noun · feminine
speiras
Strong’sG4686
a cohort
stem speir-7 times in the New Testamentin 4 of 27 books3 of 10 forms occur
What it means
What the word means, in the words of the lexicons out of copyright — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones, wherever each has an entry for it.
** σπείρα, -ης
(on this form of gen., v. M, Pr., 38, 48; Bl., § 7, 1; Mayser, 12; Deiss., BS, 186), [in LXX: Jth 14:11, II Mac 8:23 12:20, 22 *;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G4686 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidspi'-rah
a coil (spira, "spire"), i.e. (figuratively) a mass of men (a Roman military cohort; also (by analogy) a squad of Levitical janitors)
Fromof immediate Latin origin, but ultimately a derivative of G138 in the sense of its cognate G1507;
King Jamesband.
James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1890 — public domain. The numbers in it link to the entries here.
Liddell-Scott-Jones — the classical dictionary this word appears in
anything twisted or wound, ποιεῖν τι οἷον σπεῖραν twist it into a ball, Refs 5th c.BC+
2 plural, coils or spires of a serpent, Refs 5th c.BC+; πολύπλοκοι σ. Refs 5th c.BC+: so in singular, Refs 4th c.BC+
3 rope, cord, Refs 5th c.BC+; σπείραισι δικτυοκλώστοις with the net's meshy folds, Refs 5th c.BC+; ship's cable, Refs 1st c.AD+; padded circle used by women carrying weights on their head, Refs 6th c.AD+; so by Atlas, Refs 2nd c.AD+; as a lamp-stand, ἀρτεμισίας σ. ἐπὶ τὸν λύχνον Refs; round cushion, Refs 1st c.BC+
4 a mode of dressing the hair, Refs 2nd c.AD+
5 σ. βόειαι thongs or straps of ox-hide to guard and arm a boxer's fist, Refs 3rd c.BC+
6 knot or curl in wood, Refs 4th c.BC+
7 a kind of cheesecakeRefs 2nd c.AD+
8 rounded moulding in the base of an Ionic or Corinthian column, torus, Refs 1st c.BC+
9 Geometry texts, anchor-ring, tore, produced by revolution of a circle about a line in its plane but not passing through the centre, Refs 2nd c.BC+
II Milit., tactical unit, in the Ptolemaic army, Refs 1st c.BC+; used to translate the Roman manipulus, Refs 2nd c.BC+; κατὰ σπείρας,= Latin manipulatim, Refs 2nd c.BC+; later, cohort, NT+1st c.AD+
II.2 ={θίασος}, religious college or guild, genitive σπείρης Refs; Latin spira, Refs
H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., 1925–1940) — digitised by the Perseus Digital Library and corrected and expanded by Tyndale House, Cambridge, via STEPBible-Data's TFLSJ table, CC BY 4.0. Covers all of Greek literature, not just the Bible.
Translated as
Every occurrence, sorted by the English it was actually given — the evidence for what the word means, not a gloss of it.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain — berean.bible.
Biblang forms
Every form this word takes in Biblang, with the Greek it corresponds to and how often the New Testament uses it.
| Job in the sentence case | one singular | more than one plural |
|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | speiras1×σπεῖρα | speirais |
| object accusative | speiran3×σπεῖραν | speirain |
| direct address vocative | speirar | speirair |
| of, belonging to genitive | speirau3×σπείρης | speiraiu |
| to, for dative | speira | speirai |
Tinted cells are forms the New Testament never uses, so there is no Greek to show against them — but they are still correct Biblang, built from the slots below like any other.
Why these forms, and no others — the slots that make them
speira is this word in every one of its forms. The slots after it make all the rest.
same in every form varies — every value shown
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
7 occurrences, every one of them listed
speiras“soldiers”subjectnominative singular1×
John 18:12Tas oun speiras kai tos chiliarchos kai tois hupēretois …Then the band of soldiers, with its commander and the officers …
speiran“cohort”objectaccusative singular3×
Matthew 27:27“cohort”… praitōriem sunagala epi auton holan tan speiran.… into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company around Him.
Mark 15:16“cohort”… atō praitōriem, kai sunkalalō holan tan speiran.… palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called the whole company together.
John 18:3“cohort”tos oun Ioudos labarantos tan speiran kai ek toiu archierevoiu kai ek …So Judas brought a band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees. They arrived at the garden carrying …
speirau“cohort”of, belonging togenitive singular3×
Acts 10:1“cohort”… en Kaisareia onome Kornēlios, hekatontarchēos ek speirau tau kalorōntau Italikau,At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was called the Italian Regiment.
Acts 21:31“cohort”… apoktenara anabainata fasias to chiliarcho tau speirau hoti holas sunchotō Ierousalēm,… trying to kill him, the commander of the Roman regiment received a report that all Jerusalem was in …
Acts 27:1“cohort”… tinoin heteroin desmōtoin hekatontarchēo onome Ioulio speirau Sebastau.… Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged …