
From basanos, which first meant a touchstone: a dark stone used to test gold by the streak it left. The meaning then extended to testing a person, and in legal settings to examination under torture. A basanistēs is an examiner by torture, a torturer.
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
From the study of Matthew 18:34
- Range of meaning
From basanos, which first meant a touchstone: a dark stone used to test gold by the streak it left. The meaning then extended to testing a person, and in legal settings to examination under torture. In classical and Hellenistic practice slaves' testimony was routinely taken 'by the basanos', meaning under torture. A basanistēs is an examiner by torture, a torturer. In prison and debt settings it means a jailer or prison officer who uses torture. BDAG glosses it 'torturer, jailer' and notes that in this verse the jailer's role and torture belong together.
- Against the English
KJV/WEB 'tormentors' keeps the pain but sounds vague and archaic. ESV 'jailers' (footnoted 'Greek torturers') loses the pain in the main text. BSB/NIV 'the jailers to be tortured' and NASB 'the torturers' keep both elements. YLT's 'inquisitors' catches the sense of interrogation but brings in the medieval Inquisition.
- How it drifted
'Tormentors' in the KJV tradition has been taken by some modern readers as spiritual beings (demons) or as inner emotional torment. The Greek word names human officials of a royal court.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The related noun basanos and verb basanizō are common in Greek legal texts and in Jewish writings of the period. They are used heavily in 2 and 4 Maccabees for the torture of the martyrs. Josephus repeatedly describes the Herodian court interrogating suspects 'by tortures' (basanoi). Jesus' hearers knew judicial torture from the courts of their own rulers.
Similar words
Where it appears
Matthew · 1
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Matthew 18:34 βασανισταῖς jailers
In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed.
Here: Officers who examined or pressured prisoners by torture. In a debt setting their job was to force payment out of a debtor or his family. This is the only use of the word in the New Testament. It goes beyond 'jailers': it names jailers who inflict pain.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.